CORRECT: MOTOR SHOW: Renault Launches Electric Car Concepts
September 15 2009 - 7:33AM
Dow Jones News
French car maker Renault SA Tuesday revealed four electric
concept cars that it hopes will put the company at the forefront of
the drive towards this technology.
Launching the concepts at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Chief
Executive Carlos Ghosn said he expects electric cars to make up 10%
of total global car volumes by 2020.
Renault's concepts for the market are the Twizy city car, the
Zoe, the Fluence family sedan and the Kangoo zero-emissions people
carrier.
Ghosn said he expects the Twizy concept to go into production in
the second half of 2011, while the Zoe will be launched
mid-2012.
The Fluence will be the first to be launched, hitting the market
in the first half of 2011. Renault has decided to launch the car in
Israel.
Renault has been working with California-based Better Place on
its electric car technology for the past two years. Better Place
has developed the platforms for charging the car batteries and
interacting with the electricity supply grids.
The two companies Tuesday said they'd signed a deal whereby
Better Place would start importing and distributing the Fluence
into Israel in the first half of 2011 and would also offer
subscriptions to its platforms to customers buying the car from the
Renault network in Denmark. Both companies have committed to a
volume of at least 100,000 cars for both countries by 2016.
Ghosn said that Renault, and sister company Nissan Motor Co.
(7201.TO), had developed three charging solutions for its electric
cars - standard, fast charge and "battery switch," which enables
the car owner to take out a used battery and replace with a
full-charged battery in less time than it takes for a petrol car to
be refilled with petrol.
-By Steve McGrath, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9284;
steve.mcgrath@dowjones.com