Hi again to Ian, Dr Steele, and the 4 other Zoe buyers from the Sheffield Renault dealership should they be on this site. 6 buyers in all so far so we’re not alone!
Well, I drove my Zoe in this morning and picked it up this afternoon.
Interestingly the senior electrician could not find any particular fault in his computer assessment to account for the red warning rectangle on the dash the other day (see my previous post) but found that the car’s computer had recorded numerous faults including many that only relate to an Ice car , eg, fault with a timing chain, coil etc.
Apparently the Zoe shares its computer control unit with the one installed in the Clio, Captur etc which I find odd but fascinating. He said I, or my wife, could have done something very trivial, like pressing the Stop button when the gear was still in Drive, and the computer took this to register as a fault. And I seem to remember reading some time ago of someone on this forum who had had a situation where he had accidentally pushed the gear lever into neutral while on the move and the car had, effectively, closed down at least for a while.
Anyway, I’ve driven away with my Zoe purring along as before. The question is, will this happen again? If it does the electrician’s advice was that I would need to bring it in and not drive around assuming its merely a computer glitch.
Happy motoring everyone,
Richard of Sheffield

I use the neutral a lot when going down hill or when I see a red light from very far away. It’s a great way to save energy.

You can also update the table
Surya, Belgium, Intens Neptune Grey, Ordered 25/01/2014, Received 27/05/2014, Dealer: H Mahy, Ghent

It’s silly shifting into neutral. It is not ideal, electrically or mechanically, when it reegages ‘drive’ and putting into neutral has absolutely no functional difference to simply easing off the accel pedal until the power consumed drops to ‘0kW’. When easing off the accel pedal, you are not compelled to take it completely off!! Just hold the pedal so it gives neither accel or decel, ie 0kW, and the car is doing exactly what it would do as drive selector to neutral.

I think you will find once you get 0kW up you just have to keep your foot steady, as it is a constant power mode of pedal operation once you are on the move.

Damn, I’m confused now, and payed attention to this yesterday on my 100km drive. It didn’t behave the way I remembered it to at all. I’m not sure it behaves completely like you describe either. It might be a mix between the two, but I’m unsure now