Renault at LeWeb: Lovely Lounge and the Twizy Test Drive

[fr] J'ai testé la Renault Twizy pour vous, très sympa! Vidéo bientôt, avec du français dedans 🙂

Update 14.12.2011: here’s the video, thanks so much to Charbax!

Remember last year? I fell in love with the Renault Twizy that was on display at LeWeb. Andrea had lent me his 7-14mm lens and I thought the playful electric car was a great subject.

This year, we’re not just looking at a prototype. We’re looking at the real thing, and you can sign up for test drives at the Renault lounge (or try your luck dropping in). Here’s a little corner of their lounge, by the way, nice and cozy for a little sit-down before or after listening to what’s going on on the main stage.

And here’s the car on display:

So, I got to test drive the car this morning — thanks a lot to German for accompanying me there personally and taking the photos. (German manages blogger relations for Renault, official partner of LeWeb this year). Charbax was around too, and he shot a video of my test. It will be online soon! (Warning: mixture of French and English in the video ;-))

First thing, special seat-belt. In addition to the normal seat-belt, you get a second one on the other side. “So you don’t fall out,” said the kind guy helping me in. What I see first, though, having been in a couple of accidents (bumping into the car in front of me, don’t ask) is that at least with this set up I’ll get “straight” whiplash, and not the nasty twisty trauma that comes with the traditional seat-belt. But most probably, I won’t get into any accident with this lovely Twizy.

To start the car, press down on the brake pedal (and not the gas pedal as I embarrassingly did, yup, that’s me realizing what I’d done, below), and turn the key. You don’t hear anything, but the engine is on.