Hmmm… so it seems that any EVSE will actually work, it’s just the time that they think is unacceptable and thus do not sell an EVSE with the ZOE. Since in Sweden most garages have 16A, I assume that the cable I had made in China will work just fine.

I made a 16A, 230V cable that could withstand 3phases on a regular socket, while most sockets are 1phase I should be able to charge it in 7hrs, which is fine.

I’ve been trying to find out for months if the ZOE would detect an EVSE and thus refuse to charge, but this seems not to be the case, so I really don’t know that the fuss is about, sure it will be slower than a wallbox, but if you stay overnight it really doesn’t matter too much.

And I almost cancelled my order due to misunderstanding… glad I didn’t!

Interesting to see someone doing empirical research. There’s two things I don’t understand though:

Why was this a surprise to Renault? Surely their engineers must’ve known at the design stage that this problem will exist?
How could it ever be fixed without replacing the Chameleon?

My EVR01 EVSE cable (version with 32A plug) from Davide (ELPA) is on its way to my house from Italy as we speak. As you can read from the French forum the tests on the Zoe have been done, bugs have been ironed out and units are shipping pretty much a day after you paid. Charging via a regular socket at 10A (via the CEE 32A > Schuko adapter) seems no problem (sockets might be damaged if you go up to 16A though, but the Schuko adapter is fused to 10A to be sure), I also got a Cee 32A > CEE 16A adapter with it. That should enable me to plug into camping outlets. And I can also cheaply modify someone’s regular socket with such a CEE 16A socket, which will enable it to charge with 16A.

That is of course as long as the rest of the electricity group isn’t taken by other (heavy) equipment. The EVR01 itself has a thermal protection, the adapters have their own circuit breakers.

At 10A the Zoe should charge (from empty) in about 18 hours, at 16A it should be quite a bit quicker since its more efficient at higher amps. If I encounter a 3 phase 32A (red) socket charging should be really quick in 4.5 hours or so.

I wanted the CEE 32A unit (Davide also has a CEE 16A version for 30 euros less) since it enables me to practically plug in anywhere. Total cost for the CEE32A unit, plus 32A>Schuko adapter, plus 32A>16A adapter, plus shipping, plus VAT is about 750 euro. The unit has built in protections, is legal to use with the Zoe (according to the leasing conditions) and is weatherproof.