152,000-mile Renault Zoe. At 8 years old, is this electric car dead?

152,000-mile Renault Zoe. At 8 years old, is this electric car dead?

The Rena Zoey was one of those pioneering electric cars along with a Nissan Leaf that brought electric motoring to the masses. This one dating from 2017 has covered 150,000 miles. So, what’s it like now? I’m looking forward to finding out. Never driven a Zoe before. Really looking forward to it. So, we’re here at EV Wales. This is actually their courtesy car. So, hence it it’s not perfectly clean cuz it’s just always out on tests. So, I’ve managed to catch a rare moment where it’s actually here. But quite nice styling on the Zoey, I think. And incredible to think it was in production for 12 years. So, a very long lived design. Got these blue highlights in the rear lights and uh Z40 electric eye. There we go. So, five door hatchback. Uh the rear doors. I hadn’t realized that you have to do this and then this to open them up. And there you go. There’s your rear seat access. I think it’s a really eye-catching design. It It’s It’s a bit different, but it’s not screaming, “Look at me, I’m an electric car.” It’s based on the Cleo platform and uh like I say, in production for 12 years, so it had a really good run. Uh we need to talk charging though because cleverly hidden under the Renault badge. We only have uh a type two connector. So, uh, that means you you’re stuck at fairly low charging speeds. So, you can’t use the rapid chargers on a motorway. Uh, some of them support fairly quick rates if you can find the right charger. But, uh, if long distance is what you’re aiming to do, as Zoey may not be the one, uh, with the later 50 kWh battery pack, uh, they did actually offer CCS charging, which is the most common of the rapid chargers. So that may be a better bet. But this has got the 41 kWh battery pack. I think it is. Initially they were just 22. So those early Zoies um can be problematic. And there’s another elephant in the room with Zoies and that involves batteries. An awful lot of these were sold with a leased battery. So you have to pay Renault every single month to borrow the battery. And uh you know that’s a good thing in some ways because if there’s ever a problem with that battery, Renault will replace it without you having to do anything. Um assuming they can actually find a replacement. But more and more of them that the batteries either been bought out, so someone has purchased the battery or it was battery owned from the start. So if you’re buying a Zoey, always make sure you know what sort of battery it has fitted. It’s very, very important. Quickly take in the interior. It’s all fairly normal enough. So, there we go. 152,000 mi on the clock of this example. And uh still showing 73 mi of range even though we’re just over 50% on the battery. Got a conventional style shifter to get in, drive down here. Eco button, uh keyless, um start and entry, air conditioning, but this one doesn’t seem to have heated seats or anything of that nature going on. a few USB charge points. So, it’s a bit grubby in here because, like I say, it’s a working vehicle. Works very hard for its living. The stalks are otherwise exactly what you would expect. So, uh quite a nice place to sit in here. The seats certainly feel nice and comfortable. Some interesting stuff going on in the headliner, but uh let’s go and have a peek under the bonnet or hood depending on your country of origin. access is um very Renault modus I’m going to say which is also based on the same generation of Cleo but uh in here is your motor and a lot of the charging hardware as well. So it’s not all motor and then there’s a single speed gearbox driving the front wheels but all your vital fluids accessible under here. But look how long the passenger wiper arm is. It’s absolutely enormous. We’ll get to wipers now. This one hasn’t got the uh parcel shelf fitted at the moment, but plenty of boot space back here. Looks like there may be a full floor um option. Uh we got a tow rope just in case. And uh that would be where your charge cable would normally be, but I think it’s actually in the wall here. So this is a type two connector. It’s the sort of thing you’d have at home installed if you were serious about using your electric car, so you’re not having to charge it on a 13 amp plug, which would take quite a while. I better um try the rear seat. I’m not not convinced by those handles, Renault. What were you thinking? So, driver seat set for me. And it’s a reminder that we are based on the Cleo. It’s a little tight for leg room. It’s not the most spacious, but uh otherwise a comfortable rear seat. Head restraints fitted and uh a third point seat belt attached to the roof. A little clumsily, but yeah, I’m going to say four-seater, not five. Well, I’m really looking forward to this. Uh if you want to buy a Zoey, this one’s not for sale, but uh they have got one for sale 8750 at the moment, a 2020 over there. More on their website, but uh do the unpull wiper test. And oh, oh, look at that triangle of doom. It’s big. Unsurprising with that massive passenger wiper. Yeah, unpleasant. I don’t like a triangle of doom, but nonetheless, we won’t let that dominate proceedings. Uh, I got out. So, I’ve just got to restart the car. It doesn’t want to drive off otherwise. So, into drive. Don’t seem to have a B mode. Zero rear seat belts fastened. Very true. Nice light steering. Electric assistance. So, this is quite interesting because the other day I actually drove my dad’s Renault Man E Tech and uh that’s effectively what has replaced the Zoey and uh this is interesting cuz this is like the Pioneer. This is the one that came first. So, it plays a bit of a chord outside as we’re driving along. It fades out as we get up to 20 miles an hour. