Renault drops battery rental for Zoe & Kangoo Z.E. in Germany

After pulling the option in Spain and the UK, Renault is removing the battery rental option in Germany for its Zoe and Kangoo Z.E. models starting 14 November. Renault is making an exception with the Twizy which will continue to be offered exclusively with battery rental.

Notably, Renault has not announced a battery rental option for future models and model versions. For example the Twingo Electric and the Zoe with the special model Riviera. At the request of electrive, a spokesperson for the French car manufacturer responded that the rental option will also be abolished for the Zoe and Kangoo Z.E; “From 14 November, dealers will no longer be able to rent batteries for free specifications of Zoe and Kangoo Z.E.”.

The French carmaker did say there will be a transition period for sales talks already underway. In this case, dealers would still have until 21 November to conclude talks on battery rental and enter the corresponding purchase applications. “As of 22 November, new purchase requests for versions with battery rental will only be possible for vehicles from stock and pre-run”, the spokesperson said. Only with the Twizy will there be rental “until further notice”.

In other European markets, Renault has long since withdrawn the battery rental option for its electric Zoe. No official justification was given for this course of action and we can only assume that the offer no longer appears to be worthwhile. In Great Britain, the import company there said that there was no longer any need for an “artificial catalogue price” for comparison with a diesel engine because enough customers choose an electric car anyway.

In Germany, both options – purchase and rental – were still available until then. It is therefore easy to see what the British dealers mean by “artificial catalogue price”. Here, the Zoe costs at least 29,990 euros when it is purchased with a battery, and when it is rented the price has so far fallen to an apparently more attractive 21,900 euros – in the context of the discount campaign launched in the summer, in which Renault Deutschland is increasing the environmental bonus to 10,000 euros, the price is only 19,990 euros for the purchase or 11,900 euros for the rental plus the actual battery rental from 74 euros per month.

With reporting by Cora Werwitzke, France.

Source: Press release via email