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In reply to: first non-test-drive
AnonymousI spoke with Tony at some length about the battery hire, range, cold temperature performance and other things and he’s made note of lots of questions which I will post details of when I hear back from him 🙂 He has no experience with the Zoe but has driven the Fluence a bit and says that motorway driving and A-roads are better for the range than urban so I am hopeful about my commute. He is planning on taking the Zoe home one evening to see how it performs (26 miles) and will let me know his experiences.
Regarding the 75% capacity he says that the capacity of the vehicle when new is registered when you pick it up and the 75% is based on this individual number. I’ve asked what conditions the 93 and 63 mile ‘suburban’ figures for real-world range are based on – whether it was with aircon or heating and whether this was in ‘Eco’ mode or normal.
The Zen does indeed come with the purifier on the UK models and we did discuss the difference in spec between the Zen and the Intens. It really does come down to the teflon white interior and purifier vs the dark interior and parking camera. There is some confusion with the optional spec for ‘parking sensors with on-screen visualisation’ which we think means the parking camera. I’ve asked them to check but assuming it is then the Intens parking camera is available for the Zen for £350. Oddly, Zen parking sensors are also available as an option on the Intens at £350. Given the Intens and the Zen are the same price Tony was hard pushed to think of a justification because the Zen spec doesn’t seem to be as good value for money as the Intens. He mentioned a teflon interior treatment and exterior ‘no need to wax for 5 years treatment on normal cars applied at the dealer only costs £295. The Zen comes with a special cleaning kit for the teflon seats.
There is no info as yet on expected delivery dates for an order placed in May.
I also asked about PCP and HP options.
An example PCP:
OTR price: £15195
Deposit: £2500
4 years, 15,000 miles
12% APR
£245.70/month + battery hire
Balloon payment: £4810.40For 7500 miles the monthly payment was £231.36
Excess mileage on the PCP (not the battery hire) was between 6p and 8.5p/mile (he wasn’t sure).
HP example:
60 months
OTR price: £15,195
deposit: £2500
monthly price: £285
APR 14%Interestingly, the brochure mentioned ‘competitive rates of 8.9%’ although I only noticed that after leaving so couldn’t ask. For reference comparethemarket has various loans on offer at around 5.5% APR and 0.5% difference equates to about £2.50/month on these sizes of loan. This part of the brochure also still had the older prices for the Zoe so maybe isn’t the more up-to-date source.
The wallbox is indeed a British Gas / ChargeMaster charger and is weatherproof. It is a 7Kw one rather than the 3Kw one offered with the other ZE vehicles. It requires a GPRS signal.
Overall it is very clear that the Zoe is new to all the Sales guys at Birmingham and they don’t have many of the answers.
Good luck to everyone who has test drives booked this week and I’ll let you know as I get answers to questions and when I’ve done my test drives (including, I hope, borrowing it for the day to test the range and motorway driving).
Topic: Range tester website
In reply to: Zoe Insurance
AnonymousThe idea of insuring the battery separately seems like madness to me. I’ve never paid house insurance on a house I’ve rented, so why would I pay insurance on a battery that does not belong to me?
Clear guidance would be helpful, but has any reliable source said that separate battery insurance is required, or is this an assumption?
In reply to: Zoe Insurance
Yet another area where the information coming out of Renault seems to be conflicting. I was recently told by Renault that the battery is insured under the lease scheme (ie a part of the £70 per month payment is covering the battery for defect or accidental damage). I have recently just changed insurance companies based on planning ahead for how much it will cost with Zoe. As Appmacguy pointed out, not that many sites are listing Zoe yet but for me at least QuoteMeHappy.com worked out best.
Topic: Zoe Insurance
Having test driven a Zoe and confirming with Renault Leicester that the battery must be insured as well as the car itself I thought I’d start with ZE specific Renault Insurance (0800 5003108).
Having gone through all the questions on the phone I pointed out that I needed to ensure the battery was covered, to which the guy needed to check with his supervisor. The response was if the value of the car was the cost before the EV grant (£19k+ on the Intens) the battery was covered. In my case 21 yrs protected no claims and additional driver £701!!!
Looking online at screen scrapers very few list a Zoe yet but comparethemarket.com did. Having tried this I get a quote of £221 from Admiral but as it is online I would need to confirm the battery cover.
I thought this may help others or maybe prompt others to comment on their experience so far.
In reply to: Renault Gearing Up for UK Launch 3
AnonymousI had a very enthusiastic call from a proud sounding guy at Renault Birmingham (not Renault Solihull who I’ve dealt with before) saying they now have a Zoe available for test drives. I’ve arranged for a test drive this saturday at 10am although this will only be a 30min thing rather than the round-trip to work I am organising 🙂 I’m also going to be gathering details of the HP and PCH options and asking about battery lease terms and conditions and the mix and match options on the extras. I’m not going to sign anything until I get the 60mile test drive though!
I’ll keep you all informed 🙂
In reply to: Renault Gearing Up for UK Launch 3
In Sweden the Leaf has been reduced to 330,000kr, the ZOE (imported from Denmark) will cost 147,000kr plus the battery rental. I could rent the battery for twenty years…
i don’t know about leasing or financing since I will pay in cash for my ZOE.
In reply to: Renault Gearing Up for UK Launch 3
AnonymousAfter your comments, I asked about hire purchase. This was the response I got, referenced against deposit sizes I’d previously queried:
On a standard HP with a deposit of £2,888 (for comparison sake) would be £244.65, or with the higher deposit of £4,500 the repayments would be £211.41.
These are all over a 60 month term, excluding the battery hire (£70).
Obviously, there would be no large final payment.
In reply to: Renault Gearing Up for UK Launch 3
AnonymousInteresting figures there, Deejay. Would you be so kind as to provide a little more details? Such as what ‘all-in’ means (does it include battery lease and, if so, for how much), what the final payment (if any) is, what the term of the finance is and (if it is HP or similar) whether you get a guaranteed deposit value on a new car if you decide not to pay the final payment at the end of the finance?
In reply to: Renault Gearing Up for UK Launch 3
I have no clue how you guys can calculate that a Leaf is cheaper. A Leaf in Holland is about 10.000 euros more. Even with the upcoming possible lease for the Leaf battery, it will still be about 5000 euro more.
Financing via Renault Netherlands is pretty good, they offered a 4.9% interest which is lower than anything I could find online. Don’t think I’ll need it, but I checked it in case I’ll be a little short by the time it gets delivered.
Adding battery lease costs over time to the total cost of the car is not a fair comparison, since the write off will be lower as well. A Zoe will (or should at least) only write off on the car, not on the battery (in contrast to a Leaf). The next buyer can consider the battery new(ish), as he will get a new one if the current one dies or gets below 75%.
What am I missing in your arguments?
