Interview Questions From Renault

[Dr Phibes]

I am attending an Assessment centre at Renault next week and one part is to research the following questions, just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this as I can add the comments made into my presentation as part of the survey.

1. Renault plans to launch its first zero emission (ze)fully electric vehicle in 2011 with a complete range available by 2012. What in your opinion are the biggest challenges ahead to shift consumers from reliance on Petrol and Diesel into electric vehicles.

2. Renaultsport has recently won the car manufacturer of the year award 2009 by Top Gear Magazine. The Twingo 133 Renaultsport has just been released how does this model favour in comparison to rival hot hatches on the market today?

Thanks in advance

[hornetrider]

Favour? I'd be castigating them for their appalling English. Obviously a trick question.

HTH.

[ewenm]

1. Battery life, range and recharge time are key for electric vehicles. Until you have rapid recharge/hot-swapping of batteries and a 200+ mile range then an electric car can only ever be a second car (unless you NEVER have to drive a decent distance). So the market is limited immediately.

2. Just do some research in the Twingo. Start looking in "The Knowledge" in evo or similar.

Edited by ewenm on Friday 18th June 17:02

[Dr Phibes]

hornetrider said:

Favour? I'd be castigating them for their appalling English. Obviously a trick question.

HTH.

Well they are French so we will let them off.

My concern is that electric seems a waste of time and almost dead technology with so many drawbacks, however I fancy the job so may keep my negative comments to a minimum.

Edited by Dr Phibes on Friday 18th June 17:13

[zollburgers]

1. Price and added incentives are also a major thing that affects people's decisions. If it was cheaper to purchase an electric car they would be very common. No congestion charge etc. also helps.

2. Most cars share a lot of things with other makes anyway. The Renault will probably be very similar to its rivals but being French the electric windows will refuse to work after a short period and the central locking will have a mind of its own.

[arfur daley]

and then it will sset on fire

[arfur daley]

set

[TuxRacer]

1. Cost, range, handling.

2. Not sure quite what they're asking or even if they're expecting the first part to be tied in with the second.

[ewenm]

Dr Phibes said:

hornetrider said:

Favour? I'd be castigating them for their appalling English. Obviously a trick question.

HTH.

Well they are French so we will let them off.

My concern is that electric seems a waste of time and almost dead technology with so many drawbacks, however I fancy the job so may keep my negative comments to a minimum.

If you assume that oil/petrol/diesel will continue to rise in price and become more scarce, what alternative to electric vehicles would you suggest? It seems the sensible choice to me. If (and it's a big if) battery tech and rapid charging infrastructure can be improved radically, I don't see why the electric car can't become widespread.

Hydrogen - even less efficient due to the difficulty (high energy intensity) of separating H2 from H20
Hybrids - a good halfway house but surely will be subject to the same fossil-fuel difficulties
Biofuel - utilises existing infrastructure and tech but with increasing populations could cause conflict between food and biofuel production.
Electric - zero-emission at use (thinking fumes and pollution rather than CO2), issues with recharging, additional strain on National Grid.

As always, price will be a major driving factor - the market for expensive electric city cars is somewhat limited to uber-greenies. If the cars are the same cost/cheaper than current models, they'll sell more. Then you're back to the issues I started with.

[Stevenj214]

Dr Phibes said:

My concern is that electric seems a waste of time and almost dead technology with so many drawbacks, however I fancy the job so may keep my negative comments to a minimum.

Edited by Dr Phibes on Friday 18th June 17:13

There's the basis of your answer to question 1. Note down all the drawbacks you see and then look at what Renault would have to do to convince you that they either 1) have overcome those drawbacks or 2) they are not a major issue.

[AJS-]

1. The challenge is to succeed where even proper car companies have failed.
2. It looks sillier, and therefore will sell better to hairdressers.

HTH

But don't use the above answers

[Dr Phibes]

AJS- said:

1. The challenge is to succeed where even proper car companies have failed.
2. It looks sillier, and therefore will sell better to hairdressers.

HTH

But don't use the above answers

[Dr Phibes]

ewenm said:

Dr Phibes said:

hornetrider said:

Favour? I'd be castigating them for their appalling English. Obviously a trick question.

HTH.

Well they are French so we will let them off.

My concern is that electric seems a waste of time and almost dead technology with so many drawbacks, however I fancy the job so may keep my negative comments to a minimum.

If you assume that oil/petrol/diesel will continue to rise in price and become more scarce, what alternative to electric vehicles would you suggest? It seems the sensible choice to me. If (and it's a big if) battery tech and rapid charging infrastructure can be improved radically, I don't see why the electric car can't become widespread.

Hydrogen - even less efficient due to the difficulty (high energy intensity) of separating H2 from H20
Hybrids - a good halfway house but surely will be subject to the same fossil-fuel difficulties
Biofuel - utilises existing infrastructure and tech but with increasing populations could cause conflict between food and biofuel production.
Electric - zero-emission at use (thinking fumes and pollution rather than CO2), issues with recharging, additional strain on National Grid.

As always, price will be a major driving factor - the market for expensive electric city cars is somewhat limited to uber-greenies. If the cars are the same cost/cheaper than current models, they'll sell more. Then you're back to the issues I started with.

Interesting thanks for that chap

Edited by Dr Phibes on Friday 18th June 23:00