I've just bought (not yet collected) one of the 'pre-launch' (January 2012) Renault Fluence ZE cars that have been offloaded into the dealer network and seem to have appeared in numbers in the last couple of weeks. The cars had variously been used for photoshoots, magazine and website tests and demonstrations. At 18 months old they are being sold off at £9000 each with 2000 - 3000 miles on them. 'Does not include batteries', of course. So, very soon I'll be happily feeding in feedback and mileage figures on the cars to you / the 'mpg' site for 'real' usage.

I've read that CAP won't give residual values on Renault EVs because the batteries have to be leased and the car owner never actually owns them. Should I take a chance on finance? Are the high residuals predicted pie in the sky?