I regularly travel from Poole to Woking on m27 and m3. There are plenty of ecotricity services you don’t need to stop at every one or to drive like a saint the whole way . I work it out using Google maps in advance so that i stop at the services at which I will still have enough Kwh in battery (at slow speed of 55mph in eco mode) to get to the subsequent services if the first charger is down or being used (not that I have had a problem). That way I can drive as fast as I like in the first phase, and only drop back to Pootling along if the first services charger is down. And I don’t need to worry at all.

This isn’t as easy to work out the first time you do it as the range the Zoe tells you is based roughly on your current speed (so if you are doing 70mph it will woefully underestimate the range you could eek out if you drop back to 50mph) but you can bank on at least 4mpkwh on eco at 55mph or less – so if my back up services is 20 miles after the first then I would make sure I have at least 5kwh (25 per cent assuming battery is 20kwh rather than 22 just for leeway) left when I pull into the first services. If you press and hold the right hand stalk end button before you start it resets the trip computer and you can then toggle through using the same button to see average mpkwh, Kwh used etc on that TRIP. You will be horrified how quickly the range drops as your speed increases especially if uphill – but if in doubt just slow down!

Tips for that journey:it’s a long gentle deceptive up hill from Southampton to past Basingstoke so energy use goes up. Recharge at Southampton m27 or Winchester m3 if in any doubt of getting to m3 fleet. Up from fleet there is a long term roadworks for a long way that restricts to 50 mph – watch your range stretch out magically… M3 Southampton East bound ecotricity has a dodgy button – just keep pressing it until it finally registers (I have reported to ecotricity)

Good luck

I see these difference with my car. It’s as you said that the car sends its battery remaining figures when you turn it off. It doesn’t resend the data periodically. The voltages on batteries change when they are rest, this is normal. This will give different charge levels when you return to your car after a period.

My feeling is that the car is using the miles / kwh figure, if you re-set the m/kwh reading the predicted range seems to vary even more wildly until you have driven for a distance and it’s stabilised a bit. The algorithm could change with the firmware version in your car, without firmware release notes, who knows what the differences are between versions.

Seems things are back to normal today – Network Status showed “Connected”, and even in the same place on the drive, the ZE app is showing updated battery status, and the battery status update button is working (within a minute or two, the email comes through and the data is updated) 🙂

I’m not aware of any of the cars with the new motor in the UK yet. The old car would be able to do 136km, provided you keep your speed down and keep to a steady speed. Just keep an eye on the estimated range and be prepared to slow down a little if you think it is going to be a bit tight. In winter the range drops due to use of the heater, the battery is colder so it has a higher internal resistance and the wind is denser. Generally we get around 110 – 130km range when the temperature is around 0 Celcius. Perhaps some owners in Norway can advise you of their winter ranges as your temperatures are usually a bit below ours. The new motor is supposed to give you about 20% more range.

I suspect the predicted range is worked out by the voltage in the battery. The curve of remaining power v battery voltage isn’t very linear and the voltage that the battery has will vary with temperature which all makes for a poor estimation of power remaining. As the amount of power you use driving the car varies and the batteries internal resistance goes up as the temperature goes down. The range estimate is always going to be dodgy.

When driving on the M4 a couple of weeks ago my range dropped steadily and faster than it should have until it got to 27 miles it didn’t drop for about 15 miles of driving. When I looked at the consumed power I was happy that the range meter was being pessimistic. The only positive point for me is that the reports from Leaf owners suggests that their range meter is even more inaccurate.

ICE cars gauges can also be terrible. They were a bit more consistent though. You never know, Renault could always come up with a better algorithm in a future firmware update. Presumably the ecu knows the true battery capacity, gets a temperature from the battery pack and knows the pack voltage and the current currrently beiing consumed. It also knows how much power was put in and has been consumed. Work out the maths or populate a look up table and the job’s done.

“Seriously? That’s crazy. We might be early adopters, but we’re not alpha testers!

Have they been supplying you with a replacement EV for all this downtime?”

Oh yes deadly serious and the loaners vary from ICE to a Nissan Leaf and presently paying battery lease for Zoe plus petrol for the cleo loaner, not ideal.

In my 40 year driving career I have purchased many new cars and about a quarter have turned out to have defects but I can say that Zoe’s eight week off-the-road takes the record but defects apart I can say that Zoe has been one of my best
driving cars.

Just wonder what happens if they can’t fix it has we both miss the Zoe.

Unlikely to be able to charge a bigger battery faster unless you upgrade the charging stations and the current they deliver. Any improvements will be marginal

Easy in theory to provide more current; double the size, double the current for the same voltage if added in parallel.

Mine has generally been working up until last battery report yesterday at 8:20am, and the IQ Routes data was working on the way home around 6pm (though when I stopped on the drive, the battery status was never sent).

If everyone is having similar issues; I suspect it could be Renault’s end; though from my experience with the RLink system, it also could just be utterly unreliable! Does seem worse in the last 34 hours than normal though (although I’ve had failed battery status updates while charging, I’ve never noticed it not have the timestamp of when I last got out the car).

Something to keep an eye on!

In our 23 months of ownership we have lost our Zoe no less than seven months but this must be the price we early adopters must pay

Seriously? That’s crazy. We might be early adopters, but we’re not alpha testers!

Have they been supplying you with a replacement EV for all this downtime?