Renault Zoe looking for reviews

Honest John is a good resource for detailed car reviews. Some of the small, and particularly cheaper EVs will struggle to hit high NCAP scores, but the most recent Zoe wasn't helped by cost cutting measures like replacing airbags with a cheaper less-effective option. Renault promised to address some of the concerns this year.
 
Zoe is an old design (10yrs) , and the test keeps changing which accounts for its previously good safety rating falling. They are going to replace it with something else in a year or two.

Also being hit with a 2 ton SUV is hard to protect against unless you are also in a 2 Ton SUV. As a result there will be a shift to Planet killing SUVs and small cars will become unviable as there's less profit in them than a SUV and its hard to protect them from SUV.

That said its was the best selling EV in Europe in 2020 and is still in 3rd place in 2021. Have to say I liked it when I drove it.
Its good bang for buck all things considered. Some value in the used market.
 
Well thats what the industry is saying.

The Zoe is a 10yr old Design. The 500 is brand new. I've not been in the e500 but the Zoe seemed a lot bigger than the petrol 500 I've driven. I suspect you'll get bargains on a Zoe because its the run out model. Though stock might be limited on its competitors.

 
The Zoe is a 10yr old Design. The 500 is brand new. I've not been in the e500 but the Zoe seemed a lot bigger than the petrol 500 I've driven.
Yeah, the Zoe is bigger, but that just further underlines the point that it doesn't require a large SUV to achieve a good safety score. Going cheap on the airbags cost Renault on passenger safety.
 
Its not all about the airbag, being an older car it also lacks vulnerable road user protection and crash avoidance technology, which is included in the new tests.

I would love to know how these cars fair in accident against SUVs. But I can't find any recent studies on it. Does the NCAP test this.
 
I was very tempted to get one, and it will probably be my next car. The fact that in the 8 years of ownership, my '09 Hyundai i10 has cost me a total of 1 battery, 1 brake calliper and the usual tyres and servicing, and has just passed the NCT means I just can't part with it.

I did test drive a Zoe and liked it. It's a small city car, what's not to like. The main drawback for me was I couldn't get a roof rack or easy way to carry a bicycle as my commute was 1/2 car, 1/2 cycle. Covid and WFH put paid to that need, as well as the need to change the car.

But if I was looking, it would be a decent 2nd hand Zoe would be my first choice.
 
I think it only makes sense 2nd hand. New not so much. There's better choices now. If you can get supply
 
Its not all about the airbag, being an older car it also lacks vulnerable road user protection and crash avoidance technology, which is included in the new tests.

I would love to know how these cars fair in accident against SUVs. But I can't find any recent studies on it. Does the NCAP test this.
They crash the cars into soild objects that I would imagine are a lot tougher than an SUV. The point of the test is everything crashes into the same wall and metal beam.
You can watch the crash test videos where they actually smash it at speed into the wall or whatever they call it.

At speed SUVs don't seem to do much better than small cars. Everything is carnage at speed no matter what you drive it seems like.
 
They crash the cars into soild objects that I would imagine are a lot tougher than an SUV. The point of the test is everything crashes into the same wall and metal beam.
You can watch the crash test videos where they actually smash it at speed into the wall or whatever they call it.

At speed SUVs don't seem to do much better than small cars. Everything is carnage at speed no matter what you drive it seems like.

You don't hit a wall the same way as you hit SUV. Listen I'm not going to derail the thread going on about it. I was just curious about the absence of those kind of tests, I kinda assumed they would be included by now.
 
There was an article by a Zoe owner in Saturday's Guardian* which may be of some interest.


(*generally a dreadful paper, but happily there's no Fintan O'Toole slant to this particular article!)

The majority of EV users charge at home something like 95% of the time.

Same way most people fill up their car in the same station and do the same journey all the time.

If you are not and do long trips on a regular basis and fill up in lots of different places maybe an EV isn't for you. Same way a diesel isn't for people who just do short trips around the city most of the time.
 
