Getting a Renault Zoe or waiting for a Model S?

I'm asking this question because I live in France and I don't know when and at what price the model S is going to be available (Well, it's gonna be at least 1y away...)
I'm really tired of wasting so much money on gas - here gasoline is more than $8 a gallon and I drive around 50000km/year (30000 miles/y) ($10000/y only for gas...) - mainly short trips (less than 120km/80miles per day) and quite a few long trips (500 to 1500km).
I was thinking of replacing my gasoline/e85 car with a 300 miles model S w/ fast charging but the more I wait the more I'm thinking of buying a temporary EV for the transition.

The Nissan leaf looked good but at EUR31000 ($42000), it was too expensive for its range capability (I still need to keep a gasoline car).

Now that Renault has announced the Zoe - and that I actually rode in actual Renault EVs (Fluence & Kangoo) - I'm thinking that at EUR15100,00 (+ EUR80/month battery lease) I might buy a Zoe waiting for an actual long range EV...

I'm asking this question because the Zoe is first going to appear in France (Renault...) and nobody has ever done the math with this kind of price (pretty cheap for a real EV).

Would you consider getting such a car as a temporary solution?

Sorry, I meant to post this in the Zoe topic...

EV_de said:

perhaps wrong title ? ... for me , and some of my fellow the EU Model S reservation holders ......
Getting a Renault Zoe AND waiting for my Model S !

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Well, I think I'm going to get a Zoe and I'd love to get the 300 miles model S as well but it really depends on the price, I'm not willing to spend EUR 100K on a car, I'll probably get one if it's around 60-70K. I had hoped that Tesla disclosed the european prices in Geneva but it's not clear yet...

dpeilow said:

Yes, I think Zoe would make a good stop gap. Do you have a family that can make use of the Zoe in the long run?

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I do have close familly and the car will suit their needs perfectly (driving around 80-100km a day) - they were not thinking about EV but as the price of gasoline soars they're getting more and more interested

GSP said:

Another option while you wait for a Model S would be an Ampera or Volt. You can drive electric most of the time, and do not need a second car for longer trips. In the last month, I drove over 1000 EV miles, and only 3 miles on gasoline. This is pretty typical, unless I take an out of town trip.

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Well, the problem with the Ampera (volt) is the price: 43K EUR (38 with incentive) and the fact that it does't cover my daily commute (60km which means around 30-40km driving in the mountain while I do 100...) - that means that I'd only save around 30% on gas... I'd rather save some cash for a Model S - (don't forget that in here diesel in 20% cheaper than gasoline so you can achieve the same savings with a simple diesel car (they're all high mileage now)...)

The other thing is the tax incentive (5000 EUR) - I'm pretty sure it's going away (or at least be greatly reduced) in 2013 - at EUR 15700 and current gas prices the Zoe looks like a good deal at the moment - I think I'm tempted

I'll wait an actual drive in the Zoe before placing order but I did get into the fluence ze and kangoo ze and while they're still "cheap french cars " they're actually well built - they don't look like crappy convertions they did before (for the french post offices etc.)

Of course, the zoe does not compare to the coming model S but I don't know the europen tesla price and I'm pretty sure it's not going to get delivered before mid-2013 if I actually placed an order.

I think the zoe fits in the "2nd car" segment while tesla with the model S wants to replace everything.