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In reply to: Introductions
Hi Al!
I definitely think you just have to go for it on the long distance journey front. I went from Alcester to Woking 3 days after I got the car. I definitely learnt to check charge point availability ahead of time (Warwick south was down and I crawled into Cherwell valley with 2 miles left!)
Agree on the running cost – I currently pay 1p a mile because I mostly charge at free public charge points. That more than covers the battery rental, and as you say it is reassuring to have the breakdown cover too.
I went straight to ChargeMaster for my home point, on the assumption that BG were just middle men anyway. Not sure it actually achieved anything in timescale improvement (took 4 weeks, and I had to chase them). It was quite difficult without a home charge point to top up from in those first weeks.
In reply to: This warm weather.
Don’t forget its just an estimate – Saturday I charged the car up, it said 80 miles, I then hacked up a local steep hill and despite still being nearly full charged when I got to the top, the range dropped to 40, and it pretty much stayed at that.
Charged it back up and it said 67 miles, I then on Sunday drove to Tonbridge and back, which is 40 miles, done 20 miles this week, so 60 in total and its saying I’ve 30 left.
I think the only value you can truly trust it the KWs consumed, which is what the battery graphic on the dash shows.
Topic: This warm weather.
The Zoe’s range just seems that tangibly bit more comfortable in this warm climate. I charged up last night for a day out today to Blackpool. I set off with 127 miles estimated range and did the 32 miles to Blackpool with 72 miles left on the battery! I thought I may have to pop into Renault here for a top up but no need for that now.
Ok, so I have a new theory about what’s going on…!
I’ve continued to see the pretty much the numbers; and the conditions have varied. There appears to be no significant change in these % numbers regardless of whether it’s warm/cold in the morning, or warm/cold in the evening when I return. It’s always 81-83% when I leave the car, and 90-91 when I return.
Assuming the “3kw” shown in the eco report is only showing whole numbers, and my usage to work is actually around 3.8kwh, then these numbers work out:
20 – 3.8 = 16.2 = 81% of 20
22 – 3.8 = 18.2 = 91% of 20Coincidence? 🙂
Let’s say car has 22kwh battery, but is told it’s 20kwh.
When it’s full (22kwh), the car shows 100%. It may have calculated 110% (22 / 20 * 100), but since it’s a percentage, just caps at 100.
When I drive, my car consumes power, and the % is calculated by subtracting the power as it is consumed ((20kwh – consumed_kwh) / 20 * 100). After consuming 3.8kwh, this would give a figure of 81% remaining ((20 – 3.8) / 20 * 100).
When I return to the car, the car measures how much power is in the batteries. The battery is 22kwh and I’ve used 3.8kwh, which means it finds 18.2kwh of power. It converts this to a percentage of 20kwh (18.2 / 20 * 100) and gets 91%. Tada!
I think these numbers are too close to be coincidence. The difference between the percentages I see can be accounted for by the 2kwh “extra” we think the car may have.
If this is correct; there’s also a possibility you can use this difference to calculated your battery capacity loss. If the percentage stays exactly the same, you’ve probably only got around 20kwh at a full charge, rather than 22kwh. The bigger the difference, the more capacity above 20 you have.
This could also explain why when charging, the battery seems to sit on 99% for an incredibly long time – it could be charging just over 2kwh while showing 99% when the car is new and has 22kwh capacity.
What would be interesting to know, is when the capacity drops below 20kwh, does the battery % no longer get to 100%, or does the car notice the max capacity has dropped, and revise all calculations down from 20 to the new figure? (this would only be possible if it can differentiate between bad conditions and capacity loss; if not, I suspect we might see charges fail to get to 100% as the battery loses capacity).
In reply to: Soft brake pedal?
How it feels to me is that lift off acceleration you get regen, and the first movement of the brake puts the lights on and then increases regen to give a brake like feel. Then if you press harder again on the bake pedal you practically do a stoppy when the disk/drum combo kicks in.
This kind of makes sense with the regen and double regen you can get when battery is low when you brake. I.e it’s all engine braking but with the effect of mechanical brakes.
In reply to: Zoe Tips & Tricks
Nice one, keep the tips coming!
@sandy What should the tyre pressures be then?
I don’t think I have made use of Hill Start yet, is it automatic?
Another tip from me, more of a personal one really. I never used to use AC very much, and rarely was it on. Aith the Zoe of course it is on by default which uses battery power. If you switch the AC off via the button and don’t turn off the fan control when you exit the vehicle, the AC will remain off.
If you turn the fan control to off, when you next manually adjust the temperature on auto, or fan speed, the AC will be back on.
In reply to: Winter Tyres
I have no direct experience in snow but I have seen other threads on this topic where people say zoe handles surprisingly well in snow due to the weight of the battery, the way the tyres have lots of slits in them (compared to normal much higher speed rated summer tyres that have more big flat blocks of rubber) and the smooth and gentle power delivery (if you want it). Your hard compound point is a good one though I guess on cold icy roads although we had no issues at all with this over the winter in Surrey and therefore I abandoned my plan to get winter tyres.
In reply to: How long until the BG call?
I assume the dealership have informed BG, as its a demo car Renault won’t have, unfortunately I need the same order ref they have given BG!!!!
I assume my order form is an EV specific one as it has battery rental details in the small print at the bottom, just no specific order number!!
In reply to: Introductions
Another Alan here!!!
I have been intrigued by the Zoe since release & seeing & sitting in it at Goodwood in 2012, but the list price & the early battery rental price made it difficult to justify economically. However the current nearly new prices & lower battery rental have helped.
We live in Kent, but have a static down in Dorset. When we were in Dorset 10 days ago I saw a temptingly priced Intens demo in metallic white locally, so thought why not have a look. We had no intention of buying that weekend, but after the test drive we were hooked.
The ease of driving, refinement, spec & space made it appear like the ideal second car for us & for a similar price that we are paying for our Seat Mii Sport once a tank & half of fuel a month is included. Granted we still have to pay for the home charging, but for the extra car you get it is a small price to pay.
Thanks everyone her for the tips & info for the baptism of fire we are self enforcing by having to come back from Dorset far above any expected range achievable, but with a hopefully trusty (and pre checked) Ecotricity card I am not envisioning any issues, I always have the extended battery rental breakdown cover to fall back on!!
Received the British Gas emails today so we can fill them in & get the next stage of the ball rolling…..
In reply to: Charging voltages and currents
I don’t know a lot about this (I don’t have panels), but seems like most people don’t have export meters (I guess they’re not cheap). So I guess for most, it truly is free – the more you can suck from your panels, the better!
I wonder if you start draining all that into a home battery pack whether they’d change their opinion of who needs an export meter? 😉
