Pass rate
77.5%
Around average — 10.4 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 6,762 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£57
2018 Renault Zoe MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 35,784 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
33.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 91.9% pass
- Avoid 2013 72.0% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 19.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.6%
- Typical mileage
- 36k mi
The 2018 Renault Zoe MOT pass rate is 77.5% of its MOT tests — 10.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Renault Zoe does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.7× the national share
Tyres make up 33.0% of everything recorded on the 2018 Renault Zoe, against 19.8% nationally — 13.2 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 87.9%; this one manages 77.5% — 10.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 20% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Renault Zoe? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Renault Zoe compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 10.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.6%. The median 2018 Renault Zoe in this dataset had covered 35,784 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.3% of the time, April–September 76.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 10.35% of tests.
- 6,762 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.5% overall pass rate, 71.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Renault Zoe, the average is 80.4% — best year 2022 (91.9%), worst 2013 (72.0%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 6,762
- Typical mileage (median)
- 35,784 mi
- Make and model
- Renault Zoe
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Zoe MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 61% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Zoe
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,726 | 79.3% |
| South West | 1,218 | 73.9% |
| East of England | 709 | 80.4% |
| Scotland | 581 | 71.6% |
| West Midlands | 491 | 78.6% |
| East Midlands | 436 | 76.1% |
| North West | 425 | 77.6% |
| London | 412 | 83.7% |
| Yorkshire | 410 | 78.5% |
| Wales | 250 | 78.0% |
| North East | 104 | 73.1% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2018 Zoe
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2018 Zoe
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the suspension joints 10.3% of tests
“ball joint excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the lights 1.4% of tests
“stop lamp not working”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 1.1% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2018 Zoe through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£57 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£57
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 6,762 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Zoe, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2013 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.0% to 91.9% — a spread of 19.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 72.0% ball joint excessively worn
- 2014 73.5% ball joint excessively worn
- 2015 74.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2016 76.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2017 75.4% ball joint excessively worn
- 2018 77.5%ball joint excessively worn
- 2019 80.5% ball joint excessively worn
- 2020 89.5% electrical wiring insecure
- 2021 90.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2018 Renault Zoe with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2018 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Citan 79.1%
- Vauxhall Combo 79.4%
- Fiat 500L 80.7%
- Nissan Navara 80.9%
- Hyundai I800 81.8%
- Fiat TIPO 82.0%
Closest pass rates among 2018 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2018 Renault Zoe 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 8,507 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 2,820 | 33.00% | 19.76% | +13.24 |
| Suspension | 1,878 | 22.00% | 20.98% | +1.02 |
| Brakes | 1,402 | 16.40% | 20.89% | −4.49 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,183 | 13.80% | 12.21% | +1.59 |
| Non-component advisories | 394 | 4.60% | 4.18% | +0.42 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 345 | 4.00% | 1.76% | +2.24 |
| Visibility | 304 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Road Wheels | 115 | 1.30% | 0.75% | +0.55 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 36 | 0.40% | 5.57% | −5.17 |
| Steering | 30 | 0.40% | 2.57% | −2.17 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 10.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.2% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £80–200 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £25–65 |
| Individual direction indicators incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.0% | £3–12 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.92% | £5–20 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 15.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.8% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.5% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.7% | £18–45 |
| Individual direction indicators incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 4.7% | £3–12 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2,512 | 83.4% | 20,408 mi |
| 30-60k | 3,327 | 75.1% | 42,720 mi |
| 60-90k | 786 | 69.6% | 70,945 mi |
| 90-120k | 108 | 71.3% | 99,842 mi |
| 120k+ | 26 | 76.9% | 147,067 mi |
Source: 6,762 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2018 Zoe MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Renault Zoe?
77.5% of the 6,762 2018 Renault Zoe tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 71.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Renault Zoe?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (10.35%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.20%), linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn (2.09%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Renault Zoe MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.4% of the time, falling to 76.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Renault Zoe in this dataset had covered 35,784 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 Renault Zoe MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 76.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.