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Greetings!
Just found this website and want to share my experiences with the Zoe after 1 year of fun and frustration. Overall, I have been very pleased with the car, and as an early adopter, I expected a few problems along the way. The range is coming up to expectations in the summer, but not so good in the winter.
Charging Point Fun
Picked up the car in Aug 2013, and my electrician had installed the wrong type of charging point cable, which he immediately sorted. (I decided not to go with British Gas after having some difficulties). However after about a couple of weeks, the car was taking a long time in “checking” mode and eventually came up with “Charging Not Possible”
It turns out that the Zoe checks the resistance to earth which has to be less than 80 ohms. My electrician had installed an earth prod, and the change of weather had increased the resistance to more than 80 ohms. He rewired the earth to connect to the neutral before the fusebox, and no problems since then.
(The charging point at Charlotte Road Car Park in Bath may have a similar problem!)
Economy 7 Meter Fun
Ecotricity instructed SSE to install an Economy 7 meter that didn’t seem to be clocking up the right number units. (I take weekly reading of my meter and car meter, and compare the figures).
I configured the car to start its overnight charge at 1:00am. The call centre will tell you that Economy 7 starts at 00:30am through to 7:30am. THIS IS NOT TRUE however, I have only just found out the real answer.After much faffing around, Ecotricity instructed G4S to install a smart meter, which seemed to work. I then encountered problems with the Zoe which I will mention later. The point is, Economy 7 gives you an equivalent of approx 310 MPG so it was important to get it right.
The recently, I noticed that the E7 units didn’t tally with the car meter readings again. The answer is during British Summer Time, Economy 7 starts from 1:30am through to 8:30am. When the clock go back, its 0:30am.
I have now changed the calendar on Zoe to start charging at 2:00am!
Zoe Calendar & email notification Fun
I have setup my preferences to notify me when the charge starts and stops – useful when doing a day time charge and confirmation that the charge went hunky dory during the night time. This stopped last October, and in Feb 2014, the calendar kept resetting itself to a 24hr charge (and overriding my 1am to 6am schedule). This was difficult to diagnose, and the real problem was only discovered when the the garage attempted to perform an upgrade of car’s software. The Communications Unit as faulty. This was replaced and no problems (except one) since.
Cannot charge Over a Saturday / Sunday Morning
This is weird – if I plug Zoe in after about 9:00pm on a Saturday (with the calendar set to 1am), no charge occurs. I will be reporting this when Zoe goes in for its first service this Thursday.
Tom Tom loves petrol stations!
I thought I’d configure the sat nav not to show petrol stations, only charging points which, from memory, is done through settings. And also make a bleep when passing near one. This only works once, and then on the next trip it gets reset. Nothing major, just mildly frustrating.
Experience with Charging Points
- Chargemaster installed a point in a Waitrose car park but with no G2 signal. So it didn’t work.Local Renault garage came to the rescue.
- The Podpoint at Bath didn’t work in heavy rain (see above) and Trowbridge Renault came to the rescue.
- The Podpoint at Bath refused to unlock your cable, requiring the local city council to come out and reset the unit
- No problem with Ecotricity Charging point on M3. Worked a treat!
Welcome veckie
The Saturday night scheduled charging issue has been noted here several times. The current theory is that the Renault server is off-line at this time.
The Tom Tom forgetfulness has also been reported several times. I have been trying to get 3rd party speed camera warnings to work, but although it works initially, it’s forgotten the warnings by the next day.
Hi Andyfras
Thanks for the update.Car is back from its first service with the software updated; the Tom Tom forgetfulness was reported to be fixed, but it wasn’t and awaiting a reply from the dealer.
The website is a great resource and good to get confirmation that others are experiencing similar problems.
Hello all,
I’ve just joined the website after having a good read through the forums. I have ordered My ZOE Intens in Glacier White with 17″ Tech Run Alloys. Ordered on the 30/08/14 due second week in October.
Britsh Gas are fitting my wall 7kw charger first week in october.
I’m very excited to start my electric adventure!
Congratulations, Steve – and welcome!
Hello all
I’ve finally jumped in, I had a test drive in a Zoe on Friday 10/10/14. I was impressed with the car and placed an order for a Dynamique intens in Glacier White. The importation date to Southampton is projected to be the 12/12/14. I was assured that all production from the beginning of October has the new dark dashboard. I went for a DAB radio and was charged £216 for it (£180 + VAT).
Trevor thanks for setting up such an excellent website it’s given me the confidence to gamble on Zoe.
Hello and welcome big227wave I will be interested to find out what colour my dashboard will be as my car was built last week and is due for delivery in 2 weeks
Steve
@steve
Expect yours to be dark as well, the dashboard has been dark for longer than last week. My dealer told me last week he has been driving a new ZOE with dark dashboard for a couple of weeks. Good thing they fixed that. Quite stupid it took so long. The problem shouldn’t have existed in the first place.Big277wave – welcome, and I’m glad you like the site. I don’t think you’ll regret the ZOE – it’s a lovely car. Shame we can’t say the same about Renault’s customer service, unfortunately.
You can add me to the list, Trevor.
Diamond Black Zoe Intens, Delivered 09/10/2014, Registration 142-C-4055 (Republic of Ireland), Will try and get a video blog going on my adventures with Zoe here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeqAbHd_6QOyeF4wuFnfHobUU2P8xCEaB
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