not being able to charge from a normal power point just means a portable
EVSE isn't supplied.
there's nothing stopping you from buying one separately
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin WINLOW" <[email protected]>
To: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [EVDL] EVLN: £15k She's electric and has real girl power, Zoe
date
Hi David,
Yes, it is a nice looking car... modern but not so whacky that its design
would put people off. I have had a close look at one in a dealer and even
got them to work out an HP deal but the battery lease thing is a real deal
breaker for me. I am not (and never have been) one to buy a new car, keep
it for a few years and then trade it in for a new one. I guess this
paradigm must suit lots of other people though as it appears it is this has
made the world's motor industry the colossus that it is.
I think they did it this way to be able to get some insurance on their
batteries in case they don't last as long as their engineers are saying they
will. Understandable, I suppose.
The Zoe has a fabulously practical boot area (particularly so with the back
seats down) - very capacious and lots of electric do-dads to keep the geek
in us all happy. It felt a bit more solid than my Ion (i-Miev) does but not
so compared with the Leaf (typically for a Renault Vs a modern Nissan).
One thing the article at the start of this thread brought to my attention
that I had not realised before is that you can't charge the Zoe from a
standard household socket - even our 230/240V ones. This is a pretty
serious flaw, IMO. Whilst there are lots of public chargers out there (in
the cities, at least) the prospect that if you want to drive to a
friend/relative for a visit, particularly overnight, that they'll have to
have a proper EVSE installed for you to get any charge whilst you are there
is a very short-sighted view point.
And it looks like car buyers agree as their sales have not been spectacular.
Renault have already brought in a new lower battery rental rate for very low
mileage users - £50/month for annual mileage of about 4k, IIRC (nothing
about this on their official site yet). The question of what you do if you
wan to sell privately is a difficult one. Looking at thei s thread...
http://myrenaultzoe.com/index.php/topic/battery-lease-end-of-lease-term/ ...
it seems to me that it would be nigh-on impossible to sell a used ZE vehicle
privately so you are a bit stuck with Renault once you take the plunge...
for life!
Renault either need to offer a battery lease-free option or cap the battery
lease to 4 years or so if they are to make a success of it. They'll have to
do *something* though because their future is riding on the ZE range. With
the Fluence already gone, they really need to pull something game-changing
out of the bag... and soon.
MW
On 8 Feb 2014, at 06:19, EVDL Administrator wrote:
The Zoe looks like a really nice EV. Pity they've burdened her with a
"battering battery." Forget to pay your battery lease bill and Renault
will
remotely make it impossible to charge the battery.
I've long been a proponent of battery leasing for EVs. I've seen enough
"EV
for sale, needs batteries" ads to realize that anything that insulates an
EV
owner from battery replacement sticker shock is probably a good thing.
However, I don't think this is the right way to go about it.
I suppose I'm just a crank : I no longer use certain famous computer
operating systems because they make me agree to let the OS's authors
change
whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever I am. I prefer an OS I'm
in full control of. Same with my EV.
If the Renault battery leasing scheme works for you, great. But if I were
living in Europe, this "we don't trust you, so we're building coercion
into
the car" approach would be an excellent reason for me to buy a Mitsu or
Nissan EV instead.
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator
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