A long-term experiment for a durable change

Imagine Appy, in the middle of rural France; a quiet, unsuspecting village overflowing with heartwarming clichés, hardworking individuals and visions of the future. But more importantly, a place where driving is an everyday necessity. The people of Appy stand firm in their belief that a successful community embraces modernism and is aware of its ecological footprint.

If you put a few ZOE’s in the street of Paris or even Cannes, no one will notice now but what if you were to replace all the cars in the remotest village in France and give to all its inhabitants a ZOE to drive for 3 years. What if?

Renault did just that in the village of Appy.

And now you have a story to tell.

And that’s not all, what if it was not only about driving clean but also about charging clean. Most drivers of electric cars are not aware of the origin of their electricity, they’re even less aware of the fact that they are charging their cars with grey energy (energy from fossil fuels). What’s the point in driving electric when your energy isn’t clean?

What if we were fitting the village with photovoltaic energy, so the electricity is 100% green and our drivers aren't just using electric cars, they’re also charging them with green energy:

no impact, zero emissions. This is what we are working on, the electricity to power the ZOEs in Appy will be green and locally produced soon, with installations on top of the mayor's office and a communal wash and fold, people can power their car with the city provided electricity.

And voila, Appy officially became the first city on Earth to drive only electric cars. And after two years of driving only ZOE, nothing has changed in this town. People still drive as much as before without having any lack of autonomy or missing infrastructures.

What if we were to make a 13 minutes documentary about it and broadcasted it on TV and online to prove once and for all how easy and possible it is to switch to electric.

We know that changing the automotive landscape and energy needs isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to happen one step (one town) at a time.

What if, indeed.