The French carmaker has decided to create an experiment that is unparalleled. It created the first community equipped with purely electric cars from a remote French village. And if they can handle it, then it shouldn’t be a problem for others either.
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The village of Appy, located in the French department of Ariège, not far from the borders with Andorra and Spain, is at first glance quite an uninteresting place. Tourists might be interested in the surrounding nature, but for locals it is far away. It is therefore not surprising that only 25 people lived here in 2017, and not a single wedding took place here between 1946 and 2010, as the regional newspaper La Dépêche du Midi once reported.
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But now this relatively remote place, often called one of the most remote villages in France, is returning to the maps. Renault has decided to build a fully electric company here by lending every household for three years a Renault Zoe electric car, wallboxes and a public charger.
During the following years, when the villagers will use only Renault Zoe for regular commuting, they will have to share with the carmaker their knowledge, joys and sorrows associated with operating an electric car in a relatively remote area. At the same time, the carmaker believes that if it will be possible to operate electric cars in a village like Appy without major problems, then it should be possible practically anywhere.
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After all, it was not even possible to choose a better car than the new Renault Zoe for a similar test. Thanks to its battery with a capacity of 52 kWh, it offers a range of up to 390 kilometers according to the WLTP methodology. In addition, the new Zoe generation supports charging at up to 50 kW, offering 145 kilometers with every 30 minutes on the charger.
It will definitely be interesting to see how the experiment will go. And we can only hope that the carmaker will offer us some insight under the hood during it. It could be a particularly interesting spectacle, especially in winter, as the village is located at an average altitude of about 930 meters above sea level.
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