Renault's quadricycle quandary

Renault Australia is at a very early stage in its discussions with the federal government to bring its Twizy to Australia as a product that can be registered for the road.

As explained elsewhere, Renault has to convince the Australian government to create an altogether new category of road-going vehicle – the quadricycle. It's a task that would seem highly complex on the face of it, but European governments have already accepted the need to distinguish this new breed of commuter from cars and bikes.

"We're really at the very start, so I couldn't even give you a sense of where they are, in terms of their feedback to us," Renault's EV Specialist, Elena Wood told motoring.com.au earlier in the week, 'they' being the federal government. The subject has been broached with the government, but Renault is yet to make a formal submission, it seems.

"We're preparing documentation to present Twizy at the moment, and to talk about the quadricycle category as it exists in Europe. Whether they already have that information or not, I couldn't tell you whether I'm saying something that they already know, or whether we're presenting something that's entirely new to them."

The clear sub-text from all this is that Renault is approaching the Twizy challenge with some trepidation. It's a vehicle that might find homes in Australia, but as Mercedes-Benz found with smart, pricing will be of paramount importance. So too will promotion and marketing. Australian consumers may object to the subsistence-level equipment in the Twizy. The car brought to Australia for promotional purposes was 'optioned up' to €8000, which currently equates to AUD $11,545. That's quite a sum of money for a vehicle that isn't fully enclosed, doesn't offer heating or cooling and won't transport more than two people at a time.

For Twizy to be any sort of success here, Renault has to pave the way forward very smoothly. First and foremost of the hurdles the importer must overcome is defining the Twizy.

"The stumbling block is that people consider [Twizy] to be a car," Wood explained. "It's not. You could just as easily say it's a motorbike, but it's so much safer than a motorbike.

"That's why there's the quadricycle category in Europe."

Safety is obviously a perception issue that Renault would like to put behind it, but that's hard to do if, in opening up a quadricycle category, the government leaves the gate open for quadbikes to be considered roadworthy in the process. Wood has an answer for that.

"I think that would be for the government to look at – and define what is 'on-road' and what is 'off-road'. At the moment, ATVs are off-road only."

Renault Australia's Corporate Communications Manager, Emily Fadeyev, had this to say on the subject as well: "Twizy is a different product; Twizy has a steering wheel, it has an airbag, it has a safety cell... so there's all these things that could be put in place to mandate that that is what a quadricycle category for road use looks like."

Elena Wood believes that the popularity of battery/electric vehicles is on the rise, helped in no small part by the growing diversity of the products on offer. If a vehicle like the Twizy can spark the imagination of owners and prospective buyers – by means of its 'coolness' – other alternative-energy vehicles might start to be seen in a kinder light too.

But in contrast with other battery/electric vehicles, such as Mitsubishi's i-MiEV for example, the Twizy is in a league of its own. It has that same startling presence as a Segway. It's practically unique in the modern automotive world.

It has been a moderate success story in other parts of the world, with sales of up to 13,000 since the vehicle was launched back in 2012. If the Twizy were to go on sale in Australia, it wouldn't be a resounding smash hit straight out of the box. But over time it might pick up a steady trickle of sales and incrementally boost the migration to green motoring in Australia.

As for the government's likely response, one thing can be almost guaranteed. There won't be any rebates or other mechanisms made available to help Renault market the Twizy at an affordable price, despite the government supporting alternative-energy motoring, in the form of LPG rebates.

And while adopting a quadricycle category for single uniform type inspection certification might seem like a stretch, the Australian government has acceded to requests from car companies in the past. A case in point is the Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series. Back in 2007 the prestige brand successfully lobbied the federal government to change ride height requirements for the high-performance coupe to be sold in Australia .