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In another car related random walk of thinking I’m considering a small run around for the school run.
These any good or better off getting a 107/corsa or something and spending the change from 6/7k on planting trees?! What’s the typical range?
Or just use the larger car as I suspect the cost of running two cars will make this prohibitive.
My dad bought an older leaf and the range was pathetic. Supposed to be about 100 mikes I think but in reality nowhere near - go out in winter with lights / heaters on and it was predicting 75 miles and going down quickly. After a few years he upgraded to a newer leaf and it’s much much better - think it’s the model shape that started in 2018.
No Intel on the Zoe.
For me I wouldn’t be buying a 10 year old electric car. This Peugeot 107 / Citroen C1 / Toyota Aygos are decent little run around cars. Cheap as chips to run on fuel (I had a petrol one as a courtesy car for a couple of months years ago) and I don’t think there is much to go wrong with then. I had the C1 and it was pretty basic inside - I think the Aygo might have got better interior specs. <br /><br />All of them are flipping slow - but as a local little runaround I think they’d be great. Just check if where you live had a ULEZ / proposed Ulexmz and whether they’re charge free under that or not.
James, a year ago I bought a 2016 Zoe as a runaround second car and it’s perfect for the job. We use it for 80% of our driving, the Mondeo is only used for long distance trips and when I need to drive the bike somewhere or go camping.
Range is about 150+ miles in summer and 130 in winter. That’s enough to drive to London or the south coast no problem. For nearly all the driving we do around home it’s the obvious choice.
I have a 2013 Kangoo ZE, so maybe the same battery/motor etc as the Zoe of that era.
The range is very limited and nowhere near what the spec says. Ours has a 22kwh battery and I reckon we get around 50 miles, which reduces further with cold weather or clumsy driving.
For us we can manage with that ok as we only use it for short deliveries and it gets charged frequently.
Pay careful attention to the model year and battery capacity. In our case a 2014 or 15 model would have had a 33kwh battery and also faster charging.
In the plus side, it's really nice to drive and (thanks to the awful range) the mileage and condition are excellent considering it's age!
What's your daily mileage?
Do you have a driveway you can charge on?
It's perfectly possible that an old ev with low range might work perfectly for you.
The secret is home charging. Fast public chargers at 70p per kW work out about the same as petrol per mile.
Wot Onza said! You'd need to work out the possible returns. 2 miles to school - just use the big car, no 2nd car. 10 miles and a frequent need for 2 cars - I'd say jump in and enjoy the ev experience with eyes wide open re range limitation.
You'll be surprised how infrequently range will be an issue and in those instances you have the big car anyway. I'm a little jealous if I'm honest lol
Previously had a 2013 Zoe with the 22kwh battery. Ours at 20k miles in 2020 was returning 70 miles in summer, 60ish in winter.
We used ours for the 15 mile round trip commute. Charged it on a mains extension overnight a couple of times a week. Emigrated and sold it for £4K. I still miss it more than the Golf R estate is was paired with!
I’d say try it. It was lovely to drive and as above, you’ll find that 80% of the time you grab the keys to the EV, even with a tiny range.
Exactly what Onzadog says. If you don't need to go too far , and can charge on your drive then very good. If you get a Leaf you can see what state the battery is in - mine is a 2015 and has 11 of the 12 'bars ' still.
I'd never but a small engined , older ICE car. Too unreliable, too much maintenance. The engine is a just a lump of metal collecting problems
Definitely Zoe.
Leafs of that vintage had poorly designed battery cooling, so most of the ones still going today struggle to do 30 miles range.
My 2015 22kwh Zoe still delivers 90 miles summer / 70 miles winter. Great car for ferrying the kids around and much more.
They had no active cooling. 🙂 Mine will do 110 km in the summer, 90 on winter tyres on 11 bars, tho' heavy snow will hammer that hard. 10 or 11 bars I'd consider it. Less than that, you'll be limited.
Watch out for battery "leases" on cheap Zoes - you don't "own" the battery and have to keep paying Renault (as I understand it).
Also, don't bother with Zoes if you're tall - the seat doesn't go down (neither does the roof go up!)
Also, don’t bother with Zoes if you’re tall
I’m 6ft and it’s fine, but not sure how it would be if you’re much taller.