Renault expands green initiative with new CV range
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By Will Shiers RENAULT HAS launched a new range of environmentally friendly CVs, and now plans to open dedicated Clean Tech dealers throughout Europe.
At the heart of the new range is a 26-tonne Hybris Premium, which uses the same parallel hybrid technology as the Volvo FE hybrid. Several of these trucks are already in use in France, where they are returning up to 20% better fuel economy than their diesel-powered equivalents.
Renault expects to sell “several dozen” in Europe in the next year, but sales will initially be slow in the UK. Renault Trucks commercial director Nigel Butler says the irst right-hand-drive version will be delivered to Norbert Dentressangle in early 2012. It will be used to make night-time deliveries from Rochester, Kent to London’s Olympic Village.
The company will also train technicians at two of three dealers in the South East to service it.
“We are using it to test the market,” says Butler.
“Once it has some miles under its belt, and we have made sure that it has the required dealer support, then we’ll talk to our other customers about it.” • Renault Trucks has also launched a full-electric version of its Maxity. The van, which has been developed in partnership with PVI and EDF, uses lithiumion batteries. It has a 100km range, assuming the driver doesn’t spend too long at the 90kph top speed. However, Renault Trucks UK will pull the plug on the diesel-powered Maxity later this year because of poor sales.
“Perhaps we didn’t need it as much as we thought a few years ago,” admits Butler. “The UK market likes forward control, and we have a great product in the new Master.”