Having already announced that its Zoe ZE Concept will be manufactured in Flins, France (see article) and that it’s Twizy ZE Concept will call Vallodolid in Spain its home (see article), Renault has now revealed its plans for the future electric, zero-emission version of its Kangoo Express LCV.
The vehicle will be produced at Maubeuge Carrosserie Automobile (MCA) in northern France starting in the first half of 2011. It will be built on the same production line as the internal combustion variants with the new version benefitting from the logistics network of the current Kangoo, as well as its fabric of suppliers.
MCA has specialised in LCVs for 20 years and already produces the Kangoo, Kangoo Express and Kangoo be bop. As such the company is confident that it can adapt to the diversity needed for this new kind of vehicle. Both the Kangoo be bop and the Kangoo ZE Concept were the precursors to the future electric Kangoo which is mainly intended for urban and peri-urban use.
The news comes less than a week after Renault revealed that it would produce the Zoe ZE Concept in France beginning in 2012 and that the Group would take part in a French joint venture for research into production and recycling of batteries for electric vehicles.
