Renault electric car completes a long-distance Le Mans

Audi may have won the famous endurance race Le Mans last weekend with a hybrid, but to rather less fanfare a small city has just broken the record for the furthest distance travelled by an electric car in 24 hours.

Two Renault ZOEs, which cost £13,650 after the Government’s Plug-in Car grant has been taken into account, spent 24 hours on a race track in Normandy and turned in mileages of 1,618 km and 1,506 km respectively.

The cars used a fast charger to replenish their batteries a total of 18 times in 24 hours.

The Renault ZOE has a maximum possible range of 130 miles, but this can drop to as few as 62 miles in cold weather city driving.

CO2 figures for the Zoe are quoted as 62g/km based on average values for the national grids across Europe. In France, where a good proportion of electricity is nuclear, the figure drops to 12g/km. Charging the car with electricity from a sustainable source would reduce the figure further still.