Apparently Renault UK have been listening, and looking at their sales figures as a comparison to those of other rival EV's. On two websites I've seen Ken Ramirez (MD, Renault UK) had allowed himself to be quoted as saying...
- "Renault will offer car buyers the choice of leasing or purchasing on its electric vehicles..."
http://myrenaultzoe.com/index.php/2014/10/renault-offers-ev-outright-purchase/
http://www.businesscar.co.uk/news/2014/renault-offers-ev-outright-purchase
The OTR statistics for the Zoe are extremely poor, no doubt because of the heavy costs of the battery lease. It's also very apparent that the Renault dealership network have no huge ambitions to push Zoe sales, which is a pity when it must have cost millions from first concept and design to tooling for production and putting models in the dealers showrooms.
There's also the puzzle about what your insurance company does in the event of a total loss of your Zoe, and how much of the value of the car is actually paid out, and to whom? Does Renault Leasing recover their capital? Does the Zoe owner? Would there be an ongoing liability against the owner to pay any shortfall to Renault? All the ingredients for a gripping nightmare.
My annual mileage would be circa 5,500 which means paying the battery lease at £70 monthly costs me 1.5p/mile, before costing any electricity into the equation.
After five years (anticipated ownership term) there'd have been £4,200 blown in battery lease costs. In five years time there'd be EV's with a battery range of 200+ miles per charge available. Production costs of the batteries will have also fallen significantly. My £15,500 (plus £4,200) Zoe would have been fully paid for, but might now only be worth £5,000 (or even less) and effectively be totally unrealisable because of the heavy price battery lease terms when weighed against battery technology and improved autonomy in 2019.
Sure, at 27,500 miles the original battery ought to still be in tiptop condition, but it still doesn't belong to me or the car and what worth would it actually have?
If Ken Ramirez doesn't ask more than another £3,500 for the outright battery cost on top of the existing Zoe tariff then there's still a chance Renault might pick up a lot of sales. Otherwise they're going to see the Zoe completely flop and take a hit in the order of millions on all it's cost them to produce and tool up for at Flins.
A low range EV that's only economical, under the present terms, for high mileage drivers (probably fleet because they could negotiate a large discount) is a bit of a grand oxymoron. There are a glut of 2013/4 Zoe's available now, from as little as £8,500, but the fact is right now nobody wants to purchase one due to the high battery lease costs, and possible total loss complications.
Would anyone care to guess what Renault will want as a price for the Zoe, with outright battery ownership? They would need to come out with a really good package to catch up with the competition.
Does anyone else suspect that at the same time Renault look at this issue that we may also see reduced prices levied for battery leasing?