Renault plug-in hybrids will be ready when you are

Renault has said that its all-new plug-in hybrid tech is all ready to go but it will wait a little longer until buyers are prepared to pay the additional costs for the new technology.

According to chief performance officer, Jerome Stoll speaking at a press conference, plug-in hybrid cars still represent less than one per cent of the market and that the French car maker would only launch a car “as soon as the market is ready.”

That car will be a production version of the Eolab that was unveiled at last year’s Paris motor show.

The plug-in hybrid was powered by a 55kW 1.0-litre three-cylinder and a 6.7kWh battery and had a pure-electric range of 60km.

Previously, Renault made the costly mistake of forecasting a 10 per cent market share for electric vehicles that analysts have subsequently ruled as too ambitious.

Renault’s new-found cautious approach bucks the trend of premium brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche rushing to bring its plug-in hybrids to the market, but similar technology scaled down for the mass market will be too expensive currently, thinks Renault.

Forecasters predict that plug-in hybrids will outsell standard hybrids by 2019 and reach 1.2 million sales annually in Europe alone, within a decade.