Daily Archives: March 4, 2014

Renault Zoe Blog

The Pain of Public Charging 7

ZOE Charging at IKEA Wembley (Image: T. Larkum)
ZOE Charging at IKEA Wembley (Image: T. Larkum)

After our recent good experience of public charging on the way to Surrey (see The Joy of Public Charging) I had almost forgotten our previous troubles. I expected to be able to repeat the journey with the minimum of inconvenience or worry – but it was not to be. I had been lulled into a false sense of security, as evidenced when we headed out the week before last. When we got to Toddington Services on the M1 and plugged in, the charger wouldn’t validate my access card.

At this point I realised I had made the fatal mistake of not checking online the status of the various chargers on our planned route. I rang the Ecotricity Electric Highway support number and the conversation went something like this:

  • “I can’t get the Toddington southbound charger to work.”

  • “That’s right, it’s offline. So is the northbound one. An Engineer is booked to visit next week. You could try the Newport Pagnell chargers.”

  • “They’re north of here and I’m going south. What about the M1 London Gateway services?”

  • “Offline.”

  • “How about the M4 Heston Services?”

  • “Offline westbound, working eastbound.”

  • “I’d be heading west. Where else can you suggest?”

  • “South Mimms is working.”

  • “That’s not on my route – any other ideas?”

  • “IKEA Wembley is working.”

So we got back in the car and headed to IKEA. To cut a long story short I drove in Eco mode and at about 58 mph and arrived there low on charge, but not worryingly so. The outlook improved as we found it unused. In fact there were cones across the parking spaces which I took to be there just to discourage ICE drivers so we moved them and plugged in. Everything worked fine and it charged up while we went shopping and eating in IKEA.

After visiting the family we drove back via the M4 – this way we were heading westbound and so were able to use the working charger. Knowing we had a charge point waiting for us at home I just set the cruise control to 60 mph and headed north. As the predicted range gradually overtook the predicted distance I adjusted the set speed upwards until we were doing 70 as we approached Northampton. We arrived home with about 5 miles to spare.

Next time I’ll make sure I check on the status of charge points before leaving home!