We have a 2017 Renault Zoe electric car which we bought secondhand from a friend in 2020. We were initially very pleased with it. However, in July 2023, it stopped charging. It still drove fine, and there was nothing else wrong with it.
We live in north-west Scotland, and as none of the local garages will deal with EVs it had to go on a low-loader to the Renault dealership in Inverness.
There, the technician established that the connector from the charging socket to the charging unit had burnt out. They said the whole charging unit had to be replaced, and quoted us £7,500 for the work.
As the car is only worth £5,600, this effectively writes it off.
We bought an EV for environmental reasons, and are very upset that it has been written off so easily, with such a huge waste of resources.
We found a qualified independent garage that was prepared to work on our car. However, it has been unable to source the required parts.
We have also been in regular contact with Renault. We’ve written to its UK managing director a couple of times, but just get a call back from customer services saying there is nothing they can do.
Renault seems to think that a six-year-old car is good for the scrap heap.
SC, the Highlands
What a frustrating and depressing story. Having done a bit of online digging, it seems that failing chargers is a known problem with Renault Zoes at about this age. You have to wonder how many otherwise working cars have been scrapped for the same reason.
As I have written before, one of the big problems with electric cars is that dealers just don’t have the ability to fix them when even minor things go wrong.
I asked Renault about your case and it has agreed to get the car moved to Edinburgh, where it will send an expert to examine it and establish how it can be repaired in a cost-effective way.
It will do so through its discounted labour and parts scheme, Renault 6yr+Care, it says.
If it comes up with a reasonable price, go for it. If it doesn’t, I would be talking to Cleevely Electric Vehicles in Cheltenham.
The firm independently specialises in repairing electric cars of all kinds that the “dealers can’t or won’t repair”. In fact I’d be calling them, anyway.
Even after paying the cost of getting your car taken to Gloucestershire and back, I suspect it will still be cheaper than the Renault bill. But we shall see.
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