Anyone played with a Renault Zoe or a BMW i3?

securityguy

Assume for the purposes of discussion that I am chilled with the financial issues of electric cars, and understand the issues around leasing vs outright purchase of batteries, the installation of charge points, range reducing in the winter and over time, etc.

Has anyone driven a Renault Zoe or a BMW i3 and found them good? Bad? Indifferent? I have the perfect commute for electric (about 4 urban miles each way) which is really rubbish for my current car (an elderly diesel I first had when my commute was 24 motorway miles each way). I quite fancy electric as a bit of a gadget and I'm in the fortunate position where the finances of it are fairly straightforward. What are they like to drive? Comfortable? Worth a test drive? Or better to wait? I'd like to be able to do a 60 mile round trip in it occasionally, but it's no biggy, as there's a petrol car on the drive as well.

And are the other options (E-Golf, E-Focus, not sure I fancy an E-Up because it'll make me sound like a Yorkshire comedian, Leaf's a bit big I think) worth looking at?

gzoom

I've had our Leaf for coming up to 2 years, mother in law has a Zoe, and I've had the i3 out on two 24hr test drives.

Been honest all EVs I've driven are all virtually identical at town speeds. There is little difference between a £150/month Zoe and the £60k+ Tesla we have on order in real world traffic conditions, they all deliver smooth effortless acceleration.

Interms of road noise/interior comfort I put the Leaf above the Zoe and i3. The i3 is nice but BMW didn't include much sound proofing to save weight.

If you have never driven an EV it's hard to describe what they are like, Nissan, BMW offers 24hr test drives.

Cheapest finance deals at the moment is on the Leaf but that changes.

But my advice, book some test drives and make up your own mind.

daveyjp

I've driven a Leaf courtesy car occasionally. The novelty of flooring it and getting to 40 mph faster than almost all other cars you come across quickly wears off.

Its well appointed with sat nav, reversing camera, heated front and rear screens, heating you can activate before you get in, it seats four easily, 5 at a push, has a decent sized boot, no spare. I find the seats far too soft with a lack of lumbar support.

If you just want a car to use as a tool to get you from a-b it does the job.

If you enjoy driving the experience has as much involvement as a fairground dodgem. Press and go.

The killer over any other car is depreciation.

BeenThroughItAll

I owned a Zoe for a 356 days. It went wrong three hours after purchase brand new, and after 222 days with Renault in three attempts to fix it, they finally took it back off me.

Nice car to drive, just saddled with Renault reliability and the incompetence of their dealers.

agrinnall

You could try this thread in which both of those are mentioned, but it does get rather off track (I must admit I haven't looked at it for a couple of days as it was getting a bit silly).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5591486

[Deleted User]

I recently test drove a number of EVs. I've owned a Leaf for two years and just got another.

The Zoe was okay... A but cheap and typically French. It's cheap and generally good.

The i3 is very nice. Slightly odd seating position perhaps. The only real issue is the price.

Hyundai Ioniq - expensive and flawed. On paper it looks good, loads of features, but it's just badly designed. The dash, the displays, the diving position...

Mercedes B class: Nice but lacks rapid charging and everything is extra.

Leaf. The best designed, the one I went for. It's a little large compared to the Zoe, but you can get all-round cameras on the Tekna model that make parking easy. For reference it's cheap to, you should pay around 22k for a 30kWh Tekna.

A note about charging. There are two types of rapid charger. CHAdeMO and CCS. CHAdeMO is more common, there are usually more of them at motorway services than CCS. If you plan to do lots of long distance travel it's worth considering, but if not the small chance of having to wait an extra 30 minutes is probably not a big deal.

forgotmyname

DELETED USER wrote:

Leaf. The best designed, the one I went for. It's a little large compared to the Zoe, but you can get all-round cameras on the Tekna model that make parking easy. For reference it's cheap to, you should pay around 22k for a 30kWh Tekna.

Or buy one thats a few months old with a couple of thousand miles at most for £5k less ?

Presumably someone bought one and found it didnt suit their requirements?

