Renault Zoe's "secret" range will most likely exceed 125 miles

Renault says that the range of its battery-powered Zoe, which is due to launch in Europe in late 2012, will exceed 200 kilometers (124.3 miles). How far beyond 200 km will a fully charged Zoe go before completely running out of juice? It looks like Renault intends to keep the answer to that question a closely guarded secret.

Last week, Renault-Nissan chief executive officer, Carlos Ghosn, told shareholders at the automaker's annual meeting that even members of its management board are banned from revealing the Zoe's range. Renault says secrecy is for obvious competitive reasons.

However, the French automaker did reveal that the battery-powered Zoe will boast the longest range of any of the Alliance's electric vehicles. With that in mind, we can compare the Zoe to what we already know. To wit: the Nissan Leaf's range is listed at 160 km (99.4 miles), the mid-sized Renault Fluence sedan is expected to provide 185 km (115 miles) of range and the electric Kangoo van offers 170 km (106 miles) of near-silent motoring on a full charge. Let's not forget that Renault has said it aims to launch a plug-in with 150 miles (241 km) of range by 2015. Put this all together, and it looks like an official range or 120 to 150 miles for the Zoe isn't out of the picture at all.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]