I understand the "why", but I think the dangers override the "why" ~ and I agree that even Orwell could not imagine this ~ ~ Sooz

French automaker Renault can cut off your car battery if you don’t make payments on time
By CleanTechnica
Saturday, November 16, 2013 9:41 EST

Originally published on Gas2.
By Chris DeMorro

Last year Tesla dealt with its first real scandal, the so-called “bricking” of batteries that are allowed to run entirely out of charge. But what about a car company that could brick a car’s battery on purpose? As it turns out, French automaker Renault is using its battery leasing scheme to prevent non-paying customers from charging their electric cars. Big Brother is watching…your battery.

It’s another form of DRM, or Digital Rights Management, that video game and movie companies use to try (and fail) to prevent piracy. Renault, which leases the batteries in vehicle like its Zoe Z.E. electric car in a bid to keep prices down (and probably make a few extra bucks in the long game), also draws a huge amount of information from the battery data.

This includes keeping tabs on non-paying customers, and Renault worked a nifty feature into their rented batteries that they didn’t exactly brag about in the press releases. In the service contract, however, in the fine print, it is revealed that Renault has the right to prevent charging of the Zoe Z.E. at the end of the battery rental contract. It was also revealed that Renault can do this in the case of non-payment on the car or battery as well, effectively making “your” vehicle worthless.

In theory this is a huge advancement for car dealers, financial companies, and local police departments. The fear I have is when Renault inevitably screws up processing someone’s payment, bricking a paying customer’s car and essentially preventing them from getting to work, starting a vicious cycle that could really screw somebody over.

Yet this very same feature could help speed up the process of EV adoption if other automakers get on board. Not only could you track down non-paying cars, but you can also make the vehicle immobile, making retrieval a cakewalk. Even Orwell didn’t imagine this.

Source: Der Spiegel

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/16/french-automaker-renault-can-cut-off-your-car-battery-if-you-dont-make-payments-on-time/

Such a practice would quite possibly be illegal in Canada.

To shut-down the battery from afar would be the very last resort, according to Renault. Before that happening the leasee would receive several reminders, and only if they're all ignored the battery could be disabled for "recharge" which would only happen in really rare, extreme cases.

I think that would be considered seizure before judgement, which is illegal here.

The phone company shuts your phone down if you don't pay. What's the difference?

One is a service.
The other would be tampering with another's property, would it not?

Those batteries are the property of Renault.

But the car isn't and they disable the car for not making car payments as well.

The cars are not owned by Renault. Only the batteries are leased from Renault.
If the battery would be disabled to be recharged, the car owner can still push the car.

It would still be illegal here if it was about car payments and not battery payments... unless Renault had a court order.

As long as they are reasonable about it, I don't have any problem with the practice. If someone missed a couple of months, say. It's what happens when you miss other payments.

One real benefit might be in preventing car thefts. Not much point in stealing a car that's going to crap out in short order.

I just ran into this thread (I am new here) and wondered if anyone thought this was in any way unique, because it isn't. very many product these days carry a guarantee of a particular life cycle which is not, as was the case in times past, a minimum service but is also a maximum too. The simplest example is inkjet printer cartridges but there are more, very many more. The lamp in projection TVs for example. Many of these have a 'life' of a thousand hours and are then pre programmed to die. The individual components of a motor car in the past could be swapped from one to another. In fact the local breakers yard was the donor hospital for spare part surgery. Alas this is rapidly becoming a thing of the past as the engine management systems increasingly are programmed to 'talk' to the bits and recognise then as 'family'.

Ahh, joe. I can remember wandering amongst the bones of "dead" cars with my Dad in a junk yard, looking for parts. We'd find a similar make/model and see if it had the part(s) he needed, since many of the parts were interchangable. I loved doing that! A carburetor here, a started there and sometimes almost-new timing or fan belts. Paid pennies on the dollar at those places. He once bought an entire back seat for our old (1950 something) Plymouth that was destroyed by our Boston Terrier. lol

Yes Roseanne, happy days. Imagine then the reaction of my lifelong friend and fellow scrapyard prowler who secured a replacement fuel pump at our local 'used parts' emporium (you are no longer allowed to personally seek out you quarry due to health and safety etc.) who took it home and fitted it only to find his would not talk to it!