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Van. Oh, yeah. She brisk. There’s our 60. And I’m not even particularly trying. And then that’s it. You’re just cruising at 60 mph with a uh minimum of first. Oh, it’s got a little display. If I put my foot down too much, I go into the yellow and then it starts going um you’re going to use all your range up here. Does it go red? No, just stays yellow. But for me, this is what the um electric car experience is all about. It’s just how they go down the road. And for 150 odd thousand miles, this feels absolutely fine. Fact, it’s very nearly knocking on the door of 153,000. So I I think um Jake has done a state of health check on the battery and it came back as about 80%. Uh so originally would probably have done 140 mi on a charge on a good day. Um obviously that is 100% down to 0% and now he reckons that range prediction is more like 100 miles. But uh like I say with with range on EVs you’re always talking about completely full to completely empty. So I would say realistically and comfortably you’re probably talking 80 miles. We’re going downhill and slowing down. So, we’re starting to regenerate. So, that motor is now pushing electricity back into the battery again. So, if I lift off completely. Yeah, it’s it’s quite quite a gentle regen. And uh I don’t think it’s adjustable. No, that’s stereo controls I can feel there. So, I think there is just the one level. But this is very nice. Very peaceful, very comfortable. The ride is a little firmer than I expected. It was expected slightly better, I think, from a French car. Renault are very good at ride and handling all at once. Uh, but uh, accelerate up to 50. That’s just Oh, instant torque. Yeah, instant torque, minimum of fuss. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still love car engines and uh crashing my 2CV down a twisty road is still one of the most entertaining things it’s possible to do. But, uh, it’s this simplicity and the smoothness is what makes the electric driving experience so enjoyable. And that’s why I like EVs. I’m not being paid to like EVs. I don’t think I’m saving the environment by driving EVs. Though I do concede there are definite benefits especially with a number of them in cities compared to petrol and diesel cars. I like driving electric. This is where my enjoyment comes. The fact that it’s so simple, so easy, so relaxing and for dayto-day transport when you’ve just got to be somewhere that that’s kind of ideal. There are still huge question marks about charging of course, but uh you know at at the most I tend to cover about 200 miles a week locally. Uh so uh I’d be charging this a couple of times a week. Feels like it makes sense. Really? But yeah, it still feels very good, very tight, very well engineered for its 152,000 mi. So I I guess we’ve um we’re busting that myth that uh after just a few years, you’ve got to replace the battery cuz it’s entirely dead. The aftermarket is springing up so much already for doing things on this. There’s um the the battery pack in this one, the 40 kWh can be retrofitted to the earlier ones which had 22 kwatt hours. It’s bit more complicated to try and fit the largest battery pack. But there are other companies that are buying cells overseas and making their own battery packs. So this aftermarket world is springing up to um keep these pioneering EVs going really. Now you can get issues with the motor bearings going on the Zoies, but uh it’s not insurmountable. it can be sorted out to clutches, uh, DPFs, all that sort of nonsense. I think generally electric cars are very reliable. Jake says one of the issues is he he does servicing. He doesn’t get much servicing. It’s it’s just generally annual checks is what he’s doing. Just checking all the fluids, checking all the brakes, and uh, making sure all is well. It’s like a superot. did have a chat with Jake in an earlier video, so go and check that out on the channel, EV Wales, and doing some myth busting of EVs. But yeah, this is nice. This isn’t stupid dramatic power. Um, this is just a really nice amount of torque. It does handle nicely. The steering’s a little dead, but uh this is actually a really nice car to drive briskly. Very happy to have finally ticked the Renault Zoey box, and it’s very typical for me that I’m doing so in such a leggy example, but uh I like to prove that EVs can actually do big mileage. I would just love a bit more regen. uh that that would really float my boat and make it less powerful. If I put it into eco mode, that now changes the throttle mapping. So, it makes it less responsive, which means you’re not accidentally using too much power. You extend your range and uh on some EVs, it also um makes the climate control um a bit less effective. So, you’re prioritizing range over anything. So, with eco mode on, it reckons 70 miles of range. Uh, it still reckons 70 miles even when we’re not in eco mode. Interesting. Love it. For climbing hills, there is nothing better than that electric shove. Marvelous. By the way, one of my favorite Zoey stories is um there were parents of girls called Zoey Renault in France who tried to sue Renault for using the Zoey name. They were unsuccessful. So there we go. That is the Renault Zoey. Nice to have finally ticked the box and also proved that 150,000 mi is apparently nothing to a Renault Zoey. Although the heater, I’m not sure the heater is 100% working on this example, but like I say, it’s just a working courtesy car. So, if you bring your car here for service, uh you can borrow the Zoey and see what it’s like. They also sell Zoies. Uh this one for sale, 8795 is the 50 kWh version. So, I think you get the rapid charging and you get um a bit more range. But, uh very interesting cars. the Zoey. Like I say, an absolute pioneer in the world of family EVs, that alliance with Nissan. Very, very useful. So, I hope you’ve enjoyed that. And don’t forget to the HubNut store and buy lovely merchandise if you wish. And we’ve got lots of um electric videos generally. Look for the playlist electric frills. And we’ll see you in a future video. Farewell. Heat. Heat.

If you believe The Internet, electric cars are utterly dead by eight years old and the batteries scrap. I visited EV Wales to test their hard working courtesy car. Are old EVs still actually viable?

The ones they sell are in far better condition by the way. Check their website or on Facebook for their latest sales cars. They also offer servicing and repairs, in Crymych, West Wales.

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