Renault Zoe "unboxing"

Today, after a few months of waiting, my Renault Zoe EV arrived.

My new Zoe, arriving on the transporter

Zoe being unloaded

I've been considering an EV for quite a while. A few years ago I was driving a ten year old, 4x4 Renault RX4 which was hardly "green". It had a 2 litre petrol engine and if I drove it carefully, I could get 45 MPG from it, but with normal driving I would be lucky to get 30 MPG.

I should point out I'm not a petrol-head in any ways. In fact I'm not fond of cars. My BMW, Merc, and Porsche loving neighbour wouldn't get this, but to me a car is simply a nice way to get from A to B.

I should also point out I do live in the country, as you can probably see from the photos, so a car is essential as the nearest town with a supermarket is about an hour's walk away. I need a car to do shopping, to get the kids to school and, in a lot of cases, to get to work. The 4x4 used to be genuinely useful, but hasn't really been in the last few years.

But, and this is the important bit, the vast majority of my journeys are under 10 miles. I rarely drive more than 20 miles in any given day.

We also have another car which runs on diesel which my wife uses. She commutes in it too but, like me, doesn't do journeys more than about 20 miles per day. If we need to do a longer journey, which is rare, we can use this car.

So, an EV is something I could use.

Of course, one of the major problems is cost. EVs have been considerably more expensive. However, with the current Government incentives, EVs like the Nissan Leaf and the Zoe are actually roughly the same price as equivalent cars. Sure there are cheaper cars, but that's not the point.

Another factor is that I run my own company. A lot of the travel I do is on company business but, as a director, if my company buys a car for me to use, I get stung with tax. Unless I buy an EV for, at the moment, the Government "Benefit In Kind" (BIK) for taxation purposes on EVs is... zero! So I don't pay any additional tax. I can also claim 50% of the VAT through my company.

So, with the cheap fuel, zero cost tax disc, no BIK, and 50% VAT offset, an EV makes a lot of financial sense.

I'm actually getting the Zoe on a 3 year lease as, currently, battery technology is improving by around 20% per year, and the costs of building EVs are also reducing year on year. I don't want to be stuck trying to resell a vehicle which is considered obsolete in a few years time. The lease allows me to refresh my car without such issues in 3 years time. I fully expect to get another EV then, but with improved battery capacity and range and maybe with the option of a range extender. You never know, there might even be some Hydrogen Fuel cell range extenders by then.

But for now, the Zoe is where it's at, and I'm loving it.