Ok, so, I’ve read 5 reviews now of the i3 after BMW had that test day and have released restrictions on the first wave of reporting and I’ve noticed 2 things:

1) Don’t go for the 20″ tyres 🙂 They give a hard ride and are more prone to understeer.

2) It seems BMW have specifically prevented all reviews comparing the i3 to the Zoe! All the reviews compare the i3 to the Prius, the Leaf and others, saying how it has a greater range, is faster and lighter, charges faster etc. but at no point do any of the reviews even suggest Renault develops EVs.

I suppose if you are about to release a B-class car for £30,000 with about 90 – 100 miles real world range, a 22kwh battery and minimal boot space you don’t want everyone pointing out you can get the same range with a bigger boot for half the price over at the Renault dealership 😉

Well, there’s a battery pack option:
http://www.charging-solutions.com/Products/portableevunit.aspx

Or there’s the petrol option:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/sdmo-perform-4500-tb-uk-4200w-generator-230-110v/79296?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=AffiliateWindow-_-Datafeed-_-Tools-_-SDMO%20Perform%204500%20TB%20UK%204200W%20Generator%20230%2f110V-42295&source=aw

I guess the petrol option is cheaper but you’d need a safe way to store the petrol as well. The petrol generator will provide something like a 3.5kwh home charger (full Zoe charge would take 7 hours) and most of these smaller generators don’t like being run for hours at a time – but you could run it for an hour and gain 10 miles or so 🙂 More expensive generators (and larger ones) could theoretically provide fast-charge.

Note that with a generator you *will* need an occasional-use cable to manage the charge rate 🙂

Either of these will be heavy and so reduce the range of your car.

Zu teuer. A Leaf including the battery starts at 29,600€.

Wonder what the e-Golf will sell for.

Unless you can get at least 50% off of any of those then I think you can get them cheaper elsewhere even if you are interested.

Paint protection you can get done by people coming to your house or workplace for about £240 and I’m sure there is room to negotiate. I’ve heard of dealerships offering the paint protection free of charge during negotiations and I believe it costs them £40 – £70 in parts and labour.

GAP is a good idea if you are paying on finance of some sort (HP or private loan) because more and more insurance companies are not offering full payout to match the invoice price even within the first year if the car is written off. GAP will cover the difference between insurance payout and invoice price for up to 5 years depending on the product you buy. You can get them after buying your Zoe for around £130 for 4 year cover and I’ve checked and at least some of them will also cover any remaining lease costs on the battery (check specifics before you buy!).

Wheel and tyre cover depends on how much new tyres are, how often you have historically needed to replace them due to damage etc. and how often you scuff the alloys. I bet you can find third-party cover cheaper though 😉

Steamrunner – very witty! (but probably lost on our foreign friends).

Mitsch – I agree with what farblue says. I can live with the ZOE’s 210km (NEDC) range, but I think I’d struggle with a 150km (NEDC) range. Basically the smaller battery is why it’s cheap.

The ZOE is not just another EV – it is a unique package. There is no other EV that can compete either now or in the immediate future, e.g. e-Up, i3, electric Golf, etc. The only BEV with a greater range is the Tesla, and there’s no alternative on the apparent horizon.

And that it can only charge at up to 3.6KWh which will take 6 hours (18Kwh battery) and that on a normal socket this will take almost 10 hours?

The eUP has the type-2 combo connector. Pubic Type-2 DC charge points are currently non-existent, but if they appear the VW will be able to rapid charge in 30 minutes.

The Golf Blue e-motion and the BMW i3 also use type-2 combo connectors with DC rapid charging. There are multi mode charging stations that have CHAdeMO, Type- 2 AC and Type-2 DC rapid charging all in one box. It may take awhile but eventually there will be compatible public rapid chargers.

@mitsch You are aware that the E-Up has a theoretical range of ~ 90 miles on a charge which, based on experiences with the Zoe will translate to a real world range of ~ 50 miles? And that it can only charge at up to 3.6KWh which will take 6 hours (18Kwh battery) and that on a normal socket this will take almost 10 hours?

I can understand why the price (estimated £17k for the base spec model) is tempting but having to wait 10 hours for it to charge enough to go 50 miles would put me off. I’m sure once you’ve added in all the nice things like automatic wipers and lights, keyless entry, remote control of the charging and aircon, a home charge point etc. the price will be more like £19k which isn’t far off the price many Zoe owners will pay after adding up the price of their battery lease on top of the original price – and you won’t get the support for faulty batteries or degrading batteries that is being offered by Renault.

Even at the base prices it is close. For instance, £13,995 for the Zoe Expression + £70/month for battery lease for 5 years = £18,195. For this price you get a larger car with more range and faster charging, a free home charger (including installation), breakdown cover and 4 years’ servicing as well as the guarantee you will never have to pay for a replacement battery.

I also noticed the table further up the topic states the 0-60 is 11.3s but I believe the official speed is somewhere around 13.8s, same as the Zoe.

Still, I suppose it is good to have more options on the market – I just worry that ‘poor’ offerings will disappoint customers and put them off EVs altogether.

My day of testing in a Zoe that had only previously been used for test drives and which had only done about 300 miles showed what I think would be real world performance.

the Zoe was an Intens with 17″ alloys (not energy saving). Aircon was on auto for about 20% of my round-trip commute.

Starting with a full charge I did 5 miles urban driving from the dealership to home and then had about 40mins parked up at home playing with r-link etc.

Next day I had 8 miles through suburban birmingham, 4 miles on a-roads (dual carriageways), 13 miles on the M42 and M5 during the morning commute (including a steep hill) then 4 miles dual carriageway and 2 miles of suburban drive into worcester. My motorway driving was erratic because I was testing the car’s performance. I’d say most of it was around 60mph but with 2 spells up to and over 75 (hard acceleration). A-road driving was about 60mph.

Getting to work I had about half the battery left after ~36 miles covered.

My return home was via more a-roads, replacing about 5 miles of motorway with the Droitwitch bypass mostly at about 55mph. There are 2 roundabouts, a set of lights and a very steep section of hill to eat up the battery. As I was going straight back to the dealership I also came off the M42 a bit early so replaced another couple of miles of motorway with an additional 5 miles of suburban driving. I was more careful on the way home, mostly sticking to ~ 57mph on the cruise control.

Total distance back to the dealership ~ 32 miles, total overall distance 68 miles.

When I got to the dealership, the low battery light had just come on and there was an estimated 9 miles (12%) left in the battery.

Based on these numbers, the Zoe thought it could do about 75 miles before totally dying. I think it could prob. do a little more because it was ‘used to’ urban driving and I had been quite harsh on it during the morning drive.

Noting that the eco tyres are supposed to give ~ 5.5% improved range, that would suggest 80 miles on a charge if you had them and the 16″ alloys rather than the 17″.

an estimated 80 miles range from my first test drive with limited practice driving ‘ev-style’ and no real desire to try and save energy on the morning commute is, I feel, pretty good 🙂