Here an interesting mobile battery: http://youtu.be/UKX48qUlpbQ

Also available in UK: http://www.goalzero.co.uk/shop/battery-packs/yeti-1250/

Here the missing link solution for the bigger grid: http://www.ted.com/talks/donald_sadoway_the_missing_link_to_renewable_energy.html

Yes, oddly the thing I didn’t like about Better Place was the battery swapping as it seems like an expensive and complicated way of getting a charge compared to fast charging. However, I think their business model was clever – essentially a fixed monthly cost for your motoring, much like a mobile phone.

After all, electricity is really cheap. How much more attractive would a ZOE battery lease seem to most people if Renault charged £150 per month – and it included unlimited ‘fuel’?

Renault stopped making cars with replaceable batteries, so they were stuck with Fluence. The ZOE can charge batteries in 20-30min, which is not much slower than the battery swap which takes 2-3min.
However, they did open up the EV market in Denmark, which now have more than 2000 public chargers. Compare that to the neighbor, Sweden, with tens of public chargers and double the population…

The Zoe brochure reads thus;

We will offer you a free domestic Wall-box, fitted at your
home, as part of your purchase. Its 7kW capacity means that your
ZOE’s battery can be recharged from completely flat to 100% in just
3 to 4 hours, and Z.E.

Which matches the info that the dealer in Portsmouth gave me (that said, he was probably secretly reading it off a brochure hidden under his desk).

This week I have insured my ZOE Intens in the Netherlands for EUR 632,99 (= GBP 543,42) per year all risks and including the battery, based on a 75% bonus/malus (no claim) discount. To include the battery my insurance company added EUR 7.000 incl.VAT (= GBP 6.010) as specified by my Renault dealer to the catalogue price of the car. So the same 75% b/m discount was applied to the battery resulting in a monthly premium of EUR 6,24 (GBP 5,36) for the battery only, which is even cheaper than the EUR 9,35 (GBP 8,03) p/m offered by RCI/Renault.
Prior to the delivery the insurance policy has to be presented to RCI/Renault as they will not allow the car to be delivered without proper insurance cover for the battery. After all, RCI wil remain the owner of the battery as it is leased.
Delivery is scheduled for next Monday (27th May). Just can’t wait!

Wow, things are really a lot different (in a weird way) out there on the island ;-). Thanks for explaining.

Smitchy, I find it amazing that the Zoe, even if you discount the regular battery lease, is more expensive than a Leaf even though the car is 2/3 the price. That doesn’t make sense at all. Neither the fact that, even though the battery is leased so the car should write off a lot less, that a Leaf has a much lower write off. That’s the opposite compared to the real non-lease world. Extremely weird. Have you asked the lease company why that is?

Nickh, an insurance company wants to charge you more if you replace one set of 16″ wheels with another set of 16″ wheels? How would they know and why on earth would that matter? I’ve never heard of anything like that on this side of the pond.

That having said, at least you get the huge discount on the car (like the French) and the free charger at home. I had to save 8000 euros more. I really hope that those French cars won’t be making it here in a few years on the second hand market, that would drive my value down really quick. Are there any specific conditions about that discount?

@nosig, the review I read two guys had taken a Zoe out on about a 40 mile test drive, they started off with about 80 mile range, within about ten miles they were down to about 60 mile range, they were driving the car about 70mph on a dual carriageway as they were testing it for a possible fleet purchase, and it would be non EV drivers who would be using them, so he was giving it a real world test, he didn’t have heating or aircon on, and they reckoned the best they would get at that style of driving was about 60 miles, which is at the low point of what Renault has suggested, but their worst suggestion of 60miles is in the winter with heating!
I know I’d get further than that, as would most drivers on here as we’re used to taking it that bit easier to get the range. My return journey is 65 miles with usually 20 miles remaining when I get home(depending on weather)
I can’t charge at my work as my company, which is part of the Scottish Government won’t put a charge point in for me to use, as it would mean I would be getting a benefit from the taxpayer of free electricity which I shouldn’t be getting, I have offered to pay and my union is taking the matter further to see if they can do something.
The Zoe on a lease from Renault will work out for me at about £340 including battery lease, the PCP I got on a generation one Leaf(outgoing model) is £225, so on a month to month basis the Leaf is cheaper, it may not be cheaper overall, but is strange that the Leaf with a list price of £27000 works out cheaper than a car with a list price of £14000. Also the value at the end of the three years for the Leaf is more than two times that of the Zoe.

Saying all that, I still love the Zoe and I think I always will, just don’t think I’ll be getting it just now, if things don’t go too well to start with perhaps the deals will get better, who knows, it took Nissan over two years to offer decent deals, once they did they flew out the doors, now sold 60,000 worldwide.

Hmm – I’m wondering if this is a combination of readying for a marketing push, and also preparing for some changes in T&Cs as a result of all the nagging we’ve been doing collectively about battery insurance and the like.

Smitchy, I don’t really understand why you have doubts about the range especially if you have experience with the Leaf. You know it matters a lot on the temperature and speed, but also on the state of the battery. It’s best to keep in mind that you’ll have 80-90% left within 5 years. 100 km is the least you can get out of it, but if it is on slower roads you should be able to get towards 150 km even in winter (I’ve read about 200 km range performed on old version Leafs). Is the trip so critical in range? You know the range will be more than the Leaf. And why not charge at your work? You can get Davide’s charger (600 euro total excl sales tax) to plug the Zoe into a 220V socket. From empty it takes about 18 hours, but if it’s about half empty the average working day should be enough to get it full or nearly full. If you can plug it into a 16A 3 pin socket (like at campings) it should be even quicker. He also has a 32A 5 pin version, if you know of powersockets at your work.

I also still don’t understand your calculation about the Zoe being more expensive than the Leaf. Because the battery is on lease (and also with the car being cheaper), write off should be (in theory at least) a lot less for the Zoe (also because it is a much more popular model, much more attractive with much better innovative charging features).