21-08-2014

The Renault Kangoo is about to enter a 12-month trial of four vehicles as Australia Post’s vehicle of choice. This marks the debut of the zero-emission electric van in Australia.

Renault Australia managing director Justin Hocevar said it was exciting to broaden the company’s partnership with Australia Post with its pure-electric Kangoo Z.E. van.

“Renault is a global leader in electric vehicle technology with four models currently on the market worldwide and Kangoo Z.E. has already been a strong sales success globally,” Hocevar said. “Renault is currently the number one seller in Europe for both fully electric vehicles and light commercial vehicles.

“Through our partnership with Australia Post we are able to comprehensively investigate the business case for introducing the fully electric Kangoo Z.E. van in Australia in the future.”

The Renault Kangoo’s 44kW/226Nm electric motor is powered by a 22kWh lithium-ion battery. And a full recharge from a standard power source takes between six and nine hours. Even though the Kangoo Z.E. does not currently offer a fast-charge option, Renault plans to introduce a version that can be recharged to 80 per cent in 30 minutes.

Australia Post head of environmental sustainability Andrew Sellick said:

“While at this stage we are working with Renault to prove this concept, if the vans perform well across the range of metrics we’ll be measuring them on, the future potential is very exciting. We hope this initiative will ultimately help drive the commercialisation and acceptance of electric vehicles in this country.”