I’m on 4500 since 1 Sept 2013 – I have the 12,000 battery lease (£93).

I was getting a mpkWh rating of around 3.6 in the cold and certainly overnight charging in sub-zero temperatures results in a longer charge and a lower predicted range. However, for xmas I received a diy tyre pressure sensor kit and I went and filled the tyres to 37psi (instead of the normal 36) because on cold mornings I noticed the tyres were down to 34psi. I’ve also been taking a slightly different route to work – same distance but via some 30 and 40mph roads instead of A-roads at 70mph (on which I drive at around 56mph). My motorway driving has not changed much – maybe slightly slower with the overall slower traffic in cold, wet or dark.

Today I managed to arrive at work with a mpkWh of 4.52 and a predicted range of 60 miles after having already done my 30 mile commute!

So I don’t know what is going on but I’m starting to suspect that driving at 54mph instead of 56mph, avoiding multiple periods of acceleration up to above 40mph and taking a route with maybe less hills has a much higher impact than I previously thought.

Basically, my car is telling my that I can drive to work 30 miles including 20 miles on the motorway on a cold morning (2deg c) and achieve a predicted range of almost 100 miles!

Maybe the problem isn’t that the battery has less capacity in cold weather but that the car runs less efficiently in cold weather meaning you can get the same range as in summer but you need to ‘try harder’ and drive more carefully – the car is less forgiving in winter?

For reference, I take the car out of Eco mode whenever I’ll be driving above 50mph and sometimes if it gets cold because Eco mode heating doesn’t work as well. All my driving is with lights on, I pretty much always pre-heat, the heating is on auto, 22degrees. The car is charged overnight, outside, on a charge schedule of between 1:30am and 6:30am 🙂

I’ve noticed a couple of things that might explain some of the slow charging rates you’ve noticed.

First, in cold weather my Zoe takes *way* longer to finish off the last 5% or so and I believe it keeps a track of how long it takes in order to predict the next charge duration. Because I charge overnight it has ‘learnt’ that conditioning the battery takes ages. However, if you charge from, say, 30% to 50% and then calculate the time taken it is still the same as it always was.

Secondly, I’ve noticed that the chargers themselves throttle back based on available current. One example of this for me was at Ikea wembley (ecotricity standard 22kWh model) which was supposed to be 22kWh but had throttled back to 11kWh. Another example is the Temple Row charger in Birmingham (evolt) which will deliver 22kWh if you are the only user but which will scale back to 11kWh if both sockets are in use.

I had no problems charging at the full 43kWh as recently as 2 weeks ago and regularly top up at 22kWh at hopwood services and at various chargers in the Birmingham city centre so I don’t believe there has been any sort of software update.

Note, however, that the car will take into account the recent charge history and the temperature and the condition of the battery and how charged it already is before predicting the charge time and the charger will take into account what power it has available.

On the French-side, however, their comparably-sized sedan, the Fluence Z.E. has been a sales disappointment. So much so, that the company stopped producing the five-passenger, electric sedan – maximum range of 113 miles – last November 2013. Now Globes in Israel is reporting that the production line in the Turkish factory assembling the car will be closed. Production first began there in 2011.

Actually there were two versions of the Fluence: the battery swap model engineered at considerable expense for Better Place, the failed US-Israeli electric car network operator; and a fixed battery model, which was sold – in limited numbers – in Europe.

Strange, I thought all Fluence ZE’s were produced in Turkey.

Very strange, has anyone ever heard of a European fixed battery model? Europe (Denmark aside) didn’t get battery swap stations but ne-one has ever before suggested that the battery in European cars is fixed? How come I have jsut had a letter from RCI Finance confirming that my battery has been exchanged? – of course it hasn’t, it’s the car that’s been exchanged but Renault clearly believe the battery pack is exchangeable!

• This reply was modified 12 years, 3 months ago by  pauledg.

lol – i do see the funny side

BUT i paid and brought the zoe for these kind of ‘gadgets’ and inovations.

my car is at the dealer today for another issue (battery charge impossible) and also mentioned the latest issue.

they are keeping her for a few days to investigate!

my car failed to charge again last night. cant get to work as the battery is too low… thats 2 nights in a row!