Renault twizy - a test drive - Perth 2012.
After the 2012 Community Energy Conference in Perth at which a friend and I were delegates I was able to test drive a Renault Twizy provided by Ness Motors of Perth. It was only around the South Inch car park not the City but for a first try-out in it, this was no great handicap.
I have long been an EV enthusiast; my earliest experience of them being in 1965 on electric fork-lifts and a little Excelsior Pony industrial tractor. The advantages of electric traction were obvious but in those days the only electric road vehicles in volume production were milk floats. As a very enthusiastic motorcyclist I had never felt the need to get a car licence in my younger days; now with greying hair and stiffening joints the lack of it becomes all to apparent. Enter the Twizy quadricycle, it can be driven on a motorcycle licence. It isn't a two-wheeler but is probably the nearest you can get to it on four wheels; in fact it's rather like a 'Go-kart' without the noise and smell! It is very agile and manoeuvrable; the handling and road-holding is like a Go-kart, it can be put into a 90 degree turn faster than is comfortable for the driver with no sign of the tyres losing grip. Stability with a 100kg battery low down can't be faulted not even with a 100kg of driver sitting above it. The acceleration as one would expect with an electric motor is very good. Suspension is firm, very firm in fact and could either be softened a bit or the seat given some padding. Overall impressions from an all to short drive were very favourable. For the aging motorcyclist it makes a good run-about; for local use in place of a car it is ideal. Parking is easy; it is possible to park three Twizy in a standard parking bay. |
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Another View of the Twizy
Robert Llewellyn gives his review on the Renault Twizy
See; it's not just this webmaster who likes it and ended the drive smiling! This wasn't done in Scotland but is included here to help give a broad picture if the Twizy's appeal!
Renault Twizy information
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