Following lukewarm demand, it appears that Nissan will cease offering the option of battery leasing for its electric models in Spain and Portugal, according to recent reports.
To those scratching their heads right now, Nissan had been offering a “Flex Option” to those in various European markets — a battery leasing option similar to the one that Renault employs for the Zoe. This option was of course never available in the US, so many there are unfamiliar with it.
Despite wide availability in Europe, it never really did well there either. Not too surprising, as who wants to lease a battery pack rather than simply purchase it outright with the rest of the car?
Push EVs continues:
“The Nissan Iberia, responsible for Nissan sales in Portugal and Spain, is again showing us where the Nissan’s strategy in Europe is going. Portugal and Spain were the first countries where Nissan introduced the 30 kWh battery to the entry level trim (Leaf Visia). Now the Flex option (battery lease) was removed from the Leaf’s configurator. This is good news in my book as it tells that now the company has confidence in its battery and is more receptive to sell electric cars.”
Continuing:
“The battery leasing undermines electric cars in at least two ways. First it scares off the consumers by stating that the battery is more prone to failure than any other component, so it’s better to lease it than buy it. Second, the monthly payments allied to limited mileage remove one of electric car’s biggest advantages, low running costs. Battery leasing only makes sense for low quality automakers that don’t trust their products.”
The option doesn’t seem to have really made any sense for Nissan from most angles. As speculated in the above coverage, I have to wonder if Nissan was simply offering the leasing option in order to “support” Renault’s choice to employ it.
I think that this made sense in the past as the price of the battery was half the price of the car. Back then, this measure was interesting as it cut down the initial cost/investment of buying an electric car (there is not much money in the peninsula).
Nowadays, the price of the batteries fell down, so is not currently interesting.
that’s why renault sucks so much. the only single reason why renault sales are so high is because they are bought by other companies, usually in leasing or renting. no way private owners want to be forced to rent the fuel tank of a car they buy. it’s completely absurd. renault are complete morons.