Didn't someone post they bought one and had no way to charge it at home? Why would you buy one in that situation?

almillar

Zoe can be thought of as a high up Clio, Leaf is a Focus sized car, i3 is a bit unusual as BMW designed it very differently. It's only got 4 seats, a smaller boot than the Zoe. It also has 'suicide doors' which may or may not annoy you. It's faster than the Zoe, much more luxurious inside, and likely a better 'drive' than the Zoe. And more expensive. And has the 'REx' option (Range Extender motorbike engine in the back that tops up the battery).
I'm 14 months into my 24 month PCP on my Zoe and have had over 8,000 trouble free miles.
For home charging, Renault installs a 7kW charger. Check what BMW do. if you're stuck with a 3-pin plug, or 3kW charger, it won't make much difference overnight, but if you're in a rush, 7kW is obviously better (but only a couple of hundred quid to install in any case).
Rapid charging is different, and it depends where you live. The NEW i3 has 11kW AC charging, which would be very useful round my way. There are very few CCS (i3) rapid chargers around me, so I would find it very difficult to get a rapid charge. There are LOADS of 22kW AC chargers around, which Zoe can take 22kW from, so it's great for that. There are also SOME 43kW AC chargers around - I can still take 22kW from those, but the 'Rapid' Zoe will take 43 from those. All with the advantage that you have ONE plug, and ONE cable to do everything.
There's also a new Zoe with a 41kWh battery, which will easily beat the i3's range (but will cost similar).

NigeWick

securityguy wrote: »

Has anyone driven a Renault Zoe or a BMW i3 and found them good? Bad? Indifferent?

Plenty of videos on Youtube. These have decided me against the Zoe due to steering drop link problems and one chap had to wait weeks (6 or 7 I think) while they replaced his charging unit. Robert Llewellyn (Kryten on Red Dwarf) has a channel dedicated to EVs and renewable energy called Fully Charged.

I am hoping that Nissan announce the Leaf replacement in March. If they don't, it's a 30 kWh Leaf Tekna for me as I can live with the 105ish miles of realistic range and want the heated seats & steering wheel.

BeenThroughItAll

NigeWick wrote: »

Plenty of videos on Youtube. These have decided me against the Zoe due to steering drop link problems and one chap had to wait weeks (6 or 7 I think) while they replaced his charging unit. Robert Llewellyn (Kryten on Red Dwarf) has a channel dedicated to EVs and renewable energy called Fully Charged.

I am hoping that Nissan announce the Leaf replacement in March. If they don't, it's a 30 kWh Leaf Tekna for me as I can live with the 105ish miles of realistic range and want the heated seats & steering wheel.

That's pretty good going for Renault. They took 110 days to diagnose, replace the cable from charging point to charger and test on mine.

Stageshoot

We have 2 BMW i3s. (Between self and OH).

1 is the Rex Model (600cc Petrol Generator under the boot that kicks in if the battery is low).

In the 6 months and 10k miles I have needed it a handful of times but it gets rid of the range issues and worries.

Last month I traded in my Abarth 500c for a second i3. (This time battery only).

The reason was I just was not driving it. the i3 is as much if not more fun to drive,

All I can say is get an extended 3 day test on the i3 from any BMW dealer. They are cracking fun (Dont suit everyone but if they suit you they are great).

DONT BUY A NEW ONE. Either Lease or buy a 3 month old BMW Owned car. My Battery one was specced at £41k new and at 4 months old with less than 100 miles on the clock was £18k.

The Depreciation is horrendous on anything electric at the moment... So Leasing or buying after some of the depreciation has been sucked out makes sense.

As I have said in another EV Thread.. Dont buy one thinking you are going to save the planet buy one if it makes financial sense with the way you drive.. Lots of head in spreadsheet time working out if it is viable.

But the i3 is wicked fun to drive. Puts the Abarth 500c to shame, and it can be as cheap as a leaf if you go for one that is ex demo or BMW central stock.

I do a lot of miles and my fuel costs alone have dropped from £300 a month in Diesel to less than £30 in electric.

Join the UK i3 Facebook group if you are after any specific info, Helpful bunch on there

My Fleet ;-)