Some stories are too absurd to make up. My experience with the Renault Zoe is one of those. A car that has caused so many problems that I’ve decided to simply drive it until it dies — nobody deserves this kind of misery. And believe me: I’m a patient person, but even my patience has its limits.
What makes this whole adventure even more painful is that with Renault you’re not dealing with just one party, but with three completely separate companies:
- Renault Nederland, the customer service department that mainly redirects and doesn’t actually solve anything.
- Renault dealers, independent companies that seem to try, but never find the root cause of the problem.
- RCI / Mobilize Financial Services, the company that charges the battery lease and keeps sending invoices as if everything is working perfectly.
And everyone points at someone else. But nobody fixes anything.
Where it all started: my biggest mistake
When I bought the Zoe, I chose — in hindsight, quite naively — the option with a leased battery.
Over 100 euros per month for a battery that wasn’t even mine.
The idea sounded reasonable: if something went wrong, it would be taken care of quickly.
The reality: I signed up for a subscription to frustration.
The charging issues started almost immediately. I was sent from one dealer to another, but every time I heard the same line:
“We don’t see any problem.”
Meanwhile, the car wouldn’t charge at most charging stations.
Not at home.
Not on the street.
9 out of 10 public on-street chargers refused to work with the Zoe.
All while our second electric car charged at those same points without any issue.
But according to Renault Nederland, everything was fine.
According to the dealers, everything was fine.
And according to RCI, I just had to keep paying.
My emails to Mobilize: polite, but very clear
When the invoices kept coming, I started sending the same message every month:
“I am NOT going to pay any rent whatsoever until you have completely and definitively solved the charging issues!”
And another one:
“Yes! As soon as you solve the charging problems, I will start paying. Until then, absolutely not.”
Or, for example:
“Correct, and as should be clear by now, I will only start paying once the issues with the Renault Zoe have been resolved!”
You’d think it couldn’t be any clearer than that.
But Mobilize kept sending invoices — as if those emails never existed.
1000 euros in repair costs and zero result
I’ve been to several Renault dealers: Utrecht, Gouda, Amsterdam and Nieuwegein.
Everywhere I paid for diagnostics, repairs, checks, new cables — in total more than 1000 euros.
Renault compensated a small part, but the core issue remained the same:
The problem was never solved.
Charging? Only if you’re lucky
One example: at the holiday park Hof van Saksen, the charge just stopped at 71%.
It simply… stopped.
No explanation, no error message, nothing.
At family visits, I had to plug the car into a regular wall socket using an extension lead just to get enough charge to drive home.
How embarrassing does that sound?
But according to Renault, the car was “perfectly fine”.
The AliExpress charging cable didn’t help either
I thought: maybe the problem is just the cable.
So I bought a new one on AliExpress:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3v7quJF
But that one didn’t work either.
At that point, you know the problem clearly lies with the Zoe itself.
The final straw: Mobilize wants almost €4000
Because I was tired of the monthly arguments, I decided to buy out the battery for over €1000.
Just to finally get rid of the emails and reminders.
And then came the “nice” surprise:
An invoice for almost €4000 in so-called “outstanding lease payments”.
I think at that point I silently screamed on the inside for about a minute.
One of my last emails to Mobilize
I sent a polite but very direct email:
“The purpose of this email is to resolve the issue with our Renault Zoe.
You keep sending invoices while the car does not charge, or does not fully charge, at normal public charging stations.
We have visited several dealers, spent more than €1000, but the problem has not been fixed.
I propose that all outstanding payments are written off.
Until the problem is fully resolved, we cannot move forward.
We don’t want to burden someone else with this car — the next logical step for us is actually the scrapyard.”
To this day, the problem still hasn’t been resolved.
And that’s why my advice is this
1. Never buy an electric Renault.
Our Nissan Leaf has never given us this kind of trouble.
The next car we’re looking at is a BYD Atto 3 or its successor — finally some peace of mind.
2. Never pay for a separate battery lease.
This model is basically an invitation to problems.
If you drive an EV, buy the battery together with the car.
Or lease the entire vehicle through a single company.
3. Share your opinion in the comments.
Have you owned a Zoe? Had issues with Renault? Conflicts with Mobilize?
Or, on the contrary, have you actually found a cable that works properly with the Zoe?
Share your experience.
That’s how we help others avoid making the same mistakes.
