Transfer of Battery Lease from UK to IRL

makeorbrake

I guess I have a fair idea of the answer to this (knowing how the irish motor industry runs) but just to be 100% sure, i'll ask it anyway :-)


Is there any possibility of being able to transfer battery lease for a UK sourced Zoe or Leaf from Renault/Nissan UK to Renault/Nissan IRL?

I'd imagine they wouldn't want to encourage that sort of thing - but who knows, perhaps I'll be surprised?

ei9go

Pretty sure you can do this with a Zoe

I'm pretty sure you can't do this but best to call the U.K garage though they better be right or Renault can disable the battery charger on the Zoe.

makeorbrake

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you can't do this but best to call the U.K garage though they better be right or Renault can disable the battery charger on the Zoe.

The UK dealer prompted the query. I wanted to check if a car was battery included or on a lease deal. It was the latter. He suggested contacting Renault Ireland (re. the possibility of having the lease transferred) - as he had the same query from another irish customer recently. He contacted Renault UK and they couldn't give him any answer i.e. they knew nothing about it.

ei9go wrote:

Pretty sure you can do this with a Zoe

You have a source for that info?

sgalvin

Have you tried what dealers here will do in price.
There is a 152 in Kerry at £10k /€14k list price with only 1,000 km on it.

As this would have been on the seai list there is probably a home charger allocated that has not been fitted yet for this car which is worth a few bob.

You might even get a low rate PCp if of any use to you. A bank loan of €15k over 5 years costs ~€3,000 in interest!

Irish Zoe's have a 5 year warranty via the dealer network in Ireland.
U.K. cars have 2 year manufacturers warranty and a dealer network warranty of 2 more years. Not sure how claims in years 3/4 would work.

Check battery lease rates in both countries it might be easier to pay the lease in the uk and do nothing. I can't image anyone will be concerned if RCI gets it money.

Best of luck.

makeorbrake wrote: »

I guess I have a fair idea of the answer to this (knowing how the irish motor industry runs) but just to be 100% sure, i'll ask it anyway :-)


Is there any possibility of being able to transfer battery lease for a UK sourced Zoe or Leaf from Renault/Nissan UK to Renault/Nissan IRL?

I'd imagine they wouldn't want to encourage that sort of thing - but who knows, perhaps I'll be surprised?

makeorbrake

sgalvin wrote: »

Have you tried what dealers here will do in price.
There is a 152 in Kerry at £10k /€14k list price with only 1,000 km on it.

There seems to be better value to be had across the water...with the reduced VRT to be taken advantage of.

sgalvin wrote: »

You might even get a low rate PCp if of any use to you. A bank loan of €15k over 5 years costs ~€3,000 in interest!

Only ever had one form of finance in my lifetime => mortgage. Don't do finance for anything else. If I can't afford something, I do without it.

sgalvin wrote: »

Irish Zoe's have a 5 year warranty via the dealer network in Ireland.
U.K. cars have 2 year manufacturers warranty and a dealer network warranty of 2 more years. Not sure how claims in years 3/4 would work

I guess they will work - but there's a year difference - thanks for the heads up.

sgalvin wrote: »

Check battery lease rates in both countries it might be easier to pay the lease in the uk and do nothing. I can't image anyone will be concerned if RCI gets it money.

Hmmm....well, I was told a UK address was needed for a UK lease. Has anyone done this? I'd be concerned that I'd run into difficulties with this.

Bigus

I'd say EC rules would force companies to offer cross border transfers , particularly where the parent company has representation in both states.

Is there any option to buy out the battery lease ?

I notice that Zoe with an "i " badge from 2015 on are bought batteries non lease, perhaps a better option altogether , for a uk import.

makeorbrake

Bigus wrote: »

I'd say EC rules would force companies to offer cross border transfers , particularly where the parent company has representation in both states.

Tried to email Renault IRL to get a definitive answer but the one email address I managed to scrape from the web bounced back (they've done a good job in hiding email contact details).

Bigus wrote: »

Is there any option to buy out the battery lease ?

