The Engineer drives: going electric with the Renault Zoe Z.E. 40

Renault has almost doubled the battery capacity of its electric supermini, the Zoe. Chris Pickering puts it to the test

Could it be that the electric car has finally come of age? Stepping into the new Renault Zoe Z.E. 40 I would be inclined to argue it has. In some respects, this unassuming little car might seem like an underwhelming choice to back up that claim. After all, it takes more than four times as long to crack the 0-to-60mph sprint as the Tesla Model X we featured last month.

If you look at what‘s kept drivers from going electric in the past, though, the Zoe now ticks an awful lot of boxes. Renault has virtually doubled its range with the launch of this new 41kWh version, which is good for 250 miles on the NEDC test cycle. That’s said to equate to around 186 miles of real-world driving in good conditions – nearly 20 times the length of the average British commute.