This thread is starting to explain to me why my Zoe (only 11 days old) has shown a max of 71 miles range and normally in the 60s when I was expecting a higher figure. Sounds as though come the summer things will change for me.

I am also hearing that if kept in the garage overnight this helps the range – have I got this right? Is that cos in a warmer environment the battery experiences less resistance and therefore a greater range?

Hi everbody!
I’ve had a Zoe a little over two weeks and have already done quite a few miles. The dealer organised British Gas to fit the charger, which went smoothly, at no cost to me. It is 32A so you can get a decent amount of power in the battery in an hour or so, and certainly a full charge in E7 hours.
I have done a few long trips but found them stressful due to charging stations being out of action and to imcompatibility issues between the stations and the car charger.
I have found lots of useful info on these forums and it has been good to benefit from your experiences.

My range is predicted at around 72 but the battery is only 50% used after my 40 mile round trip commute. Helps living in the north west not far from the coast. The coldest it’s been so far is 4.

The commute is 90% national speed limit (motorways and dual carriageway) but with recent roadwork and traffic delays my average speed is low 30s. That might be helping.

It might also be nice to note in this topic that there currently is a low mileage battery rental option as well: http://myrenaultzoe.com/index.php/2014/01/new-low-mileage-driver-offer-for-renault-zoe/

I saw somewhere that Renault sanction until water is touching the bottom of the car so around 180mm.

Yes, there is active cooling of the battery pack. If you are in a quiet space while charging at a faster clip then you can hear the fans at the back of the car, sounds like a rather refined hoover under the floor and different to the much louder sound of the cooling fan for the underbonnet cooling circuit. You can hear it while in the car too, but it is quite subtle.

Apparently this was one of the reasons why the Zoe was a bit later to market, and why the Leaf was rushed ahead (to beat the Zoe to market). The Zoe has some thermal management in the battery pack, but the Leaf did not have a second redesign process of the battery pack that probably would have included better thermal management in the rush to get the car to market.

See: http://insideevs.com/race-beat-renault-zoe-nissan-rushed-leaf-production-without-critical-battery-redesign/ for more details. It is an interesting story.

Yes – You’re right, there is a min percentage battery charge required which makes sense but is working for us and handy in the winter.

I wonder if there is a difference between the Zoe and Leaf when watching that video, relating to the active cooling of the battery that the Leaf does not have. I would dearly love to drop the battery pack to have a good look at it on the ZOE, but I assume there are air entrance/exit points at the top of the battery pack under the rear seat, at its heighest point. And that getting water anywhere near that level would be a bad thing. Or is the cooling a closed system of heat distribution around the battery pack?

This only works if the battery charge is over 45%. You can also set the times using the interactive services but I have had mixed success with this. Might just be the 3G reception or the car being in standby but it doesn’t always seem to get to the car. It works fine when it’s plugged in but not always when it’s just parked.

Anyone have any experience with this?

I don’t imagine the ZOE has an air filter, since there’s no combustion engine, unless it’s required for the battery cooling.

I’m pretty sure I saw a fording depth in the manual, I’ll take another look.