@appmacguy, it’s not i’m having second thoughts as such, i’ve been left so disappointed over the delays since I ordered last March(2012) and lack of information from Renault as a whole, and even worse from my local dealer who won’t even give me a test drive of further than ‘around the block’ which isn’t good, as someone who pre-reserved the car on the opening day, travelled to Paris with Whatcar as part of their reader test team, along with Renaults director of communication(in this months edition).
I also bought a Leaf back in February, which I would happily part exchange, but the Zoe although a much cheaper car, works out at about £110 a month more expensive between the car payment and the battery lease, if there was a huge difference in the car from the Leaf I wouldn’t hesitate, but without a proper decent test drive of at least 50 miles of various road’s I won’t be signing, as I have no idea if it will even get me between home, work and my return journey home with no charging at work, I’ve read a small review from another test driver and it didn’t look too good for a similar range of the Leaf.
I was given a date of 4th June off the factory with delivery due around the 28th June.

I only suggested the battery lease might pay for some of it because that would be how they can disable the battery charging if you don’t pay the lease and the T&Cs of the lease agreement do make it clear they track and gather data regarding the battery – condition, charge frequency, usage, fast-charge usage etc.

Yes, the Zoe has a sim card and a gprs connection over the 2G phone network. I guess we ‘pay the phone bill’ through a combination of the R-Link subscription and the battery lease.

I’ve not seen anything about what might happen if it was unable to phone home regularly. For instance, with old Sky boxes they needed to phone home once a month or they blocked subscription services.

Regarding the SD Card slot on the front, I noticed that it was being used by the TomTom mapping data and removing that SD Card stopped TomTom from working. I don’t know if that’s the case for all Zoes or just the test-drive cars but it wouldn’t be great if you had to remove your satnav data to use the slot for other stuff. I did remove it, to see, and the satnav shuts down with a warning that the maps were unavailable. Plugging the card back in immediately re-enabled the satnav.

I’ve been given a date of leaving factory on 4th June and expected at dealer by end of June, I also asked for a test drive and my dealer said they aren’t registering their Zoe as it’s for the showroom, but could perhaps let me take it ‘around the block’, which is not good enough, I want a decent test drive, I want to ensure it gives a decent range, with and without heating or A/C.

I’ve asked about PCP deals etc and I don’t think I’ll end up getting the Zoe due to the cost, I bought a Leaf earlier in the year which of course has dropped alot in price since I got it, but more importantly between the cost of the PCP per month and the battery lease it is way more than the Leaf, but the residual value of the Leaf after three years on my PCP is almost three times more than the Zoe, and I wouldn’t have the battery lease either.

I love the Zoe and would change it in a heartbeat but at the cost I doubt it will happen.

Like others I believed in the pre-reservation, I ordered mine’s on the first day of release and I am number 005 in the UK, but it meant nothing, all empty promises. I received a pair of Zoe trainers, and a notebook, as well as a model Zoe(not female!) just at Christmas time, we’ve had no contact from the dealer, or Renault, all contact has been iniated by myself including the chasing up, so much so that I have a current complaint in with Renault UK which is being managed by a customer service manager, definately isn’t good enough.

Hi,
Our current car is with quote me happy.
We got a quote about a month ago with them, (knowing we will be swapping cars from current to Zoe in the next couple of months) back then Zoe was on their systems.
I think it has temporarily been taken off their website but we have a quote valid for 60 days with them.

Thanks to someone higher who confirmed that they got the email from them regards being valid insurance for both car and battery. I’m just awaiting this back in writing too.

I’ve had a reply from QuoteMeHappy. Originally they were a little confused and thought I wanted to lease the whole car and confirmed they would still insure it. Having cleared that up they have replied as follows:

Thanks for getting in touch.

If you are putting all of the details into the system correctly then we will cover the whole vehicle, (including the battery).

You can show this email as proof to the company that we will cover the battery.

I hope this helps, if there’s anything else then please get in touch.

I would guess when they say ‘putting the details into the system correctly’ they are referring to things like selecting the correct model and, if there is a place to do so, entering the correct (pre-grant+battery) value of the car.

I posted the initial numbers I was given (no negotiation yet, test drive re-booked for this saturday) in another topic but I’ll repeat them here:

48 month PCP with a £2500 deposit:
£15,195 OTR price for the Zoe Zen
12% APR
£245.70 (+ battery) per month
£4810.40 ‘balloon’ (final) payment (if you want to keep the car)

I asked about the average ‘capital return’ sum (what you are likely to get back if the car is worth more than the balloon payment at the end of the term) and he said on the Clio it was usually between £500 and £1000 depending on the state of the vehicle.

For straight out HP the figures are:

60 months, £2500 deposit
£15,195 OTR price for the Zoe Zen
14% APR
£285/month (+battery)

Both these sets of figures are for the un-customised Zen at £15,195

Based on my calculations for these kind of sums over 60 months, every 0.5% on the APR equates to about £2.50/month. A quick check on CompareTheMarket shows a number of options for loans around 5 or 6% APR which would be a saving of £44 a month compared to what I was quoted (and an overall saving of about £2600).

If you think you can get £2500 discount off the Zoe by taking the dealer finance feel free to try but I’d suggest looking elsewhere for a loan if you are thinking HP.

Had my phone call from my dealer this morning. Advised that my car was due to leave the factory on 4th June, with arrival in Scotland around the end of June. Prices available were HP – 60 x £320 plus battery lease. PCP 48 x 261.89 plus battery lease, both with just a £500 deposit. PCP was on 9.6%APR which I thought for current car retailers to be a bit high.
They only have one Zoe in the dealer and may be able to get me a short test drive ‘around the block’ which i’m not happy about as I would want to make sure it can do the journey from home to work and back again on one charge as I do just now in my Leaf.
I’ve not told them I have a Leaf but will do very soon when I pop in to the showroom, I told them I have a trade in but as it was unexpected he just gave me the figures based on £500 cash deposit and we could see about the part exchange nearer the time.
What figures are people getting quoted if going the route of PCP etc?