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The big moment finally arrived, early in the afternoon of Tuesday 30 July 2013, when my wife and I picked up our new Renault ZOE Intens – almost exact
[See the full post at: Zoe and Trev’s Excellent Adventure]In the spirit of the term “excellent adventure”, I offer “max respect” for your braveness, especially as it was straight away after picking the car up.
Worrying to hear about the Ecotricity charge-point termperamentalness.
I’ve taken the week of my Zoe’s delivery off work, and I’m hoping to to a test drive (sans kids and missus) to the Croydon Ikea and try out the Ecotricity chargepoint there.
I had to laugh when I read about your experience at the Watford dealer! You probably were the first to use that charge point – it’s only recently been installed, they had to charge their Zoe demo at the Renault HQ a few miles away!
The Ikea experience seems much more positive. I wasn’t planning on doing trips outside of the Zoe’s there-and-back range (which covers over 90% of our normal trips), but if more of these charging “Station”s like that come online I might do (yeah, I know, that’s a pretty contrived B&T reference, sorry). From watching the charge maps and Leaftalk forum, though, it seems that the chargers do tend go faulty quite a bit…
Anyway, thanks for posting your experience. Is the home charger working OK?
I totally respect you Trevor being so brave on your first day in the Zoe it seems it was never going to be straightforward at the Reno dealer, they just haven’t got to grips with this product. Until the network of chargers has expanded and been tried and tested I don’t think I will be going outside the cars range. After your 99% charge at Ikea how many miles did you have available? My first full charge was only 93 miles but since its been between 109 and 111.
Has this put you off driving beyond the Zoe range?Delighted you have got your beautiful Zoe at last! I was totally gripped by your account of your first adventure – and what an adventure! I’m glad everything worked out well in the end. I’ve driven over 2,700 electric miles so far and journey planning is essential especially if you have to rely on remote charging facilities. The infrastructure is improving bit bt bit, but I think it is always worth having a plan B and perhaps a plan C just in case the charger in plan A is not available or working for whatever reason. For me, this is just adds to the fun of electric vehicle driving. What is not fun however, is getting back into a conventional car after the refinement of an electric vehicle. The rapid acceleration, smooth ride and quiet and clean environment of an electric vehicle makes conventional cars seem quite crude in comparison. And, had I paid for all the electricity I’ve used to travel those 2,700 miles at 14p per kWh, it would have cost £86.94 in “fuel”.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Bill & Ted reference!
Is the home charger working OK?
It is, though again the experience isn’t quite what I expected (poor feedback, rather loud) – I’m planning a post about it.
After your 99% charge at Ikea how many miles did you have available? My first full charge was only 93 miles but since its been between 109 and 111.
Has this put you off driving beyond the Zoe range?When we picked up the ZOE (fully charged) the range said 72 miles. After the fast charge it said 82 miles – I guess I drove it better than the previous driver. After charging at home that night it said 94 (?) miles. Since then it’s hovered in 70s/80s, but as I’m just driving to work and shops I’m tempted to drive it quite hard (I love the acceleration). Once I’ve got a few more miles under my belt I’ll tone down my driving and try some long distance trips again.
@Electric Ali – we haven’t seen you here for a while! Are you saying you got a ZOE, or another EV? We’d love to know more.
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