Don’t forget that Nissan and Renault are essentially the same company (although you wouldn’t think Renault listened to Nissan concerning communication and chargepoint (tomtom) POI databases). In Holland the Nissan fast chargers (which I believe are not behind a gate, unlike the current 11 kW chargers Renault dealers have to get) are currently getting an AC connection to also allow the Zoe to charge there. So you can include Nissan dealers, as long as they don’t just have CHAdeMo chargers.

I have found one public fast charger now that already includes a 44 kW AC Mennekes plug and have used it succesfully. Generally all charge cards in Holland are (or should soon) be accepted at every public charge port (and I know they are working on European compatibility as well at least in the countries surrounding NL). I have an Essent card which is free and has the best rates as well. Soon it will be possible to choose your own electricity provider for the charge points, so there is progress.

But indeed it seems we are still early adapters and Zoe owners more than Leaf owners because we cannot use the DC fast chargers (over 100 around Holland). A lot will get AC Mennekes cables soon at least, a simple small update.

I have tried a couple of public chargers around Holland now and have had two with errors. One had to ports that went red when tried to charge. The telephone support tried but couldn’t reach it remotely to reset, so I had to change restaurants to another place that did have a working charger nearby. The other was a semi quick 22 kW outlet attached to a DC fast chargers at a hotel. Initial charging was okay and pretty quick, but as I came back from a toilet visit (I only needed 20 minutes) the charger had gone red and stopped (but got a few minutes of charge at least). I called the support number (middle of the night), but after listening to the waiting music to be connected to an operator for 5 minutes or so I gave up on that and went homeward with just a bit more km in the battery than needed according to Tomtom. Over the journey the battery mileage slowly got less compared to the nav km’s, so I had to drive slower (80 where 100 was allowed) to increase it again. I did know of a few 11 kW chargers enroute just in case, which also showed that they were available, so it was cool to see how far I could get. The miles stayed identical, but I adjusted the route to include more miles through town (instead of freeway) which I know would instantly give me more miles because of the much better economy then, which it did.

At 15 km their is a warning light and the miles go red, below 10 or so it starts blinking, below 6 km dashes showed and I got an automatic SMS (which I set in my ZE app) to warn me the Zoe was getting low on charge. At home it looked like this:

After plugging in, the display indicated a calculated charge time of a bit more than 8 hours.

So depending where I go, charging is challenging and often still not reliable. On top of that you have to know which smartphone apps have the best chargepoints database, because they tend to differ. If you just use the Tomtom database, you are screwed. At least you think you are, since the database is very outdated and hardly shows any chargepoints. It also doesn’t show what type it is. I believe Nissan uses chargemap, which can be updated by users. The most official chargepoint map in Holland is also downloadable as a POI set for Tomtom, except that according to Tomtom (I asked) it is Renault that’s directly responsible for updating the Tomtom via R-link. I know Nissan also actively has user fora of their own in countries to actively listen to users, Renault doesn’t as far as I know.

I love the car, but the infrastructure is still struggling (although I realize it’s much, much better than in other countries already) and Renault doesn’t make it any easier. And that won’t help with the electric revolution.

Finally heard some news from Renault Sweden today. They have been harassed by a lot of people for not selling the ZOE until 2015 (and not allowing us Swedes to buy in Denmark due to the battery lease).
So it seems that Sweden might get the current non-climatized ZOE next spring!
And they are working on looking into the option for me to lease a ZOE from Denmark… even though I would prefer to buy it and pre-pay 3years battery lease, but that seems not possible.
My five year old still talks about the ZOE and the wonderful six days we had it on loan from Denmark in early June, we all loved the quiet and wonderful car, hope to get answers soon since it’s being launched in Denmark August 3rd.

@Mervyn Good stuff!

British Gas arrived on Monday whilst I was away on work, and fobbed off the missus by telling her our previous survey was done by ‘the battery people’ and not British Gas, which is of course utter tosh. They did another survey and then left without installing the charger or telling her when they’d be back or what would happen next.

I’ve since been chasing up with the BG EV charger installation team. They’re also telling me that I’ll have to pay extra because the fusebox is on the ‘wrong’ side of the house… The engineer estimated 35m of cabling would be needed, my architect other half estimated 15m 😛

There seems to be a whole bunch of teething problems. Supply, of the cars, 17″ wheels and occasional charging cable.

It’s a crying shame that Buzzar has had to go from shining advocate to legal crusader – major discrepancies between expectation and reality.

For instance, can Renault afford to get involved in endless debates about ‘my car was off the road for x days so I shouldn’t have to pay my battery lease’. From our perspective, it sounds reasonable, but do you think Renault has worked out any kind of rate card for lease refunds? I seriously doubt it.

Also, when your faulty Zoe turns up at the local dealer and is met by a mechanic clutching a plug spanner, who remembers some of his week’s Zoe training, are we really surprised when he can’t fix it? I’m not saying it’s acceptable, I’m just saying it’s not surprising.

By way of comparison, when my broadband first went wrong many years ago, the engineer that came to my house knew less than I did. Now, they are seriously clued up with good diagnostic equipment.

This is the birth of a new product type and business model. We shouldn’t have to suffer birthing pains, but the reality is we’ll have to grit our teeth to get through it.

Cheers,
Mark

Why are Renault UK so difficult!!

This week I’m taking them to the Small Claims Court over the £49 payment I gave them in March 2012. I was told last week (in writing from RUK CS) that this was NOT for a reserving a car but for a newsletter and information. They wrote:

…was to gain details of interested customers and keep them fully informed on a regular basis with updates including the launch dates and available dates for a test drive

They keep saying that I’ll get the money back but they have not returned it. Time for action!!

Sorry to hear of the continued problems with Buzzar Zoe and that RUK will still be taking battery payments.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  dbdb.
• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  dbdb.

If you have only been able to use the car for 11 days I would only expect to pay the battery lease on that. If we were talking fuel such as petrol here it would still be in the tank for you to use minus a little when you go it back.

I’d really think about legal advice and perhaps approaching Citizens advice bureau on rejection of goods not fit for the intended purpose.

I’ll be watching for reports back from anyone going to the WhatCar? event. I’d like to go but can’t.

The i3 should start well under £30k including the battery and the plug in car grant. PCP payments will be around £350/month.

Not double but a LOT more money for a car that does basically the same thing as a Zoe. Of course that is true for most Renaults. They cost boatload less than a BMW in the same class.

Press wouldn’t compare any BMW to a Renault. They don’t compete for the same customers. But now there is an overlapping price range from Zoe through Leaf to i3. All are EVs. All have about the same range and do more or less the same thing.

And here I am cross shopping all three.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Andrew_Debbie.
• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Andrew_Debbie.
• This reply was modified 12 years, 9 months ago by  Andrew_Debbie.