As mentioned earlier in this thread, we have a Renault Zoe on order so I’m finding this thread and people’s various links very interesting. There’s certainly a lot of information out there, and one of the objections that seems to keep cropping up now that the range genie is starting to be put back in its bottle is the cost when compared to an ICE vehicle.
I’m not going to try to pretend this is not the case but can happily illustrate how the cost works in reality, in respect of the Zoe we are buying.
We have ordered the new Zoe 135 GT line with rapid charger, metallic paint, and heated seats and steering wheel. The only option we haven’t gone for is the self park, so in respect of this particular model it’s pretty well fully loaded.
Like the majority of private buyers, we buy our daily driver type cars on PCP so the fact the headline price of the car is just over £33k is not relevant, it’s the monthly cost that I focus on.
The maths work that the price of £33,000 then has a Government grant of £3,500 taken off. Then there is a Renault dealer deposit contribution of £1,500 to come off. Then there is a further £1,000 to come off due to a downloadable voucher available from Renault UK during February. So that £33,000 is actually down to £27,000 , before negotiations start on the price.
Using Car Wow we were able to negotiate with our local dealer (who aren’t on Car Wow but prices from them give good negotiating position as you have a good idea of what is available in the market) and so the final deal was a PCP over 48 months of £329 per month, a low £2,500 deposit from us and a GMV of just under £13,000.
In addition to this, Renault have a deal with one of the home charger installation companies and install - completely free of charge - a home charge point so you can charge the car at 7kwph at home. This is of course provided you have off street parking/a garage and the cable run between the fuse board and charge point location is under 20 metres. This is another £700 saving .
Road tax is currently zero, how long that will last who knows.*
Overall I think this current Renault deal is a relatively cheap way into EV ownership, and goes some way to ameliorate the high looking initial costs of the EV.
I am sure that a Clio would have been cheaper but we weren’t so bothered about comparing the cost of another ICE supermini with the Zoe, but instead comparing the cost of the EV with any other car we might want to buy be it an EV or something interesting that we hadn’t already owned.
*interestingly the Tesla EV Range are also zero VED but as they all cost £40,000 for VED assessment purposes you still get hit with the luxury car tax for the first 5 years so have to pay £320 per year. If they want to get people into EVs this seems a bit crazy.