You don't hit a wall the same way as you hit SUV. Listen I'm not going to derail the thread going on about it. I was just curious about the absence of those kind of tests, I kinda assumed they would be included by now.
You clearly have no idea how the tests work so. Its all about a controlled environment, enough said.
 
You clearly have no idea how the tests work so. Its all about a controlled environment, enough said.

No why would I? So I went looking for the details of how the new NCAP tests different bumper heights, and large vehicle vs small vehicle collisions are tested. I couldn't find it. All the tests I found are US or quite old. Maybe you could link to how crashing into a wall replicates different bumper heights, and weights and is tested in NCAP. Like a two ton SUV crashing into your e500 from behind. I'm open to be convinced. I'm not assuming I'm right or that these tests are comprehensive. We've had the elk test and the Diesel gate. So I think its good to question these things and not just accept them at face value.

I look forward to any links you have detailing tests like this.
 
No why would I? So I went looking for the details of how the new NCAP tests different bumper heights, and large vehicle vs small vehicle collisions are tested. I couldn't find it. All the tests I found are US or quite old. Maybe you could link to how crashing into a wall replicates different bumper heights, and weights and is tested in NCAP. Like a two ton SUV crashing into your e500 from behind. I'm open to be convinced. I'm not assuming I'm right or that these tests are comprehensive. We've had the elk test and the Diesel gate. So I think its good to question these things and not just accept them at face value.

I look forward to any links you have detailing tests like this.
Diesel gate has nothing to do with crash tests.

You seem very entrenched in your views to take any information onboard about how the crash test work.
Here is everything you need answered about crash tests.

2-ton SUV can rear-end me all day long in a small car, hell an artic truck can rear end me, no difference. I won't worry about it. You are overthinking bumper heights. A quick google will show you a range rover height to centre of the axel isn't very far off a small car, and most SUVs are no where as high as a range rover.

High speed crashes you need luck. What you are driving is almost irrelevant at that point.
 
How am entrenched when I said I don't know the detail of the tests and asked for links to the details as they relate to SUV etc.
I can't find anything in there about bumper heights or disparity in weights, SUVs etc.

This is US study, but I have no idea if the changes in the US have also been implemented here.

This is from a German Study but its old.

Like in many other western countries, the number of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in Germany is increasing. This study investigated their involvement in injury crashes based on national statistics and data from liability insurers. In addition, SUV driver attitude and self‐reported driving behavior was determined in two surveys. Almost parallel to the growth of the SUV share in the car fleet, their accident involvement has increased. The SUV driver population is less accident‐prone than that of conventional cars, but SUVs have a higher risk exposure due to higher annual mileage. SUVs are underrepresented in single‐vehicle accidents, but demonstrate a threat to occupants of passenger cars in two‐vehicle crashes. The lack of compatibility becomes evident particularly in frontal collisions. This must be attributed not only to the larger mass, but also to the raised front structure and younger vehicle age of SUVs. Pedestrians who were struck by SUVs did not demonstrate a significantly higher injury risk than in accidents with conventional cars.

This is from the UK but about pedestrians

While the UK government doesn’t record passenger vehicle type in collision injuries and deaths, British academics who analysed police collision data have identified pedestrians as 70% more likely to be killed if they were hit by someone driving a 2.4-litre engine vehicle than a 1.6-litre model.

“You’re saying if you’re hit by a large engine car you’re almost twice as likely to be killed,” says Adam Reynolds, one of the researchers.

Reynolds and Robin Lovelace, who jointly performed the analysis, are still looking into the figures. “Rather than making a declaration that SUVs are dangerous what we can say is large engine cars are dangerous,” he adds. The lack of collision data is “masking a deadly problem created by the car industry marketing and producing taller, heavier vehicles”, he told Forbes.

You could infer from this there's a possibility Europe is lagging behind the US here. Hence I was curious about the European tests.

I guess we could just assume its all ok. it not like the industry would make stuff up (diesel gate)
 
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