Coup for electric Kangoo

Renault has won a major contract with Norway's postal service, Posten, with the body recently purchasing 240 examples of the electric Kangoo Maxi Z.E.

The French manufacturer describes it was "one of the world's biggest electric vehicle purchases to date", with the Kangoos to be employed in a delivery role in areas with a high population density.

Posten is focussing on reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, and its fleet already operates around 900 electric vehicles spanning cars, bikes, quadricycles and trailers.

Electric vehicles are making significant in-roads in Norway, where they currently account for roughly 20 per cent of all new vehicle sales. Electric vehicle sales are being stimulated by an extensive government incentive scheme in the Scandinavian nation, while EVs are expected to make up 10 per cent of the national car fleet by 2020.

Electric vehicles in Norway are exempt from VAT and road tax, parking fees, road tolls and ferry charges, and they are also permitted to use bus lanes.

Renault says its Kangoo Maxi Z.E. has a range of 170km (NEDC), which translates to between 85 and 135km with real-world use. This makes them well suited to a postal role, where payloads are generally modest and pre-defined routes can be tailored to fall within the vehicle's range.

While the Kangoo Z.E. isn't presently commercially available here in Australia, four examples are currently under evaluation with Australia Post.

"It [the Australia Post trial] is on-going," says Renault Australia's Corporate Communications & Sponsorship Manager, Emily Fadayev.

"So far it's been very positive but the longer they keep them the more we're able to evaluate them."

While Australia might lag behind Norway in terms of EV uptake and incentives, Renault will be hoping the recent Posten order will lend further impetus to the electric Kangoo's business proposition for postal organisations and indeed myriad other fleets in markets around the globe.