Battery leases

[hiccy18]

I thought Renault and Nissan had canned this but looking around a lot of second hand Leaf's and Zoe's are still battery lease. If we bought one now, what do you think the market attitude would be towards battery leases when we're looking to offload, likely 4 or 5 years time?

[HTP99]

Battery lease is still a thing if the battery hasn't been bought out, yiu can buy a ZOE with a battery lease and then buy the battery out.

[OutInTheShed]

Isn't the question whether you can rely on them offering to lease you a shiny new battery when the existing one goes limp?
How long can you expect to keep the car running on this deal, with the manufacturer leasing you a new battery every time the old one gets to 80% capacity or whatever?

Should you just lease the whole car?

[hiccy18]

If I get something I like I'm never in a hurry to change so why lease when I can buy for less?

Right now I can kinda see a benefit to battery leasing in that you have a warranty on the battery regardless of the age of the car, but I suspect in five years time when there are loads of EV cars around people will not want to be paying for a lease.

I hadn't thought about buying the lease out, I'll add it to the stack ta

[LordFlathead]

hiccy18 said:

If I get something I like I'm never in a hurry to change so why lease when I can buy for less?

Right now I can kinda see a benefit to battery leasing in that you have a warranty on the battery regardless of the age of the car, but I suspect in five years time when there are loads of EV cars around people will not want to be paying for a lease.

I hadn't thought about buying the lease out, I'll add it to the stack ta

The Renault lease is dubious. There are plenty of people that have tried to claim on the lease guarantee only to find out that the battery pouches are not available. Having owned two Renault Fluences - one from new (2011 and battery leased) and one 4 years ago (no battery lease due to dealership error. The previous owner was not told about the lease and refused to pay it when Renault later asked for it!. His solicitor then ensured the battery was free of any legal obligation and he owned it). With 37,000 miles on the clock, the car had a range of 55 miles (perfect for my then commute) but Fluence Spy showed battery degradation of 36%.

There were plenty of conversions using Leaf Gen 1 and 2 pouch cell conversions, but as the battery tech was so old (non-cooled) it was not worth pursuing when you could buy a better car for not a lot more.

The Zoe ( I also owned on a two year lease, but the peasants 22KW version) was a great car and very good value for money then. It was £165 deposit and £145 PM on a two year PCP for 8000 miles. These deals are no longer available and even if they were, I wouldn't touch a deal with a non-cooled battery pack.

To buy a car with a pouch cell I would say:
1) If you only use it for a round trip of 50 miles and the price is right then its worth it.
2) If you plan on keeping it for no more than two years and the price is right then its worth it.
3) For anything else - there are better EV's out there.

[hiccy18]

Thanks for the detailed reply LordFlathead.

Are you suggesting that something like a three year old Zoe would not be such a good buy when we are intending to run it for 40-50k miles over five years? There is scope to up the budget, basic manmaths is suggesting five years of fuel in the £1.5-2/litre range could be plowed into an EV instead of literally going up in smoke!