The Elect'Road is a plug-in series hybrid version of Renault's popular

Kangoo The Renault Kangoo is a family of multi purpose vehicles manufactured and marketed by Renault since 1997, in commercial as well as passenger variants, across three generations. For the European market, the Kangoo is manufactured at the MCA plan ...

. Sales began in Europe in 2003, mainly in France, Norway and a few in the UK. The Elect'Road was sold alongside Renault's Electri'cité electric-drive Kangoo battery electric van. Renault discontinued the Elect'Road after selling about 500, primarily in France, Norway and the UK, for about €25,000.Renault (December 27, 2007
"Kangoo reinvents the electric car"
(PDF) press release The Elect'Road had a range using a nickel-cadmium battery pack and a liquid-cooled gasoline Lombardini LGW523 MPI "range-extender" engine. Although the Elect'road had a range extender it is effectively the very first

plug-in hybrid electric vehicle A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engine ...

(PHEV). In hybrid terms it operates in a blended mode, using engine and battery power simultaneously. Passenger compartment heat is powered by the battery pack as well as an auxiliary coolant circuit that is heated by the range extender engine.

Motor

The synchronous motor does not require brush replacement (e.g. as in the

Citroën Berlingo Electrique Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

) and therefore reduces required maintenance.

Batteries

The vehicle is equipped with a Saft nickel-cadmium battery and has a range of to when in all electric mode. The battery consists of two cases underneath the chassis, one with 8 monoblocks and the other with 14. Each is fitted with a fan cooling system and has a minimum 100

A·h An ampere hour or amp hour (symbol: A⋅h or A h; often simplified as Ah) is a Unit of measurement, unit of electric charge, having Dimensional analysis, dimensions of electric current multiplied by time, equal to the charge transferred by a ...

capacity. The battery provides 132 V and 13.2

kWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

.Advanced Battery Technology (January 2003
"Renault Launches Electric Vehicle"
accessed December 31, 2007. The onboard 3.5-

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

charger could charge a depleted battery pack to 95% charge in about four hours from 220 volts.Holinger, H. (2003
"Renault Electric Kangoo Can Do"
''EVWorld.com'' accessed July 6, 2007. The battery life is guaranteed for 5 years (1500 cycles) and the cost to replace them if needed was 7000EUR

Range extender

The range extender is a LombardiniLombardini
"LGW 523 mpi" Liquid cooled gasoline generator (LGW 523 mpi) liquid cooled gasoline generator. The generator used two high voltage/high output/low volume alternators, each of which supplied up to at 132 volts at 5000 rpm. The operating speed of the internal combustion engine—and therefore the output delivered by the generators—varied according to demand. It is equipped with a multipoint injection system and catalytic converter (consistent with the rules of euro 2000 in the MVEG cycle).Autoline (October 16, 2002
"New model began production of electric vehicles, Kangoo - Elect'road."
/ref> The fuel tank had a capacity of and is housed within the right rear wheel arch. The range extender function is activated by a switch on the dashboard. The Elect'road also offers a “boost” mode which provides better acceleration, by increasing the maximum power from 22 to 29 kW, together with a “snow” mode which is better adapted to driving on low-grip surfaces. When the RE engine is run all the time, the fuel economy drops to 7 liters/100 km (39 miles per imperial gallon). However, a user has found that they only needed to use it 10% of the time in which case economy improves to 3 liters/100 km (91 miles per imperial gallon).

Summary of Features

*Battery **Air cooled nickel-cadmium battery batteries, guaranteed for 5 years (1500 cycles) **Charging time: ***0 to 95% in 4 hours using internal 3.5 kW charger from a 220 V supply for 15 A circuits ***2 kW charge mode is available for 10 A circuits *Range Extender: **Fuel tank capacity: 10 l **Output ***Normal Mode: 10 kW ***Boost Mode: 22 to 29 kW *Range/max-speed: **Electric Mode: easily / **Petrol Only: ? km/ **Electric & petrol Mode: 150–200 km (90–120 mi)/ *Driving Experience **Mains cabin preheat during winter (when plugged in) **Automatic creep (remove your foot from the brake and the van will start to move forward) **Warning light comes on at 10 percent state of charge

References

{{reflist Electroad Mini MPVs Hybrid electric vehicles Front-wheel-drive vehicles 2000s cars