Hello

I picked up an ex-demo zen today and also wondered how I can get the 3 month tom tom services trial to work?

I have managed to create an account online but when I log in to check battery status it won’t update, do you have to change anything in the nav unit in the car?

The dealer also gave me 2 contracts, 1st one is “my z.e. Interactive 36 months” and 2nd “your connected services” both have different activation codes, any ideas??

Thanks

Appmacguy – awesome stuff! I was thinking of doing the exact same thing.

Useful bit
If you get a PodPoint charger saying “charging temp suspended” whilst the Zoe says “ongoing checks,” keep trying, perhaps without unplugging the Zoe-end.

Waffle/life story
I’ve used a public point 4 times in the last week, at the Minories Car Park in central London. It’s 55 miles, 40 miles of which are on a motorway, and 10 miles of which are on decent-speed A roads. Hence, I need to charge to get home again.

There are 4 PodPoint chargers, each with a 7kw Mennekes and a 3kw ‘standard’ socket. There are 2 on the first floor, and 2 on the second, each in marked EV bays. I’d been to check them out once in advance, to see how many ICE vehicles were parked in the EV bays.

Day One
I arrive with 39% battery remaining, and there are ICE vehicles in some of the bays. Of the four charge points, one is “Initialising” and won’t work, and one is “Out Of Service”. I drive to the other pair of points, swipe my card, plug everything in and leave the car happily charging.

I return at 6pm after a day at a conference, and find the car is only at 45% charge. The Zoe says “Ongoing Checks” and the point says “Charging temp suspended”. I unplug it, and plug it back in, and after going the point going though the usual “awaiting vehicle ready” state, it goes back to “charging temp suspended.” I repeat this a few times, sometimes ‘starting’ the car in between, but to no avail. I call Source London, report the failures, and then try the other point.

The second point does the exact same thing the first time. The Zoe is flashing “Ongoing checks,” and I’m beginning to presume the Zoe is at fault. I abort the charge from the point, disconnect only at the point end, and start again. All the while the Zoe is still saying “Ongoing checks.” I start the charge again (with the cable already in the Zoe) and this time it thankfully works. I call the wife saying I’ll be late home and miss the kids’ bedtime, then use the opportunity to go for a curry. After an hour the car has enough charge to get me home.

Whilst faffing trying to get the car to charge, I had a few conversations with the car park staff (primarily to sort out parking fees). I mentioned the ICE cars, and they kindly put ‘inconsiderate parking’ notices on their windscreens. I also left some very polite handwritten notes.

Day Two
This time I go straight to the point that had worked yesterday, and it seemed to work fine. I complain about two ICE vehicles in the EV bays, today’s attendant doesn’t seem to understand the point of leaving notes. He says “but they’re at work now.” “Yes, that’s why we leave a note, so they read it when they get back.” This was lost upon him, and in the end he agreed in that way people do when they just want to get rid of you.

I emailed City of London, and they said they’d stopped having EV-only bays months ago, had taken down the signs asking people to only use them if the car park was full, and that they didn’t out inconsiderate parking notices on cars. I pointed out this wasn’t the case yesterday, but never received a reply. Pretty annoying if the car park staff aren’t on our side.

The car charged, and I got home fine, discovering that the a journey that uses 60% charge at 60mph takes 95% charge at 90mph 😛

Day Three
I go straight to my ‘regular’ point, but it and the one next to it are both marked “Out of service”; my heart sinks. I went to the other pair on the second floor, which included the one that failed me first time around. I had the “Ongoing checks”/”Charging temp suspended” problem several times on one point. I gave up and tried the adjacent point, and after a few goes it worked. I came back later, and it was fully charged.

Day Four
I went to the point that had worked the day before, plugged in, and it worked straight away.

Conclusion
As we all know, public points are unreliable. It seems it’s worth trying a few times if a charger doesn’t work.

I’ve got the advantage in London that if none of the points in one car park work, there’s another a mile or two down the road. Charging in a car park with multiple points seems like a good idea, as at least there’s some redundancy if one or more aren’t working.

The main thing putting me off driving to London is not the charging infrastructure, it’s the sodding 3 hour journey thanks to queuing for the Blackwall Tunnel. I can see myself driving to London for family days out at the weekend, when the traffic isn’t as terrible.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 6 months ago by  Deejay.

Any comment on how you were feeling when you finally got to a working charger? Had you lots trust in the estimated miles remaining by that point – I would have 😉 Do you know what % was left in the battery when you started charging (it’s in the email sent to you when you start charging if you have that setup and it’s shown on the dash)?

I have noticed already that, contrary to expectations, steady motorway driving at around 57mph will give you a better mpkWh rating than slower driving in a suburban environment. The only ‘catch’ is that hills are much more expensive if you are travelling fast.Something like the M40 which is pretty flat overall (if I remember correctly) would be a good stretch of road for testing 🙂

Hi all,

I have done 127miles with 22miles left in the battery. all on the motorway at 57mph on cruise control. I had a full car, myself 3kids and my girlfriend.

it’s was only meant to be a 100 miles trip but all the chargers I went to were all off line, so I charged at Renault martins in hatch who were very nice people.

I found that the rlink was rubbish at finding chargers compatible with the Zoe.

Picked up our new Zoe on Monday – been checking it out and taking it on small runs this week. All OK. Did notice one thing, if you try to take out the charging cable by pressing the button on the remote control all is well, but I pressed it twice by mistake and got a “battery cannot be charged” error message with the orange spanner appearing for the entire next trip. Only when I opened the charging socket using the remote again and then closing it manually, did it reset and was happy again.

I just received a marketing email about the Zoe from Renault with the subject of ‘Doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, looks fabulous!’. The test is as follows:

Dear Mr Goldsmith

Thanks to the Government’s plug-in car grant, we can now offer the smooth handling, super-stylish Renault ZOE Expression with free home charger for just £13,995* (+£70 mandatory battery hire)†.

This next-generation car comes with:

• Multimedia touchscreen with integrated navigation, Bluetooth, voice control and 3D sound
• Automatic climate control
• Super-smooth stepless acceleration
• Near-silent driving
• Free home charging unit
• Achieving the maximum 5 star EURO NCAP safety rating
• With preconditioning, enabling you to preheat or air-condition the car while it’s charging

TAKE A TEST DRIVE TODAY!

Your sincerely
Phil York
Director, Marketing

just got to say that prior to getting my Zoe a little over 2 months ago i was an “EV Virgin” with plenty of range anxiety…. but i am over this and i am very comfortable with running the battery or range down to nothing…

and to prove what i am saying here is my current range which i will happily drive to town or wherever without any range anxiety

I just tweeted @renault_uk to let them know about this fantastic site #renault_zoe

I’d certainly be up for holding such an event for three months battery lease in return.