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Hi all – I’ve got 3 issues going on with the ZOE which I’d like to share in case anyone has any thoughts or insight:
1) Dashboard – the car has just come back from Brayleys in MK with the new, darker dashboard. I had assumed that the darker dash would be the same colour as the door inserts (ours has the dark interior) – but no, the dashboard is a lighter grey than the door inserts, so we now have a 3-colour interior; beige, dark grey and slightly lighter grey! Is that what everyone else is getting? Seems odd Renault would not have matched the colours….
2) De-misting – now the cold weather is taking hold, we’re noticing that it’s taking up to 10 mins to defrost/de-mist the windscreen. Our recollection from last winter was that de-misting was a ZOE strength because of the instant heat – we feel this is a noticeable deterioration. Brayleys say ‘nothing wrong’ – they checked to make sure the cabin filters weren’t damp, but other than that seem unconcerned. Anyone else have a view on de-misting performance on cold mornings?
3) Doors unlocking – twice before our ZOE has died because the 12V battery has gone flat. In both cases early signs of failure were that we found the doors unlocked, indicating the 12V battery was getting very low power. After the last breakdown, Renault changed the 12V battery and all has been well for 4 months, until last week….. we found the doors unlocked and are therefore of the view the car will break down in the next few weeks. Anyone else come across this? Again, Brayleys say ‘no fault found’, but this is clearly an intermittent failure of the traction battery to keep the 12V battery charged
Other than that, we’re still enjoying the car and it gets used pretty much every day – I’ve been following with interest the thread about lower battery rental charges and wonder if Renault will proactively reach out to existing owners to take advantage of the new rates – would be nice to think they value our commitment to early adoption! I wish…
Cheers,
MarkIn reply to: Zoe Insurance
Having just taken delivery of my Zoe last Friday, I took out a new policy on Sunday with General Accident, the cover note that Renault gave me for 5 days didn’t cover commuting so I had to take out a new policy as I didn’t manage to sell the old car until Monday. I have 26 days to get the new insurers proof of No claims bonus. They reserve the right to charge me extra premium after 10 days if I can’t produce the no claims bonus certificate. The old insurer, Privilege won’t issue a proof of no claims bonus until they get the certificate of insurance back and then it will take them up to 2 weeks to do so! I’m sure I’m not insured once the phone call was made so why they need a bit of paper back I couldn’t work out. It’s annoyed me enough to dissuade me from insuring with them again If I can help it. They are charging me £47.70 to cancel the old policy which seems a bit excessive for a 5 minute telephone call and a couple of minutes work to transfer the remaining premium back into my account and put a print out into an envelope.
I asked about the battery and it’s covered by the insurance provided it hasn’t been removed from the car (e.g. removed by a garage). It is covered for theft from the car.
I took out gap insurance from Warranty Direct, for £177 for 3 years, significantly cheaper than the £399 that Renault quoted me.
In reply to: Charging Issues?
Ok, just collected my new Zoe last week, have found a couple of nearby charging points I can use but most of them seem not to work, here’s what happens:
Dashboard says ‘ongoing checks’ ze light flashes on and off blue – but no charging taking place. When charging is taking place the ze light pulses on and off and there’s a whine.
I haven’t had the Battery Charging Impossible message on the dash.Anybody know if this is normal? I’m new to all this! Thanks.
Topic: Cable liability?
I’m insured with the NFU for both my home and car insurance. Along with the usual battery insurance problems, I had 2 other things that we mutually negotiated. Insurance for the polar unit has agreed to be covered under the home insurance. Bearing in mind it’s about £1000 I’m told.
The other thing that the NFU agreed to cover was cable liability in the event someone trips over it or if someone gets electrocuted due to cable failure.
Just wondered if anyone else got this included? Had a cheap quote off admiral but it wasn’t as comprehensive in terms of cover.
There a neat little row of 6 charging stations just up behind the Chiltern Hundreds pub, about 3/4 of a mile from where I live and 300 yards from the gym I go to.
Tesla Supercharger ones…Grrrr
Needless to say, the one chap in Maidstone who owns one is happy as the proverbial pig in muck.
I wonder if you can get an adapter – they would charge a Zoe in about 10 minutes, although the battery may get a bit warm 🙂
I am struggling to resist the temptation of the latest Zoe offer, for £10k with £50pm battery.
I’ll go arrange a test drive sometime soon. Have to say, though, I did go take a look at Zoe when it first came out early last year and wasn’t initially impressed. I felt the interior was average, but also cramped. For £10k+£50pm, however, it becomes a question of value rather than, necessarily, quality.
… However, for a while now I have been thinking “gee, EV prices must have bottomed out and it can only be so long before everyone’s after one, and prices go up!”. Yet, I seem to be sorely mistaken and prices just keep coming down. Is this offer, ’til 31 Dec, something that will go away in the new year, or drop further still??
Which has lead me to another thought…. there has been talk of a 300km Zoe for 2014. Obviously hasn’t happened, but would make sense to be reducing prices now, and unloading batteries, if they have that in the wings for a ‘Zoe 2’ 2015 launch and still have lots of unsold Zoe 1’s around. Drop the rental for 7.5k miles so that the bigger battery can again be set to £70pm without p!ssing off too many recent customers who have taken the £50pm rate.
Is that it?
Or is it simply that LG (from what I have gleaned from an internet trawl this morning) can now get batteries delivered to VMs for £150/kWh? Apparently, that is now the case.
Ah! Sweet temptation! Is this the golden moment to get one, or a clever ploy to draw me in and pick up obsolete stock?
(PS – I did ask and apparently if you have a £70pm lease, you are stuck on it. That has to be an ‘ouch’ to recent customers, and causes me to hesitate to wonder what might be offered next year that I, too, could be stuck on a lesser deal.)
In reply to: Winter tips for accurate battery use
I’ve been trying to estimate the charge time and getting it to finish at the point when I need to use to car. Charging batteries generates heat within them so it seems logical to use the battery while it’s still warm?
In reply to: Winter tips for accurate battery use
Are you preheating it? It’s mostly for the cabin, but may also help the battery.
Yep, I got the same reply so if you want to buy the battery you will need to P/X your 18 month old Zoe for £8k against the
Zoe-i and find an extra £12k to drive the same model!I think not 🙁
In reply to: Zoe In Car Heating When Stationary
In my case the app/website works every time as long as it’s plugged in. I have tried it while it was charging and when it wasn’t. It always worked. There may be a 30 seconds to 1 minute delay but it always works.
Unplug it and it doesn’t work at all. It’s like you said, it doesn’t look for the signal and doesn’t update. The website/app only shows the battery status when you actually turned it off last. I am not sure if this should update every so often? I do agree that there is definitely a bug in this.
