The Fenix name sounds vaguely familiar. Bruce may have posted something about them in the past.
Their $99 per month charge for unlimited mileage compares favorably with with what Renault's Zoe unlimited km battery leasing costs in France (124 Euro / $139 per month). OTOH, at 52 kWh, the Zoe's battery capacity is more than double Fenix's base 24 kWh. The website also makes me a bit uneasy. They refer to varying battery capacities, but without any details other than a vague reference to that 24 kWh. They promise to replace degraded batteries, but they don't give specific standards that their batteries will meet. I may have missed something, so plese correct me if I have, but all I saw was that they'll fix or replace your battery if it "quickly [loses] several battery health bars." OTOH, Renault clearly states that they'll maintain your (their) battery at a minimum of 75% of specified capacity. Fenix mention that their battery will be structurally different from the stock Nissan battery. It almost sounds like it won't be a fully enclosed structure. How well will it protect the cells in a collision? Have they crash-tested a Leaf with their battery installed? The FAQ says "In light of the recent news of Nissan raising battery replacement costs ( https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25882 ) we decided to reveal our plans and let consumers know that help is coming soon. Our original road map had us announcing our product at the end of Q2 2019 ..." That's not recent news! The post they link to is from almost 2 years ago. Q2 2019 was a year ago. They're still asking for "reservations." This smells more than a little stale. Something else about the FAQ -- actually the entire website -- just doesn't sit quite right with me. I can tell that it wasn't written by a professional writer. In addition to the haziness on the details, it's a bit awkward, a bit wordy, a bit informal, and has too many spelling and grammar errors. They say deposits are refundable. They ALL say that. Nissan said that wnen they were taking pre-deposits on the Leaf, and theirs really WERE refundable. But when you're trying to get an operation like this up and running, it can be awfully tempting to use the deposits as startup cash if/when the financing runs thin. I'm not suggesting that Fenix are doing that, but if they did, they wouldn't be the first. If I had a Leaf, I don't think I'd be comfortable enough with these folks to fork over $750 right now. I'd at least wait for them to be a truly going concern (they clearly aren't yet), and even then, I'd keep one hand on my wallet. It sounds like a fine idea, and despite some glitches, Renault's battery leasing has been very popular. I think it helped make Zoe a success by keeping the purchase price down. But these guys? I'd watch and wait. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
