Used Renault Zoes

[ecs]

I've been considering buying an EV recently and noticed that the price of used Zoes has hit the ~£5k marker. I think one would be ideal for me as I'm going to start driving to the train station and London Midland offer free parking to zero emission vehicles. My local dealer had a few in stock, it seems like they've all sold apart from this one:

http://www.richardsanders.co.uk/used-car-details/u...

Would this vehicle have a leased battery and is there anything I should know about these cars? Really need to get over to the dealership to speak to them but haven't had time lately.

[markw996]

All Zoes have leased batteries except the rare models that have an "I" before the name like iDynamique iirc
(which is why I bought a LEAF)

Edited by markw996 on Wednesday 28th June 12:18

[ajcj]

Yes it would. I bought one last year - less than a year old, 1800 miles on it, £10k discount to new. Opted for the lowest cost battery rental.

Great little thing, used for a lot of 6-mile school runs, some 25-mile trips to see friends, and very occasional forays further afield. Didn't bother getting the wired-in charger at home, just do it off a 3-pin plug and cable.

Very impressed with it, will probably chop it in next year for the latest version, which has much better range.

[Chester draws]

Forgive me butting in...

Just looked at the Renault finance battery hire web page....

22kw battery hire for 6000 mile pa, is £59/ month.

Or £700 PA. A small petrol car at 50mpg is around 10p / mile.

So, 6000 miles in a small petrol car only costs £600 in fuel.

So the cost of just hire in the electric is £100 PA more, and I still have to play the electric bill on top of that?

What am I missing?

For context...... We have a big car for family duties, towing etc.. But commuting and other short journeys is 6 or 10 miles per day maybe 10 times / week. Perfect electric car use??

But is an electric car really more cost efficient that a 1.0 litre petrol? Tax for petrol is only £20 or so, and insurance must be the same? No congestion charge implications etc.

And the Zoe linked above is comparable to a say, 14 reg VW Up! Price wise.
https://usedcars.volkswagen.co.uk/en/used-cars/vol...

Edited by Chester draws on Wednesday 28th June 15:14

[ecs]

Don't think the maths add up if that's the cost of the battery - I thought there were some Zoes which came with an owned battery, didn't realise they were rare. I guess that's why they're pretty cheap!

I've got a 64 plate Fiat 500 at the moment which will probably use about £10 worth of fuel per week for my new commute. It'll get me a 50% discount in the station car park as it's band A road tax, meaning total commute costs are less than the price of leasing the battery.

Edited by ecs on Wednesday 28th June 15:56

[Uncle Ron]

Chester draws said:

Forgive me butting in...

Just looked at the Renault finance battery hire web page....

22kw battery hire for 6000 mile pa, is £59/ month.

Or £700 PA. A small petrol car at 50mpg is around 10p / mile.

So, 6000 miles in a small petrol car only costs £600 in fuel.

So the cost of just hire in the electric is £100 PA more, and I still have to play the electric bill on top of that?

What am I missing?

For context...... We have a big car for family duties, towing etc.. But commuting and other short journeys is 6 or 10 miles per day maybe 10 times / week. Perfect electric car use??

But is an electric car really more cost efficient that a 1.0 litre petrol? Tax for petrol is only £20 or so, and insurance must be the same? No congestion charge implications etc.

And the Zoe linked above is comparable to a say, 14 reg VW Up! Price wise.
https://usedcars.volkswagen.co.uk/en/used-cars/vol...

Edited by Chester draws on Wednesday 28th June 15:14

I don't think you're missing anything - which is why these are worth basically nothing!

[Chester draws]

I looked very briefly at EV's when we bought our 1.0 petrol Up! this time last year.

The e-up! was a lot more to buy (50% more from memory) and leafs didn't fall into our budget then.

Looks like not much has changed.

[sjg]

Chester draws said:

Forgive me butting in...

Just looked at the Renault finance battery hire web page....

22kw battery hire for 6000 mile pa, is £59/ month.

Or £700 PA. A small petrol car at 50mpg is around 10p / mile.

So, 6000 miles in a small petrol car only costs £600 in fuel.

So the cost of just hire in the electric is £100 PA more, and I still have to play the electric bill on top of that?

What am I missing?

Average petrol price right now is apparently 114.9p/litre so 50mpg is a bit over 10p/mile. If fuel prices go up, that gets worse.

If you're actually doing 6-10 miles in one go each time then 50mpg is fairly likely - less so for someone doing a mile or two at a time like a school or nursery run.

Zoe can pre-heat off the house electric, which can be very convenient when frosty and just nicer for much of the year when it's cold out.

Zoe is also automatic, which not so many small efficient petrol cars are.

I agree though, it may not stack up for everyone cost-wise. It would make sense for Renault to work out a cheaper monthly battery lease for the older cars else they could end up with a lot of cars that are hard to shift.

