As Renault Australia gears-up to launch the electric Fluence EV locally comes news that back home in France the company has just opened the doors on a new €28 million electric vehicle test centre.
Located in Lardy, France, Renault’s dedicated electric vehicle test facility was initiated in 2009 but together with its recent investment, has now been completed and expanded to 3,000 square metres.
In fact, with 100 test benches, the Renault electric vehicle test facility has been crucial to development of the French giant’s existing EVs – the Fluence and Kangoo EV van.
Already this year Renault engineers have completed more than 100 ‘abuse’ tests over 170,000 hours on lithium ion batteries to capture data about real world use. These have included short circuiting, fire, immersion in water and crash damage.
“Investing in this centre will enable us to pursue and support new developments in electric powerplant technology and make Renault the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles in Europe,” revealed Jacques Prost, Renault’s powertrain engineering chief.
Together with Nissan’s work on its LEAF full-size electric hatchback (already on sale in Europe and undergoing Australian testing prior to local launch next year) the ‘alliance’ company Nissan-Renault is at the forefront of this developing technology.
