Renault will bring the two-seat electric Duo from its Mobilize mobility brand to the UK, the company has confirmed.
Mobilize will launch the Duo in the second half of next year as part of a wider expansion of its mobility businesses across Europe and other markets.
The Duo – effectively a successor to the Renault Twizy – will be targeted primarily at car-sharing businesses either owned by Renault itself, including Zity, or other operators looking for low-cost vehicles. Renault did not say which schemes would offer Duo first.
Renault has previously said the Duo would be available on subscription, but it’s not clear that would be aimed at private customers.
“Duo is a breakthrough for car-share operators,” Fedra Ribeiro, chief operating officer for Mobilize, said at a Mobilize presentation on Tuesday. She promised it will cut operating costs by 35% compared with a standard four-seat car.
Car-share business where the vehicles are free-floating are hard to make money on, and earlier this month, Mercedes and BMW sold their joint ShareNow business to Stellantis after years of losses.
The Duo will become the Renault Group’s “first software-defined vehicle” when it launches next year, Ribeiro promised. Mobilize has engineered the Duo with a sophisticated computing platform that will help both operators and customers, the company said. “We have to make sure they have an exceptional experience,” Ribeiro said. She promised a seamless process “in finding the car, charging the car, even having fun".
Mobilize will bring “gamification” to the process, she said, without elaborating. Mobilize will unveil the interior of the Duo at the Paris motor show in September, promising a “different experience”.
The design of the car will put a strong focus on its sharing function. “We are designing vehicles for sharing. It’s not just a word. It’s a totally different mindset,” said Patrick Lecharpy, Mobilize design director.
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Sharenow under current ownership gets the kind of vehicles from mobilize that neither bmw nor Mercedes could provide that's suitable for high wearing rental service without incurring high upfront capital cost.
Looks good. Looks like fun, like the Twizy, and far more appealing that the Ami, which is too bare bones, and too slow. If they do offer it to the public, and if they priced it right (the Twizy is far too expensive) it could be a great alternative the city cars that CO2 rules are killing off.
I dont see any appeal in it a a hire car, but then i am not a city dweller.
Looks great – and if it's a subscription product, it'll work well in cities with congestion charging.