Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 15:20
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - killie77

Hi

m considering purchasing a used EV was hoping for some advice on the three above.

I'm leaning towards the Zoe but does anyone think the Leaf or the i3 would be a better option.

My budget is around 10000 which im guessing might disqualify the BMW.

Appreciate any replies..

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 15:50
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - RT

Many of the older Leaf and Zoe were bought with battery rental, so you paid monthly on top of the purchase price - most of those rentals have been bought out so check carefully any model you're looking at.

Be aware that Nissan Leaf uses a different connector to most other EVs - not all chargers will work with it.

Edited by RT on 23/11/2024 at 15:57

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 16:07
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - killie77

Thanks for the reply. I’m aware of the battery lease. Looking around at used Zoe’s they do go a lot cheaper with the lease. But the lease itself seems to be quite expensive. Didn’t know about the Leaf haven’t different charging, that’s handy to know

Thanks

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 16:14
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - madf

I went through the same exercise this year..

Ignore old Leafs : battery lack of cooling means life is limited.

Zoe lack of range in early models

BMW I3 with range extender and 94AH battery just about meets your criteria and is within £10k. BUT if things do go wrong you are talking £k to repair

.Key things:

front suspension noise.. bearings/seals £200 a side.

Air conditioning: also cools battery. If noisy or not working runaway. £4k repair CRITICAL.

Engine should work .. Sensor failure is engine out job £1500. Electric motor bearing can fail (noisy).

Disks corrode due to lack of use.£200 per side.

12V battery fails.. £150 new battery and bit of dismantling..

I bought 2016 57k miles FSH 94AH Range Extender £10k plus £1k 3 year warranty added to 12 months warranty = 4 years cover.

Check specs : lots have nice interiors..as options/leather seats/sunroof/etc..

Some have done 200k miles.

Tyre wear under harsh acceleration..0 -60mph 7.5secs,

Electric battery strong: should last 15 years.. 8 year warranty from new.

I believe Which said best buy small EV. Read Road Tests and Used guides ..lots.

Avoid crashed ones..Some loons drive them

Collecting mine next week

Note pre 1st April 2017 Registration - cheap VED £20.

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 17:06
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - pd

A £10k Leaf really wouldn't/shouldn't have much of a degraded battery. In terms of lifespan jury is out on the more recent examples (seem to be holding up OK with 100k+ miles ones all at 90%+ but all post 2018) but 10 year old ones usually have 80-85% capacity unless they have been abused (and sometimes a bit more).

Zoe does have a few more common issues than the Leaf (mainly motor bearings and aircon issues) but isn't a particularly unreliable car. Note not all of them have a fast charge connector (the LEAF is ChAdeMo but at least they all have one) although most at £10k probably will. Zoe, like the LEAF, doesn't have any active battery cooling or heating that I know of.

i3 not without common issues and expensive to fix but best of the bunch to drive. Early examples have small battery.

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 17:07
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - pd

Oh and on battery leases there are still a few Zoes around with them but not on the later cars. Hardly any Leafs had battery leases so very rare.

I3 no leases.

Edited by pd on 23/11/2024 at 17:08

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 18:41
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - paul 1963

Think SLO is needed here, not sure I agree with what madf posted, lack of battery cooling in a leaf means there best not suited to continuous fast charging but to be honest no battery's like fast charging.

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 17:26
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - mcb100
‘ Be aware that Nissan Leaf uses a different connector to most other EVs - not all chargers will work with it.’

If you only envisage charging at home, this won’t make any difference. The public charging network is growing rapidly, but predominantly with the more common CCS charger. There are are lots of Chademo but there aren’t too many new ones being installed.
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Sat 23 Nov 2024 18:57
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - madf

Most early 2013-14 I3s do not have fast charging.

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 20:33
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - pd

Most early 2013-14 I3s do not have fast charging.

And the Zoe will only have it if it has "Rapid Charge" in the name/model description. Most of the later facelift ones do but a lot pre 2021ish ones don't.

They have a rather unusual fast Type 2 AC charge capability instead which isn't massively useful.

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Sat 23 Nov 2024 23:22
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - killie77

Thanks for all the replies info.

Im beginning to wonder if I should just stick with my 13 year old Renault Scenic Auto Diesel

At least I know it will still be running for a while yet. I had the option to Lease a new Renault Symbian for 2 years at around 200 per month. I decided not to thinking a used EV would be better. I think I’m just going to give it a miss for now.

Thanks again for all the replies.

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Mon 25 Nov 2024 00:06
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - SLO76
My lovely Killie wife runs a 2020 Nissan Leaf and we both really rate it. It costs buttons to run, never goes wrong, it’s decently practical and comfortable. We’ve had no trouble, but the range isn’t as good as say a 50kwh Zoe. As with all EV’s the range drops quite a bit in winter so you need to factor this in. It is nice to come out the house and jump into an already defrosted and cosy car on these cold mornings however, something you can control from the comfort of your bed via the Nissan App.

My work run a couple of Renault Zoe’s as pool cars, a 40kwh and a 50kwh. Both have been reliable, but from following the Zoe Facebook pages there’s plenty that does fail on them. Too many cases of motor and charger failures to feel comfortable recommending one. But they do drive well and the range is substantially better than the 40kwh Leaf. The rear seat legroom is poor and the boot much smaller - it is in the class below to be fair.

Wouldn’t touch the BMW, again too many failures. Repair costs are crippling

I’d probably go for a Leaf 40kwh. Bargain hard though as values are in free fall. Buy it cheap and run it til it drops. Another concern is that many smaller garages won’t work on EV’s, so you’re often stuck with the main dealer. Ours to date has been fine and “servicing” costs have been low. If you own it outright and plan on keeping it then you could cut those servicing costs down by doing it every second year or not at all since there’s no oil to change, it’s really just a series of checks, change the cabin filter and coolant every 2yrs. The lack of battery pack thermal management means it can overheat if you fast charge it more than twice in a journey and throttle back the charging rate to a trickle, but we use it
as a second car and only charge at home on cheapo lekky overnight.

Edited by SLO76 on 25/11/2024 at 00:08

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Mon 25 Nov 2024 10:44
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - madf

"Wouldn’t touch the BMW, again too many failures. Repair costs are crippling"

Which is why I bought from BMW dealer - 12 months warranty .. and a full warranty added for there years.

Buying from a non BMW garage -is a major gamble. They are complex .

A few specialists are v good eg Wiseley Automotive.

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Mon 25 Nov 2024 00:50
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - Warning

I like the Zoe and it was a consideration. The NCAP rating of 0, was a concern.

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Mon 25 Nov 2024 10:35
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - madf

I like the Zoe and it was a consideration. The NCAP rating of 0, was a concern.

Apparently due to lack of pedestrian safety features...
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Mon 25 Nov 2024 10:53
Renault Nissan Bmw - Zoe or Leaf or i3 - badbusdriver

I like the Zoe and it was a consideration. The NCAP rating of 0, was a concern.

Apparently due to lack of pedestrian safety features...

Not really, the main reason for concern is the removal of the side head airbag (which had been standard equipment). The result of this was that in the "side pole test", which simulates hitting a tree or a lamp post side-on, the dummy's head actually struck the pole. Which would most likely prove fatal.

While the 2021 test did show poorer pedestrian results (now called "vulnerable road users") than the original 2013 test, that would simply be down to changes in the way cars are now assessed. Ditto for safety assist (which wasn't anything like as big a thing in 2013) and child occupants.

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