Coup for electric Kangoo

Renault has secured a major contract with Norway's postal service, Posten, to supply 240 examples of the electric Kangoo Maxi Z.E.

The French manufacturer described it as "one of the world's biggest electric vehicle purchases to date", with the vehicles to be employed in a delivery role in areas with a high population density.

Posten is focussing on reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, and its fleet already operates around 900 electric vehicles spanning cars, bikes, quadricycles and trailers.

Electric vehicles are making significant in-roads in Norway, where they currently account for roughly 20 per cent of all new vehicle sales. Sales are being stimulated by an extensive government incentive scheme in the Scandinavian nation, and EVs are expected to make up 10 per cent of the national car fleet by 2020.

Electric vehicles in Norway are exempt from VAT (our GST) and road tax, parking fees, road tolls and ferry charges, and they are also permitted to use bus lanes.

Renault says its Kangoo Maxi Z.E. has a range of 170km (NEDC), which translates to between 85 and 135km with real-world use. This makes them well suited to a postal role, where payloads are generally modest and pre-defined routes can be tailored to fall within the vehicle's range.

While the Kangoo Z.E. isn't presently commercially available here in Australia, a small number of examples are currently under evaluation by Australia Post. Australia might lag behind Norway in terms of EV uptake, but Renault Australia will be hoping the recent Posten order will add further weight to the electric Kangoo's general business case.