Have not heard of that - unless someone else here has info on that?

Bigus wrote: »

I notice that Zoe with an "i " badge from 2015 on are bought batteries non lease, perhaps a better option altogether , for a uk import.

This was the original plan - it's just that it will take a little time for these to filter onto the used car market.

What is the life expectancy of the Zoe battery? How do the maths work out between full ownership and battery rental?

Marcusm

makeorbrake wrote: »

Tried to email Renault IRL to get a definitive answer but the one email address I managed to scrape from the web bounced back (they've done a good job in hiding email contact details).

Have not heard of that - unless someone else here has info on that?

This was the original plan - it's just that it will take a little time for these to filter onto the used car market.

What is the life expectancy of the Zoe battery? How do the maths work out between full ownership and battery rental?

I would be very surprised if Renault UK allowed this as they are simply not set up to enforce the lease outside the UK. Even if they were in a position to brick the battery, I don't see that would be adequate protection for them. If the car has a leased battery, the dealer is basically acting as an agent for Renault UK in arranging the battery lease at the same time it is selling the car secondhand. I can't see that an Irish customer would qualify and I can't imagine, given the small number of likely deals, that Renault Finance UK would even engage in a discussion over it.

EU rules will not be of assistance; there is no obligation on them to provide their services (in this case financial services) across borders. The rules exist to permit them to do so, not to oblige them.

OP: your time would be better spent looking at cars you can buy outright.

makeorbrake

Marcusm wrote: »

OP: your time would be better spent looking at cars you can buy outright.

I was thinking along those lines but I'd like to drill down and figure out which option provides the most value.

In order to do that, I need to figure out what expectation we can have from that battery? i.e. how long or how many miles it's reasonable to expect it to function (on average). Does anyone have any data on that?

Kotek Besar

You must be mad thinking of buying a used Zoe with leased battery. It's resale value is next to nothing and you're effectively signing to say you'll pay RCI every month forever more or be lumbered with a rather large paperweight.

Go PCP + leased battery or buy an "i" model outright.

Nissan Ireland now finally allow the leaf battery to be replaced so it costs I think 6K but by the time you need one it might be dropped in price again. Considering the Prius battery costs 2,500 installed it makes the Leaf battery look a bargain. Toyota are taking the absolute mick these days with the cost of their hybrids, they have never reduced the cost.

Leaf battery 24 Kwh costs 6,000 installed ? V 2,500 for the Prius with only 1 Kwh battery that's a massive price difference per Kwh !

Leasing the Zoe battery only means you don't have to come up with the money in xx years where with the Leaf you might, the difference here is that by the time you might need a battery the cost of the battery will have fallen a lot and you'll still be paying today's price for the battery leas on the Zoe, you won't on the Leaf.

makeorbrake

Kotek Besar wrote: »

You must be mad thinking of buying a used Zoe with leased battery. It's resale value is next to nothing and you're effectively signing to say you'll pay RCI every month forever more or be lumbered with a rather large paperweight.

Go PCP + leased battery or buy an "i" model outright.

Well, I don't think I'm mad to *think* about anything - following through though - it's looking like you're correct.

It turns out that it IS possible to transfer a battery from Renault UK to Renault IRL - and rent from them (had that confirmed by Renault UK - it has been done a handful of times). However, in looking at the economics of the rental, its' not that attractive.

That said, in order to make an informed decision, I need to figure out what the life expectancy of that battery actually is? Does anyone have any data on that?

makeorbrake

makeorbrake wrote: »

Well, I don't think I'm mad to *think* about anything - following through though - it's looking like you're correct.

It turns out that it IS possible to transfer a battery from Renault UK to Renault IRL - and rent from them (had that confirmed by Renault UK - it has been done a handful of times). However, in looking at the economics of the rental, its' not that attractive.

That said, in order to make an informed decision, I need to figure out what the life expectancy of that battery actually is? Does anyone have any data on that?

I haven't been following the Zoe battery, probably to check on U.K or German forums and use Chrome to translate the German forums.