Hi John here. This is a quick video which I promised to reveal our new EV. I'm going
to tell you what it is very soon, I won't keep you hanging on too long. But also talk through
what we chose and why we chose it. Really I think that's probably more important for a lot of people
and what we actually ended up with. What was our thought process and our decision-making process.
Once the Hyundai had gone and been picked up by Hyundai, or the AA in fact,
we were at a point where we needed a second EV. We decided not to have 2 long range cars anymore.
It just didn't seem much point, but previously we had the Kona which is a 300 mile range EV plus the
Tesla 300 mile range EV. And you know we're only going to use one with us both in if we're doing
long trips anywhere. So we decided to get a second EV which would just do local runs. And
we're talking 10 miles to the shops and back is the longest probably it would go. So certainly not
300 mile range. And we didn't want to spend loads of money on it because it was by and large just
going to be sitting on the drive for a lot of the time. But we set a budget of maximum of £20,000.
And the only other criteria was not a Hyundai for obvious reasons! Oh by the way if you
haven't seen the previous video about the Hyundai I'll leave a link to it up here. Then click and
go and have a look at that. So with that in mind, those criteria, these are the the models that we
were shortlisted with. We weren't particularly drawn to any particular model or any particular
brand or anything like that. We were quite open as long as they met the criteria. I guess there are
a few things that we didn't like. I wasn't keen on the i3 just from a visual perspective. Jilly
wasn't keen on the Kia Soul and to be honest I wasn't keen on the Soul because it shares the same
software as the Hyundai. I've always found the Hyundai software really laggy and slow to actually
do anything. That sort of put me off. That sort of limited us a bit. I put out on Twitter that the
Hyundai had gone and loads of people really were helpful actually and gave us some suggestions
and what was about and what was on the market. And then The Plugseeker who I follow on Twitter
sent me this DM message which was really really helpful. Quite a few actually I didn't know about
which was nice. So there was 12 (13) there in total. And i visited each one of their websites.
I phoned up a few of them and spoke to them and there were a few cars that I looked at. And Nissan
Leafs were coming up as a popular option, as were the Zoes. But eventually I chose one. And I've
already teased you with this picture here so let's show you in a little bit more detail what it is!
That's who we got it from. GoGreen Autos. I'll talk more about those in a minute, Matt
GoGreen. So it's a Zoe! A 22kW Zoe! This is one that's battery leased. It was previously battery
leased and the battery has been purchased so it's an owned version battery wise. There's 2 if you're
not familiar with the Zoe; the early ones you can either get them lease where you pay £60 a month
for battery lease or buy the car out right with the battery. I said we went to GoGreen Autos Ltd.
Matt was extremely helpful there, as well everyone I spoke to be hones. But Matt had a car
which wasn't on his website, he'd just got in as a part exchange. He hadn't prepped it and it wasn't
on his website for sale. So I sort of jumped in really early. Just to give you an idea of what
Matt did. This is a normal process for explaining to customers either if they're new to EVs or like
us experiencing in EV. He does loads of videos and send updates to customers which I found really
useful because with these updates I knew all about the car. When it arrived on the day I knew all
about it and it's state of health and everything. So I had complete confidence it was going to be
exactly as described. So just a quick update on the car. The service is underway,
the air conditioning is being re-gassed as we speak. Change the cabin filter and while
this air conditioning can be done doing all the checks in under the bonnet there.
so yeah I'll update you next week. So the droplinks have been changed. If you don't know
what these are they are a bar that goes between the anti-roll bar and the side of the strut here
and while they weren't bad on this they were normal you know for 25,000 miles they do take
a lot of wear and for some reason on the Renault Zoes they do wear out prematurely. On modern cars
they've become almost a service item now. On old cars they used to last like you know 150,000 miles
or so on modern cars they now typically last sort of 80 to 100,000 some reason on the Zoe they're
half that again. These obviously corrode, surface corrosion, it's does no harm at all its just
visual you know it just looks worse than it is. Surface corrosion on this is completely normal
but I do like to paint them just because it tidies the car up
and because I do this sort of three-stage rust protection a primer and then the top coat is
actually brake caliper paint which is really tough. That finish is actually better than
that is from the factory on the original part. And we can see all the voltages of all the cells
and they all look nice and equal and going through all the cells and then we can see the
more cells more voltages so yeah they all look good. Just quickly scroll through this lot
and then we've got temperatures 5ºC the battery pack is that's obviously internally.
There we go traction battery condition it is at 98% state of health. So all good
there's the mileage of the battery that's in kilometers. I said I'll do a final review video
on the condition. I know it's a bit late now because you have paid for the vehicle
but you know you bought this one before it was ready and videoed so yeah you're gonna get that.
Anyway it's an exceptional condition one this one if you've seen my videos before you know I point
out things that most people just really wouldn't care about. So on this one there's a couple of
little things I'm going to show you which I found now it's clean because you only get to properly
see the condition of a vehicle when it's clean. There is this pinprick dent here in the boot which
is very small. I found another one on the driver's door here somewhere which I can't see now.
Although it's further back a little bit another tiny little pinprick dent there, but very small
and really nothing to worry about. Yeah those rear drums really are looking better you know
normally any motor dealer just wouldn't bother doing that sort of thing because there's nothing
wrong with the corrosion it's all normal but yeah it looks so much better and worth the effort in my
view. Because you know I treat the cars as if they're on my own and it's not that much work
while the wheels are off and when it's on a ramp and you've got a bit of time to do that sort of
thing and that will just last for years and years now. So yeah that's it really immaculate on the
outside just those two tiny little pinpoint dents. So much much better than you would normally,
much better condition. Oh we'll be taking... the number plates held on by rivets from Renault
dealers and then when you take them out they drop into the boot and everyone leaves them
but I take the boot apart and fish them out because only... it will only rattle when you
go over bumps and it's actually very common a lot of people complain on Zoes about rattle
in the back and it's always just because the number plates have got changed and no one bothers
to fish out the back of those rivets. This will be cleaned finished cleaning today it will also be
waxed, and the interior will be cleaned so by the morning it will all be dry. I'm
also going to leave a dehumidifier in the car overnight to really get all that moisture out.
And it's a great little car. Jilly and I really really love it. It's got it's
sort of typical French Renault quirks nothing horrendous so just a few things to get used to.
We're really happy with it and it's one of those cars that's
really been looked after by the previous owner. We're very lucky from that perspective. One of
the nice things we've already noticed is it's AC charging is really rapid. It's got a 22kW
on board AC charger. At home for instance on our zappi it'll take up to 8kW without any problem.
We've popped down to Rushden Lakes in it on the 18th of January and did 2 charges just out of
curiosity really. The 1st charge we did was only 8 minutes and it added 400 watts and that was on
a 7kW charger. And then moved to a 22kW charger and we were there 18 minutes and it added 2.8kWh.
So it's phenomenal how quickly it'll suck up the juice on a three-phase 22kW charger. So
yeah dead impress. There we go that's it. That's why we've got the Zoe. Price wise it came in at
£13,000. Not much more I can tell you really. Really happy with it. Any questions or queries
then give us a shout down in the comments below and I'll pick them up. Alright take care bye.