Renault going with EV push at COP21

Renault is looking for the proverbial home court advantage to spur electric-vehicle sales at the United Nations' COP21 United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris. The French automaker has deployed a fleet of 200 EVs to shuttle delegates during the confab, which started November 30 and ends today. In fact, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has invested more than $4 billion in electric-vehicle technology and is looking for the green-minded event to improve the automakers' return on investment.

As part of the conference, Renault is publicizing recent patents that have led to shorter charging times and longer single-charge range figures for models such as the Renault Zoe. Renault also says its Zoe sales have surpassed 30,000 units in Europe while its Kangoo Z.E. sales have topped 20,000 units. Renault is also touting its position as the electric-vehicle expert for the Formula E electric-vehicle racing circuit. See more information from Renault here.

The Alliance said in September that it had moved more than 265,000 electric vehicles globally, or more than General Motors and Mitsubishi (the two next-largest plug-in vehicle sellers) combined, and accounts for about one in four EVs since the Nissan Leaf started sales a few years back. That said, companies such as Volkswagen and BMW had been making inroads into the Alliance's EV leadership this year, and the 2015 market share of the Alliance had been trending more towards about 18 percent through the first eight months of the year. You know, a new Nissan Leaf would probably help turn that around...