Renault Invests in Battery Center in Lardy, France

Renault is making a big push for electric cars, even in commercial vehicles. It has recently released its Kangoo Z.E and Fluence Z.E elctric vehicles. Now Renault is investing €28 million in an electric vehicle test center in Lardy, France. This facility will house most of Renault's test facilities for batteries and electric motors. This location already exsists but represents a larger investment in electric vehicles by Renault. 

The Lardy test facility is made up of eight test benches for electric motors, six test benches for power electronics units and 41 benches for stress testing batteries. These battery test benches allow engineers to run the batteries from a variety of states of charge and at various simulated temperatures and conditions. There are also 58 test benches at Lardy for improving 12v starter batteries and finding applications for spent lithium-ion batteries

The Kangoo and Fluence are the first two of four electric vehicles that Renault will debut this year.