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Insurance nightmare, and Renault Zoe Leased Battery

22K views 65 replies 28 participants last post by  Spike 
#1 ·
We have a 2015 Zoe which we have owned for about 18 months.

Around 3 weeks ago it was involved in an accident, a third party has admitted liability and we have been dealing with his insurers - Acorn who are a private hire specialist.
Damage to the car is just short of £5000, as a result it is a total loss, and it still drives and charges.

The offer from the insurance company was £6150, and the battery has to go back to Renault which will apparently cost £2500.
The insurer have reduced our settlement by £2500 as they state they are not liable for anything other than the market value of the car and as such it is down to us to cover the battery cost.

To add to our woes our gap insurer, Ala (replacement vehicle gap) have stated that they will be basing their settlement on the market value of the car, and ie £6150 and not what we are actually been paid, and this is apparently bacause they are not liable for losses apart from those relating to the damage to the vehicle.

Long and short is we are going to end up £2500 out of pocket, I can't help feeling this is very unfair and not helped by the extortionate charge made by renault.

I have taken legal advice and it appears my only hope is to pursue the driver directly, as I this relies on the fact that he can actually afford to pay.

Has anyone had a similar experience?, I spoke to our insurer RSA who stated that they would have dealt with the claim in the same way, I am now very nervous about getting another Zoe and need to be sure that I find an insurer who would cover the battery repatriation costs.


Any advice would be gratefully received.
 
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#41 ·
Yeah was going to say, if it wasn't your fault then you don't need to talk to your insurer at all. Just claim off the other guy's policy as a private individual.
 
#42 ·
When you write off the car, you transfer the car to the insurer that is paying. Can you transfer the battery lease to them also as the battery comes with the car? The lease and the car are linked. Say to the third party insurer that you'll accept the settlement once they take on the battery lease for the battery that is still in the car and make it their problem ;)

An alternative is you get a settlement value and keep the car, battery and lease and try to get the car repaired with your settlement value. That only makes sense if it is a technical write off but repairable. They'll write it off if it would cost X% of the market value to repair - so there is occasionally room to get a repair done and not be out of pocket - just be aware that its value will be then much lower as it was a technical write off. I did this on an ICE car, spent £500 less on the repair than the settlement so was quids in for 6 years continuing to drive it. However garage (that actually did the repair) refused to take it part exchange due to the write off.
 
#44 ·
I think he made two mistakes here:
  • Not insuring the battery
  • Telling his insurance company when someone crashed into him

Bet he paid his excess too... :S
 
#45 ·
as far as i know he still owns the car.
i had a car written off years ago. young man hit me from behind. they said the car was worth £500 so paid me £600 after negotiations after saying couldn't get another. the car was then mine, as they insure you against hitting someone else or theft,
if theft your insurance pays you the money and keeps the car.
so as others have said it is the fault of the guy who hit him's insurance to pay as he was hit by them and as Problemchild says they owe him market value(car) and battery (which he pays to RCI) job done,
never take payment and if it was your fault you still owe RCI.

thanks
 
#46 ·
A very late reply, but here it is anyway...
I did some research on the ABI website around the road traffic act and then wrote to the insurance company drawing their attention to the following points, the following taken from the ABI website:

Contact the other driver’s insurance company to find out what services or costs you may be entitled to. The insurer is only required to restore you or your finances to the position you or they were in before the accident happened. Insurers are legally obliged to compensate you only for reasonable losses connected with the accident." Compensation for an accident that was not your fault | Motor insurance | ABI

I also drew their attention to the following from the road traffic act :

The Road traffic act 1988 Sec 145 gives the following advice in relation to what a Motor insurance policy should cover: “Subject to subsection 4 below the policy must insure such person, persons or classes of persons as maybe specified in the policy in respect of any liability which may be incurred by him or them in respect of the death of or bodily injury to any person or damage to property caused by, or arising out of, the use of the vehicle on a road”.

My argument to them was in short that their policyholder caused the loss and as such they were liable, the ABI advice made it clear that the insurer should restore finances to how they were before the accident. I asked them to reconsider or I would take it further.

The insurer conceded that they were liable and the car went to a Renault dealer to have the battery removed. The accident was in April, the battery finally found its way to France in November, ( At one point I offered to get a van and drive to France!) we had to pay the lease during this time although this ws quickly refunded by RCI.

We have replaced the car with another Zoe and are now insured with LV who offer special ev insurance.
A complete nightmare from start to finish, I think my mistake was probably contacting the third party insurer direct, they are a minicab insurer and had no knowledge of electric vehicles at all. I only went direct to avoid the usual sponges fleecing insurance companies for rip off credit hire vehicles, I thought I was doing the decent thing giving them the chance to sort it out, big mistake!.

All good now, little Zoe 2 is going well and will be joined by her big brother MG ZS ev on Saturday.!.
 
#51 ·
Buying a new car is extreme to make sure it’s fully insured

both aviva and direct line fully understood my vehicle

and a 3rd party‘a insurer will do anything to get out of paying out.

lesson here is to pay for legal cover maybe

JJ
 
#52 ·
Cheapest quote for me this year is through the AA, who I know are basically brokers for any number of other insurers. Think for simplicity I may just stick with Aviva...
 
#53 ·
Yeah my 18plate zoe40 sig is £250/yr fully comp protected NCD with only 1yr NCD (my 12yrs is on my Brabus)

43yr old man living in Bristol

Don’t forget that some of the cheapest companies don’t come up on comparison sites and to always look to see if a cashback site (ie Quidco) offers cash back on a policy.
Aviva regularly have £50-60 cash back on a new policy.

go aviva - get quote - open new windo and go to Quidco.co.uk and log in - search aviva - click get cashback - new window to aviva opens - click back onto the original aviva window and complete your purchase

cookies know you clicked through to aviva and made a purchase so cashback will be tracked

if you use my referral code we also both get £7 cash back


Good luck

JJ
 
#55 ·
£10 off direct line
£70 off admiral
£66 off esure
£40 off LV
£50 off aviva
£50 off Tesco
£75 off more than
£55 off sheilas wheels
£35 off axa

no idea what companies are good for EVS though

JJ
 
#61 ·
Yeah it’s just an axa excess cover insurance policy

covers you a total of £250 for a year

I have an annual excess waiver policy for hire cars so I do t have to pay those crazy prices they threaten you with at the counter

JJ
 
#63 ·
Have insured Zoe with Admiral several times and the leased battery was always covered. It seems odd that different staff give out different information.
 
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#66 ·
Admiral’s own website here; they say they want you to let them know if you have a leased battery so they know who to make the payout to if you car is written off.. You clearly had a dud advisor.



What happens if I'm leasing the battery?
To reduce the cost of buying an electric car, some manufacturers (such as Renault and Nissan) offer the chance to buy the car and lease its battery separately.
The monthly lease amount is typically less than two full tanks of fuel – saving you no money on running costs but doing a fair bit for the environment.
You should notify us when taking out your policy if you're leasing the battery. If the car is written off, we need to make sure the payouts for the car and its battery go to their respective owners. If you own the battery, its value is combined with that of your car – this then makes up your car's market value.”
 
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