Sorry, I interpreted what was said as “leaving the car connected to the charger when at 100%” as bad; which I’m sure I read wasn’t the case. If the concern was actually just about leaving the battery unused, I guess that’s different 🙂

You had me worried about overnight charging; my car will be connected from 5:30pm – 7:30am and will likely be full within two hours hour, so that’s around 12 hours/night connected to the charger but full!

ive run the battery down to 1%

what I found was that the responsiveness of the car goes – best way I can describe is like when a remote control car’s batteries start to ‘fade’ and the car slows down.

trouble with range is you get no info once you have less than 5% (as the mileage/battery indicator goes red and shows blank miles)

also the recovery guys take AGESSSSSSSSSSS – when I had several BCI issues in the early days of my zoe the recovery trucks took upwards for 1.5 hours…. not good at all…

Sorry the link seems to have dropped off,

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/

It’s a chemistry thing. Any battery deteriorates with age due to impurities in the chemicals that are used to make them reacting and reducing the potency of the wanted chemicals. When you charge a battery it effectively changes one chemical into another within the battery a process that is reversed when the battery is discharged. If you fully charge the battery, the voltage in each of the cells is a little higher and this additional voltage encourages the un-wanted chemical reactions to take place and deteriorates the battery. It’s generally accepted that a lithium Ion battery should be left at 40% charge for best life but this varies between different varieties. Manufacturers are developing their methods to try and increase the capacity of the cells and extend their life. Different types of batteries like different things, for instance lead acid batteries like to be fully charged all the time and really don’t like deep discharge. If you want to find out a bit more take a look at this link it goes into quite a lot of detail on most battery types.

So say I’ve driven a number of miles, and I get a bit range anxiety, and I plug in with say 55% battery remaining, can I give the batteries a splash and dash charge? I.e. I park up at a 43kw charger and give it 10-15mins will that do any damage?

Sandy

There is no problem with a short duration charge, it won’t adversely affect the life of your battery. Many of us just put sufficient charge into the car to get us home rather than wait for a full charge. Your car needs an occasional full charge to equalise the cells but as Indi says limit the time that you leave the car at full charge and you will be ok. Resist the temptation to plug your car in to top up to 100% if you know there is sufficient range to complete your next trip for best life. The battery is rented so you are covered should the capacity drop dramatically to below 75% but if you can reduce the capacity loss, why not, you can then drive your car further. I’m sure Renault expect the majority of their batteries to last the lifetime of the car.

I spoke to a guy at a motorway EV charging station with his Tesla…who worked in the battery industry (I think he was one of the owners actually) and was involved with Renault EV battery testing etc….so an expert…and his advice was no problem charging to 100% just don’t leave it idle for hours or days after. If you are going to drive off in it after charging to 100% that’s fine and no lasting damage to the battery.

It’s a balance right? I use it and don’t abuse it but I don’t get pedantic about as it is rented as others have said and not really for us to worry about.

I’ve seen reports of someone who has only ever used rapid chargers, and had no issues. But as @kentish says; the battery is rented; and Renault haven’t said not to do it, so they mustn’t have any real concerns with it 🙂

There doesn’t seem to be any charging guidance from Renault but general consensus is rapid charging is fine but best not done all the time.
But then, as it’s not your battery – why worry ? 🙂

I’ve read that on the internet too – both engines will be available for a while, so good to hear dealers confirming that.

I’m wondering whether they might switch to CCS cables with the revamp of the engine and battery? It would make sense to be consistent with the other European manufacturers who have released electric cars since the Zoe was first released (i.e. BMW and Volkswagen), although I would understand existing Zoe owners feeling a bit left out to dry if that is the case.

I should stop speculating – wait and see!