Sometimes you need to become quite creative to prove a point. Renault has given every household in a (small) French town an electric ZOE to prove it is the way of the future.

The small town of Appy, situated in the Ariege region in the south of France, is one of the most isolated towns in the country and the deal – a car for three years – is also looking at the 390 km claimed range to underline the experiment.

With New ZOE’s strong sales climbing since its introduction earlier in 2020 and with more than 100 000 models on the road across Europe, it is already proving to be a hit among a range of buyers.

In the remote rural town of Appy, all households receiving a New ZOE will be provided with a home charger and there will be a public charger for the town. When plugged in to a DC charger, the New ZOE’s 52 kWh battery can be charged to 144 km of range in just 30 minutes.

Appy residents will run the ZOEs for three years, sharing their impressions and experiences with Renault, in a first-time scheme that will likely inform and help understand the way customers interact with and use electric vehicles day to day.

If the inhabitants of one of the country’s most isolated towns can adopt an electric way of life, it will prove that everyone can. That also means the myths around buying and running an electric car can be dispelled once and for all.

Appy residents – along with regular ZOE owners – will be benefitting from a range of advanced features that come as standard on one of the New ZOE’s several attractive trim levels.

This includes recycled seat material on selected models, a 10-inch TFT Drivers Instrument Display, intuitive EasyLink touchscreen infotainment systems in a range of screen options up to 9,3 inches in size, and a suite of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems to ensure driving a ZOE is as easy and safe as possible.