Let’s look at the great little Twizy first. Those of you somewhat ‘long in the tooth’ may well remember the Messersmitt with its two seats, one behind the other, the mode adopted by Renault for this tiny urban delight. Twizy has superb swinging doors for very narrow parking lots and her small dimensions, she’s only 2,338mm long, makes it quite possible to park nose to kerb in between larger vehicles to glean every ounce out of any available parking space. The boot is not large, but she carries 31 litres plus 3.5 litres in the left storage and five litres in a right storage ‘bin’. Of course, if only the driver is involved, the entire rear seat can be used for carrying shopping, etc.

Technically, the maximum power is 13kw-17bhp and the maximum torque is 58Nm instantly available from 0-2,100rpm. With electric vehicles it is important that the batteries have some sort of energy recovery device which the Twizy has and there is economy mode assistance.

Over relatively short distances Twizy bounces along at 80km/h, which of course is our maximum speed, but if 45km/h is used as the normal maximum, the car can cover 62 miles in a Maltese summer and 50 miles in winter before needing to have the batteries recharged. This happens in three to 3.5 hours from any 230V source.

For those of you interested in performance it takes 6.1 seconds to reach 45 km/h. The brakes are on all four wheels without ABS and work well and there is a powerful handbrake that holds well on steep gradients. The steering is a direct rack allowing 2.8 turns lock to lock with a turning circle of 6.8 metres between kerbs. For those of you concerned about incidents, the Renault sport developed frame protects from impacts, the driver’s airbag is really quite extraordinary in a vehicle this size and the seat belts are as good as it gets.

This urban challenger is great fun to drive and once the somewhat stiff suspension has been got used to, and by that I mean those darn rubber road humps that councils are so enamoured with have been gently approached, negotiated and then accelerated away from, all is well.

Do not hit raised man-hole covers. We used roads in Lija that were causing great annoyance to normal motorists as people were erecting decorations for the Lija feast in quite improbably narrow streets. That is narrow for all except this splendid two-seat Twizy!

The Renault Zoe - fast enough in comfort.

The five-seater Renault Zoe, like the Twizy, was designed from the boots up to be an electric vehicle. No compromising with conventional vehicles by slapping giant electric motors in the space normally holding petrol or diesel engines.

The other interesting thing for this scribe is that for short distances our speed limit can be maintained quite easily as the car has a range of over 180km between charges, if the engine is managed somewhat frugally.

Obviously, optimum driving conditions are required for any serious look at the range. Speed, hills, driving style and the use of heating or air-conditioning will all affect the range, but if nothing but suburban roads are used, the ‘pilot’ should exceed 140km in summer and slightly less in winter.

In fact, driving style plays a big part. Slap her in eco-mode and air-conditioning or heating power, along with performance, are all regulated to give greater range. Enjoy the full potential and she slips along at 140km/h with no trouble and in complete silence. The horns on both Twizy and Zoe are well up to their job, just as well as pedestrians seem to have developed a knack of stepping off pavements if they don’t hear an approaching vehicle.

Renault has spent much time doing research on regenerative braking. This means that the battery is fed a positive charge not only every time the brake pedal is pressed, which is new, but every time the car decelerates when the driver’s foot is taken off the accelerator.

As a young driver trying to get more miles out of the half gallon of fuel I regularly put in the tank, I would accelerate up to 60km/h and then flip into neutral, turn the engine off and glide down to 20km/h before bump starting in top (third) gear. So Zoe works well if on the open road the same principle is adopted. Nothing is turned off and the car receives energy every time you decelerate.

Mechanically the car is helped by using the specially-designed Michelin Energy Tm E-V tyres. These have exactly the same road holding and performance as other Michelin tyres but they have been developed for ultra low resistance when driving.

People often worry about the charge rate for electric cars. Zoe has a rather special system that adapts to the power available for charging and then under normal conditions charges the batteries in six to nine hours. Or at accelerated charging, 80 per cent in one hour or rapid charging... 80 per cent in 30 minutes.

For anyone familiar with automatics and two pedals, the Zoe presents no problems and the nice little change lever runs through park and neutral to forward or reverse and there is also a conventional handbrake lever.

The car is most certainly fast enough, seats five in comfort and of course has the expected crumple zones, great seat belts and also comes with emergency brake assist, elecronic brake force distribution and ESP with UCL and ASR.

There are a variety of brakes offered, from solid or ventilated discs up front to drums, solid discs or ventilated discs at the rear.

Verdict

Comfort
No difference from conventional petrol or diesel

Performance
Absolutely up to standard with a top speed of 140 km/h.

Cool
Great cool rating.

Quality
Pure Renault.

At a glance

Top speed
140km/h

0-100km
13.5 seconds

Driving range
140km

Consumption
146W/km

Emissions
0

Maximum torque
340Nm