Alarms are old hat. Immobiliser is more modern deterrent. I imagine if stolen then Renault can organise to have it disabled via battery but I really can’t imagine any bank robbers or anti-social types stealing an electric car! Then again…

The worry is if someone discovers the battery is worth nicking – be bad news to find your cars been rolled onto its side and the battery gone.

A 400v 22kwh battery would probably power a pykie campsite quite well.

Anything can be stolen. A friend’s MX5 was lifted onto the back of a truck and taken. With a small number of ZOE’s in the UK it means there probably isn’t a market for bits and it would be hard to sell on complete, especially with the battery lease. If a thief is going to risk prison I’m sure they would go for something that they would stand to make lots of money on hence the high value cars that are currently targeted.

It was always said that Renault could disable battery charging remotely if you don’t pay the monthly payments. If this is true then the could presumably do so if the car was stolen. Don’t forget that all cars sold in the EU since 1997 must be fitted with an immobiliser so it shouldn’t be possible to drive the car without a key. With this in mind I didn’t feel the need to purchase an additional alarm.

Was told 8p mile for the car.

Was also told you can change the battery rental mileage though don’t know how often.

Collected our new Zoe yesterday afternoon, and really pleased with the choice.
Traded in my Fluence ZE so not new to EV’s.

Although I loved the Fluence, the current PCP offer and £57 battery lease made it a no brainer.

One question though – there seems to be some inconsistency with public chargers.

Never used them with the Fluence, but still waiting for BG to install home charger.

Charged at Meadowhall Sheffield yesterday – rapid charger out of service. Shows charge time at 33% of 1 hour.

Wooley edge services this morning ecotricity rapid charger, shows 50% 2 hours ?
IKEA Leeds this morning 35% and 1 hour and 5 minutes !!!

Confused …

I have disconnected the positive terminal on many an occasion to reset the R-Link on Zoe with no ill-affects so there is no reason why you could not disconnect the positive terminal, make safe the same from shorting and then charge the 12v
secondary battery as normal as all of us have done at some time in the past with an ICE vehicle.

The 12v battery is charged from the traction battery. I measured the volts on the battery and it charges all the time the car is in use. This means the 12V battery will always be fully charged. This is the ideal treatment for a lead acid battery so I would expect it to have a life way beyond the 3 year replacement interval specified by Renault.

I’d guess they’ve hard wired in lots of the electrics and there may not be the same in built protection that you find in a normal car to protect against voltage spikes so if you try to charge it in situ, the charger might damage something, and if you disconnect it, lots of things might reset.

I suspect its a ‘leisure’ battery like you might use on a boat that can survive a deep discharge, which is why it can’t be used to turn over another car.

Once it fails, you’re probably screwed – its not as if there’s an alternator to take over once the engine started and its role is very different as it provides power for brakes and so forth; means if the main battery suddenly fails, you can still control the car.