The Renault City K-ZE is an all-electric city car manufactured and sold in China since 2019. It is notable for its low price, starting at less than $8,700 after incentives.
Overview
The car is manufacured in a facility in Shiyan, Hubei owned by eGT New Energy Automotive, a joint venture between Dongfeng, Renault and Nissan. It is related to the low-cost, ICE-powered Renault Kwid which is sold in India and Brazil. It utilizes a variant of Renault-Nissan's CMF platform named CMF-A. Sales in China started in 2019, and the vehicle is not currently sold in other markets. In October 2019, Gilles Normand, head of the EV department in Renault, indicated that a version for Europe was in the works. This version was revealed as Dacia Spring in March 2020, during an online event.
Specifications
The vehicle uses a 26.8 kWh lithium ion battery and is powered by a, front-mounted electric motor driving the front wheels. DC fast charging from 0% to 80% takes 50 minutes. The EPA range is not given and can be estimated at around ; this is based on the car's NEDC range and the ratio of the EPA range to the NEDC range available for another BEV city car, the Smart EQ Fortwo. While the car is rated at in China, this is based on the NEDC cycle, no longer in use in Europe as it gives wildly inaccurate results, especially for EVs. Optional equipment includes an infotainment system with an 8-inch touchscreen, a backup camera and manual air conditioning. A smartphone app allows remote monitoring of the vehicle's status.
Pricing and reception
With the price starting at 61,800 yuan after incentives, this electric car is very cheap by Western standards. The car represents a category of budget electric city cars popular in China, but practically nonexistent in the West; among these, it is probably the first one carrying a badge of a Western marque. Prices of EVs in general are much lower in China than in the US or Europe, and they exhibit a downward trend while in the West they show an upward trend: a report by JATO Dynamics shows that an all-electric car priced at $1 in 2011 would now cost $0.52 in China, but $1.42 in Europe and $1.55 in the US. The car was launched in China on September 10, 2019. The International Business Times wrote that it looks set to become the real "Tesla Killer" simply because of its low price, while erroneously stating it's the cheapest EV in the world.
Alongside the production version of the City K-ZE, Dongfeng Nissan showed off their version of an electric Kwid under the Venucia brand in the form of the e30. The e30 is essentially a badge engineered City K-ZE, sharing the same basic powertrain and design. The e30 name was previously used on another badged engineered EV based on the first generationNissan Leaf.
