The Renault Zoe Van is no longer available to buy in the UK. The small car-derived van has been officially withdrawn from sale and is no longer showing on the company’s website or price lists in this country.
In fact, Renault took it off the books so rapidly and quietly that if you want one then you are limited to hunting the used vans for sale in the UK. Normally there are a few unsold ones left in stock, even at a point when you can no longer order a new one in the precise spec that you are after, but a spokesman for the company confirmed that there are no more unsold new ones left in the country.
Why has the Renault Zoe van been taken off sale?
There are a couple of possible answers to this. The first, and official, one is that there is no longer a need for the Zoe van – the newly launched Kangoo E-Tech does everything that the Zoe did and more, according to the company. It is, after all, a small electric van with a bigger payload, more practical loading bay and more space up front.
This is not telling the entire story, as the two vans offer different things. The smaller van had a superior range for example, as it was able to go 245 miles between charges whereas the Kangoo can only go 170 miles. Plus there is the fact that some customers want a smaller van that is more suited to nipping around town.
However, you could also consider that the car-derived van sector is not a huge one and the Zoe never sold in vast numbers – it sold 228 in 2022 up until it came off sale in August and only 771 in total. That, Renault will surely be thinking, is the sort of customer numbers that could be tempted over to a Kangoo E-Tech.
What other car-derived vans can I buy?
If you were in the market for a car-derived van and were thinking that you’ll just pop off and buy a different one then we don’t have great news for you I’m afraid.
As of fairly recently the sector has been dealt a bit of a blow as Ford no longer offers its Fiesta Van – perhaps the archetypal small van of our time.
If you do want a van that was originally a car then there are a couple of other options, but neither are electric. The Dacia Duster Commercial is a little larger than the Zoe, being based on an SUV, but it is significantly cheaper than all other car-derived vans.
Then there is the Toyota Corolla Commercial, which is a hybrid – the only hybrid of its type in the commercial vehicle world – and is again a bigger car.
