The first impressions of the Renault ZOE are positive. Many think that French cars have special design, like the Citroen 2CV. It is time to update this thinking. Sitting into a ZOE is not a similar adventure as sitting into a 2CV (or a Renault 4). No umbrella shifter, all the important controls are easy to find, and I personally like that Renault doesn’t highlight that the ZOE is a pure-electric vehicle. Some manufacturers make their EVs look like spaceships of science fiction.

The dealer didn’t give a very good customer experience. They delivered the car to me with very low battery and trunk full of summer tires. Fortunately, I don’t live far away, and the car had enough battery to get home. Obviously, at home, the battery level was extremely low. When I unloaded the summer tires, I noticed that the Schuko charger was missing. Not a great start with a new car.

In Renault ZOE, the Schuko charger is not standard. In my opinion, this is an interesting decision. If your EV runs out of power, your options are to call a tow truck or find a charger. Make sure tow truck is included in your insurance. If you are in the middle of nowhere, I believe it would be easier to find a regular power outlet than an EV charging station. Fortunately, I had in written that the Schuko charger is included in my ZOE, and the sales person promised to send me the missing charger.

Luckily, I have an EV charging station near by. And what’s more: It is free - at least for now. I was able to limp to the charging station. The blue light on the ZOE started to blink and in a little bit more than 2 hours the 52 kWh battery was full.

The only really annoying feature that I noticed during the first a couple of kilometers is the pedestrian warning sound. When driving under 30 km/h, the ZOE makes noise that is like a failing bearing. I am happy that the car has a button for turning off the pedestrian warning sound.

Another thing that don’t like is that ZOE doesn’t come with a printed user guide. The owner’s manual is available only on the Internet. I guess Renault assumes that ZOE owners are digital natives. (I am afraid this is a wrong assumption.). I am personally good with computers, but I must say that I would have preferred searching for the pedestrian warning sound button in a book.