The Renault idea is terrible. Why should you lease something that should be included in a steep purchase price?
....because it's transferring the part of the car which causes most anxiety to would be customers from the capital cost of the vehicle to being part of the running costs.
Whatever the truth of battery life, the experiences most of us have had with the batteries of mobile phones and laptops do not fill us with confidence as regards the life of the battery pack of an electric car. With Renault's approach, this risk resides with the manufacturer and not the consumer.
If you buy a replacement battery with a new Tesla at the stated $10/12k, for every year or 12,000 miles that it does beyond the warranty period, they refund $1k to you which seems neat.
The only fly in the ointment for me is that I've never kept a car more than a few years, so this wouldn't really help me much.
P.S. They have one of Tesla's original coils at the
Griffith Observatory (it's the sixth photo down). The Observatory is well worth a visit and it's free!
