Renault to produce electric vehicle based on Twizy Z.E. Concept

It can finally be said that Renault’s all-electric Twizy ZE city car will go into production in 2011. The company confirmed this report and said that the production version will remain relatively unchanged from the concept unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Moreover, the Twizy will be built at the firm’s Valladolid plant in Spain. The facility was chosen because of its experience in building small cars such as the Modus and some Clio models.

Meanwhile, Valladolid ’s sister plant in Flins, France will be used to build a production version of the Zoe ZE supermini concept in 2012. The Zoe ZE however, won’t bear much resemblance to the concept seen at Frankfurt . The Flins site will be producing the company’s core electric supermini as well as manufacturing and recycling EV batteries. The all-electric supermini based on the Zoe is expected to make up two thirds of the carmaker’s EV sales in Europe.

Marketing of the electric cars is set to begin in 2011. It will be done ahead of the Twizy going on sale in the later part of 2011 or early 2012. A letter of intent has also been signed recently between the Renault-Nissan alliance, the Atomic Energy Commission and France ’s Strategic Investment Fund to set up a French joint venture focused on EV battery advanced research, industrialization and recycling.