It is also possible to lease the battery instead of buying it along with the car, which seems to be a popular option (although it seems they've removed the option, apparently).
There is still range anxiety so anyone with an EV and living in London's suburbs will still want an ICE car for when they visit the relatives in the shires or go to their weekend retreat. The Zoe lacks in that area due to range. Meanwhile the Tesla offerings also fall short due to their size which is not what you want on country lanes or in city centres.
Parking at home and on-street charging is a problem so having an ICE and an EV is not practical in the way that it might be in a typical US city. There simply isn't enough space on the street.
Then there is public transport. This is good in London and out to the suburbs, you would want to get the train/Tube to get into London if you had an ounce of common sense, taking a car in is just silly.
The UK is not just London but then it is. There isn't a lot of money to go around in most regions. Plus commutes can be long, too long for range anxiety. Then the people with the money - the boomers - are sceptical about EVs. The UK is therefore going to be stuck with lousy ICE cars for a long time to come.
Since the congestion charge is only for central London, this assumes people are driving into the very centre of London every day, which I don't think many people do. Certainly not most people who live in London suburbs.
> you wonder why more people in the suburbs are not buying EVs.
> Money is not the problem given how many expensive German cars are on the streets.
They just don't share the same market. EV compete with ICEs alternative more than they compete with each others.
What percentage of people actually do that at all regularly? I would have thought a lot of people would fly or take the train for that.
Usually these are big wagon cars, though because they need to fit the family and luggage in there. So I think that people will stick to ICE until there are family-sized EV with the range and the price range. Teslas are not really an option at the moment, IMO.
So, yeah, the Zoe wouldn't be suitable for those people, but it might be suitable for people who buy small cars anyway (which is most of the market, AFAIK).
Don't underestimate the amount of people who borrow some relative's car to make this trip. Especially younger people (early 20's to mid 30's).
Same argument I heard back in the day on why so many buy estates instead of hatchbacks “in case I move a cupboard”. Like how often does that happen in life?
But there are just no EV to rent anywhere in France. The ones you you find on Getaround, Ouicar or other peer to peer renting sites cannot actually be rented (owners always reject the inquiry upon request -- probably a trick by the website operator to get people to at least request some cars and get an ICE anyway).
Note that I only checked for big renting companies (Sixt, Enterprise, ...). I was very surprised!
But even as a second car, the segment Zoe caters for is exactly the best one for EV in Europe, IMHO.
It seems to me that at the moment Teslas are for wealthy people who want to display "Tesla cool" more than a practical choice.
There are simply no affordable electric family cars in most European markets. By affordable I mean in the range of regular income families - most families don't have the money to spend twice the price just to have an electric car. Of course this is not true for heavily subsidized markets.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/renault-ends-bat...
In any case, for many years you’ve always had the option to buy a non-lease (“i”) Zoe for a somewhat higher price.
Good move. Who needs the complication of a battery lease
Who needs the complication of owning a big battery?
And I can understand someone buying a car outright.
What I can't understand is why someone would want to buy a car outright, but still end up paying a lease on the battery. To me, that doesn't have the benefits of either option.