Leased batteries and vehicle salvage.

Zoe, Kangoo, Fluence, Twizy
willfromsussex
Posts: 93
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 3:45 pm

Leased batteries and vehicle salvage.

Postby willfromsussex » Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:05 am

ANyone know what happens when a Leased battery Zoe (or Leaf for that matter) gets written off and winds up in a salvage yard? Does the manufacturer come and physically remove the battery and take it away , or what? If the car gets sold on and repaired I can imagine the new owner just taking over the lease but lets say a car is deemed beyond ecomomical repair, possibly even cat B (must be dismantled) then what . ? I've seen a zoe at a salvage auction (with leased batt) . What happens if I buy it and just dismantle the car. ?

Grumpy-b
Posts: 991
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Re: Leased batteries and vehicle salvage.

Postby Grumpy-b » Tue Mar 29, 2016 7:55 am

The battery does not belong to the original car owner or the insurance company. So they cannot sell the battery pack. It should be removed before the vehicle is disposed of. If cat C or D the assumption would be the vehicle would be going back on the road, and as such the pack is likely to be left with the vehicle, and the new owner would have to take on the lease or follow the requirements for removal. THis seems to be paying an authorised Renault dealer to do the work. But I dont think that would be reasonable if you could show that you were competent to remove it and do no damage.
If buying a damaged vehicle, you would have to get some sort of assurance that the pack was not damaged, as the person who owns the vehicle at time of removal, and who has the lease would have to pay separately for any damage to the pack. Such damage may not be covered by normal insurance, some twizy owners have had to pay out for damaged packs.
In short, if its a Zoe, you would need to check if the packs been removed, contact Renault Finance or whoever has the lease, and clarify the position before you buy the car. They may agree a final fee to save time and effort on their part, or they may invoke all the lease requiremengts, which should be met by the original owners/ insurance company. But many people have found that renault leasing take three to 6 months to answer any questions and then dont really resolve the issues in relation to removal.

willfromsussex
Posts: 93
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Leased batteries and vehicle salvage.

Postby willfromsussex » Tue Mar 29, 2016 11:33 pm

blimey, thanks.
I wonder what would happen then if hypothetically someone bought a cat C (which has no V5 with it) then just dismantled it. Nobody would know where it went or who had the batteries in their converted EV !

Grumpy-b
Posts: 991
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Re: Leased batteries and vehicle salvage.

Postby Grumpy-b » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:39 am

The last person who has the lease would still be responsible for payment, until the lease company passes the lease onto another person or it is bought out. So since V5 isnt an ownership document, they would follow the trail as far as they could, so whoever buys the vehicle would get some form of invoice, and the lease company could follow the paper trail. You could ask who the seller is (ie which insurance company) and ask them what they view the situation is. They may already have settled with the battery lease company, if the pack is damaged. Unfortunately you have already left a trail so you could not claim you were unaware of the battery lease/ ownership issues.


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