[anonymous-user]

The battery lease at that level does knacker the maths up

Literally no saving of any significance over ice

You need to be getting it for green reasons imo

Different kettle of fish at different mileages / overall deal

[herewego]

The petrol equivalent of the same age would cost a few thousand more to buy though wouldn't it? The purchase cost saving would pay for a good few years battery rental.

[essayer]

OP gets to save £80/month on station parking on top of the petrol savings

[bmw320ci]

essayer said:

OP gets to save £80/month on station parking on top of the petrol savings

Free parking westminster, no congestion charge

We bought a Ren ZoE last year.

£1000 down

the car was £21000 with the battery lease option (£6000 approx less than the i Version where you buy the batteries out right and no support if cells fail)

Renault was giving a further £6500 (deposit contribution) off the list price + the £4500 govt for electric cars

Making it just north of £10k for a medium sized 5 door, family with Rev cam, sat nav and massive boot. which I think isnt too unreasonable

You also got the grant from the govt for a home charger which was £750 from charge-master Govt paid £500 Ren paid the rest

car = £99 on a 2 year deal
batteries = 12000 miles £99

So if you can find places to charge that are free or have your supplier with Ecotricity you will get free rapid charging on motorway service stations along with 1000 free equivalent miles of home charging included in your tariff

the price worked out that it was cheaper than the equivalent ren Clito

The wife uses to park in the centre of a town where parking is discounted by 75% for zero emm cars, so a £10 parking charge is a mere £2.50, if you total the cost of parking per day is £650 (£2.50 x 5 x 50 weeks (2 weeks less for holidays etc))a year as against £2500 for a ICE car, and if you do the maths the car will cost £2350 a year in payments, so you could look at it as a free car that you have the use off over the weekend

Edited by bmw320ci on Tuesday 4th July 16:08

[fomb]

Is it possible to get out of the battery lease at all? There's a few 5-6K zoe's popping up now, but they make a lot less sense with a £60-70/mo spend on top.

[essayer]

Not as yet. There's a few 'battery owned' models but they are very rare and a lot more expensive. There are persistent rumours on other forums that Renault will one day end leasing but not seemingly based on any facts.

[dave_s13]

Just get a leaf.

They are better cars and won't be impossible to sell on when you're done.

[Dazed and Confused]

Chester draws said:

Forgive me butting in...

Just looked at the Renault finance battery hire web page....

22kw battery hire for 6000 mile pa, is £59/ month.

Or £700 PA. A small petrol car at 50mpg is around 10p / mile.

So, 6000 miles in a small petrol car only costs £600 in fuel.

So the cost of just hire in the electric is £100 PA more, and I still have to play the electric bill on top of that?

What am I missing?

Edited by Chester draws on Wednesday 28th June 15:14

Some people hate paying for petrol? Tight Northerners maybe.

Who knows? Mystery to me too.

Edited by Dazed and Confused on Tuesday 11th July 08:02

[Dazed and Confused]

sjg said:

Average petrol price right now is apparently 114.9p/litre so 50mpg is a bit over 10p/mile. If fuel prices go up, that gets worse.

If you're actually doing 6-10 miles in one go each time then 50mpg is fairly likely - less so for someone doing a mile or two at a time like a school or nursery run.

Zoe can pre-heat off the house electric, which can be very convenient when frosty and just nicer for much of the year when it's cold out.

Zoe is also automatic, which not so many small efficient petrol cars are.

I agree though, it may not stack up for everyone cost-wise. It would make sense for Renault to work out a cheaper monthly battery lease for the older cars else they could end up with a lot of cars that are hard to shift.

So you'd still recommend an EV at a time when we have the cheapest fuel prices we've had for many years and nothing appears to changing as far as that's concerned.

EVs are clearly great for some people, but very obviously not everybody. The cheapest way to run a car is to buy a cheap car in the first place.

[sjg]

Marginal on pure running costs in many cases - if there's other incentives (congestion charge, cheap/free parking, etc - as the OP does) then it can drastically swing it in favour of electric.

Some people just prefer them, particularly for urban driving. No engine noise (and no stop/start cutting in on modern cars), very torquey, automatic gearbox, pre-heating in winter - they're very pleasant things to use.

[covmutley]

sjg said:

Some people just prefer them, particularly for urban driving. No engine noise (and no stop/start cutting in on modern cars), very torquey, automatic gearbox, pre-heating in winter - they're very pleasant things to use.

i think this is key, and people will increasingly recognise this.

Comments on here saying that it is 'no cheaper than petrol'. At 6k miles a year im sure that is right. A mileage of say 10k probably swings it in EV's favour. But I think as EV's become more mainstream people will find out (and trust) that they are so easy and nice to drive that they will eventually become the default preference.

[InitialDave]

sjg said:

Some people just prefer them, particularly for urban driving. No engine noise (and no stop/start cutting in on modern cars), very torquey, automatic gearbox, pre-heating in winter - they're very pleasant things to use.

This is why I got one. Cost saving was never a factor, and was unlikely to happen.