They don’t need to keep stick of old batteries to keep your car running for 10 years. They can easily change parts to make it work (just like if a part of a car is made badly and they change the design; they may replace failing parts with the newer version rather than make more failing parts).

The interface with the battery is relatively isolated – all it does is store and provide power. It can easily be treated like a “black box” such that the car doesn’t really car what physical size, chemistry, etc. it is.

The batteries are highly recyclable. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the ZOEs being returned in 2-4 years at the end of PCP deals have their batteries replaced with newer ones before being re-sold.

An interesting question is if you need to change your battery tier will they offer the rental rate that was available when you first bought the car or the current one.

Ie, if you bought early this year, you may be on the 25 quid 3000 a year and the 7500 was originally 50 quid, would they honour that or sting you for 70 quid a month.

Good question! My guess is they’d charge you the “new” prices… Raises the importance of being on the right plan to start with!

He told me you can’t do that, you are locked into 750/quarter and must pay the excess if you exceed it on a quarterly basis.

I’m fairly sure this is not true. There’s a whole section in the agreement about how they calculate what you owe if you change bands.

When I discussed battery rental with the dealer I was thinking of going for 750 miles/quarter and changing to 7500 miles/year later if we found we were going to exceed it. He told me you can’t do that, you are locked into 750/quarter and must pay the excess if you exceed it on a quarterly basis.

We’ve opted for 7500/year, and apparently we can move to a higher band (e.g. 9000/year) if need be – though you don’t seem to be able to move back down a band if your annual mileage decreases.

Is this correct?

(I still think its daft that the car and battery mileages don’t match in Solutions PCP!)

Fred

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s still a bargain car to buy and to run. They’ve just shifted where they’re making their money, cranking up the battery rental so they can offer the car on a better deal, so swings and roundabouts.

However, 30p/mile excess on the battery is the evil stinger that many people won’t notice, and will damage trust and loyalty when people get stung with an unexpected big bill. With the old excess of 7.5p/mile the excess was fair and in proportion with the main rental part (£50/month on 7500 mile/year is 8p/mile). Add a few pennies per mile for the electricity and it stands it’s ground as exceptionally economical car to run, and you don’t need to keep an eye on going over the contracted miles. However, that 30p/mile excess is well and truly in ICE running costs and would make you need to watch the odometer carefully.

So in my opinion, the new deals are good for new buyers, yet I don’t feel buyer’s remorse in narrowly missing out on it. However, that new excess makes me really glad I jumped in when I did!

The battery should never be too full to take a charge from regen as you’d have had to use more energy to get up to the speed you are then regenning from. Unless you start from full charge right at the top of the hill.

I’ve never noticed any difference in lift off regen straight after a full charge.

How do you get 5mpkwh? The best I can get is just over 4 but that is driving on country roads so have to do 40mph/50mph. Can’t do them at 30mph; I don’t wear a hat..

An interesting question is if you need to change your battery tier will they offer the rental rate that was available when you first bought the car or the current one.

Ie, if you bought early this year, you may be on the 25 quid 3000 a year and the 7500 was originally 50 quid, would they honour that or sting you for 70 quid a month.

New Chemistry, different capacity and newer cars. Will become a pita for Renault to hold tons of stock. That said I believe Manufacturers have to hold stock for 10 years for models once out of production.

I can’t imagine they cars are made in a way that it’d be too hard to change batteries for different capacity or technology. I doubt they’ll keep stock of old battery tech.

They drop the price and have now up the price again? Why?

The new deals on the PCP still make the current prices better than we paid – they’re starting at £69/mo on PCP; whereas we’re paying £130ish. It’s a better time to buy a ZOE now than it’s ever been 🙂

Strong head winds don’t help. If your car was fully charged you don’t get any regenerative braking as the battery can’t take rapid charging. Hills take a lot of range. Low temperatures reduce range. How long was your trip? Shirt trips often give you erratic readings. I would expect you to easily get 60 miles, but there aren’t many high hills here. I’ve currently done 55 miles on 11kWh of power!

… you would think that the charging speed is to do with the on board charger and the battery and nothing to do with the motor but I’m not an engineer so maybe the more electrically minded on here could enlighten me.

The motor windings are part of the Zoe charging circuitry.