You wait years for an electric Renault and then several turn up at once!
In a shock revelation to Auto Express in Geneva, top brass at the French firm has revealed more than one battery-powered model will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
And that’s not all, they also confirmed we’d have the chance to drive them before the year’s out.
In an interview with Renault design chief Patrick Le Quément, he revealed that the first electric car will be based on a soon to be launched petrol-powered car – likely to be the facelifted Clio – whereas the other models will be designed from scratch, specifically to run on batteries.
“Designing electric cars is a completely new challenge,” said Le Quément. “Factors such as the positioning of the power packs and the need for a reduced glass area mean conventional-looking designs simply don’t work.”
It also appears that the firm is set to take an equally innovative approach to selling its vehicles too, hinting the production cars could be cheaper to buy than their petrol equivalents.
The firm is looking to adopt a system which would see the cars sold to customers without expensive batteries included. These would then be leased. While it's not clear how much this would cost, Renault has promised that the eventual outlay required would be less than the cost of fuelling the vehicle with Petrol.
This system would also allow drivers to drop in on specially adapted charging stations, where depleted batteries could either be charged, or simply swapped for a full one.
