23rd Dec: Stranded - 'battery charging impossible'... again

Oh dear, where to begin. Today is the worst day of Zoe driving.

The plan

The rest of my family live in North Devon and we wanted to spend Christmas day with them.  So, the children and I set off in our Zoe to travel down to North Devon, a 114 mile trip.  In an ICE car and decent traffic, the journey usually takes about 2 1/2 hours.  I had a car full of Christmas presents and with three of us in the car, so I thought that the journey would take about 4 hours, if I factored in two charging stops.

I planned out my journey with the help of Zap-Map.  I could possibly make it down to the services at Tiverton on the M5 Jct 27 on a full battery, but it would be close on battery range especially considering the it's winter and I have a heavy load.  An added complication is that, apart from the County Renault in Barnstaple (11 miles away from my family), there are no public charging points near my parent's house or once you leave the M5.  This means that I'd have to charge fully at Tiverton M5 to ensure that I'd have plenty of battery to reach my parent's house.

My plan was to:

• Charge at Sedgemoor services on the M5 (41 miles)
• Charge at Tiverton services (35 miles)
• Trickle charge once at parent's house. (45 miles)

The attempt

At about 9.45 off we set on our journey to sunny North Devon.  We joked about how normal car owners don't have the same level of excitement when they're making long journeys.  

Usually, I drive the Zoe in eco mode to maximise the battery range.  But considering I had plenty of charging points to try, I decided to make the most of the cruise control (which can't be activated in eco mode).  This meant using more battery power, but it was worth it.  The car drove beautifully and we were all excited and chatting away. Although, we were all a little cold, because the climate control still isn't working, and the children had to have blankets over their knees because we couldn't get the car to heat up.  

Battery charging impossible

We reached Sedgemoor services at 10.30 and found the charging points straight away. It's an Ecotricity point, the same unit used at Ikea, so I knew the process.  I plugged the car in, swiped my car and waited for the charging unit to say that charging had started.  We chatted, jumping up and down in the cold, talking about the breakfast we were going to order.  Then we realised that the charge still hadn't been accepted.  At that moment, my heart sank to my stomach.  I walked round to look at the car dashboard.  This is the image that greeted me:

Battery charging impossible. Again.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  

I could see my Christmas plans slipping away (I'm due to fly out of Bristol airport on 26th to see my friend in Spain).   The children could feel it too.  I tried to reassure them that it'd be OK and that somehow they'd be with their grandparents for Christmas day.  I phoned Ecotricity, they told me that the unit was functioning properly and that other people had already charged from it that day.  The screen certainly wasn't displaying any faults.

The display of the Ecotricity unit.  Online and functioning properly.

We decided to give it some time to see if the car reset itself, so we went for a drink.  I think we all knew that it was futile, but, ever the optimist, I tried.  The fault was still showing on the car when we returned.  I worked out that we had enough battery to get to Taunton Deane services, so we decided to  drive there in the hope that the system would reset itself and try to charge it at a different charging point. To add insult to injury, a Nissan Leaf turned up and charged from the unit as we waited.

I drove in eco mode all the way to Taunton Deane.  The car was silent, we were all deflated. As I drove, all I could see was 'battery charging impossible' staring back at me. We got to Taunton Deane services the warning message was still illuminated.  It was futile, but we tried to charge the Zoe anyway.  We had to wait for a Nissan Leaf to drive away first, but at least we knew the point was working.  I tried to initiate a charge, to no avail. We had to relent.  We were going to have to phone Renault assistance.  

Christmas just went from an exciting family time to a huge, stressful mess.  

The rescue

I telephoned Renault Assistance (14p per minute!) and spoke to a lady who reiterated the advice I was given when the car broke down just a few weeks before (Electric Alice: November 11th: breakdown - 'Battery charging impos...) Renault don't authorise anyone to attempt to mend Zoes  by the side of the road, so it needs to be taken to the nearest Renault Dealer.  In this case they telephoned me back to say that I was going to have to be towed back up to Bristol. 

Now, given the fact that I was stranded on the motorway, less than 48 hours before Christmas day, with two children and a car full of presents, I'd hoped that Renault assistance would go out of their way to help me, reassure me and quite frankly, make everything okay.   As I'm sure you can imagine, being told that we were going to have to be taken back to Bristol didn't fill us with much joy.  I was told that Bristol were the only dealer who could service the car.  However, I knew that there was a Renault garage in Barnstaple that was authorised to service Zoes and was only 11 miles away from my parents.  After lots of phone calls it manifested that if I was taken home, Renault Assistance had no obligation for my onward travel.  Neither City Motors Renault or County Renault Barnstaple had any courtesy cars available for the Christmas period and neither had a mechanic available until the 24th.  This means that if I was taken to Barnstaple, Renault Assistance were obligated to provide me with a hire car for my onward travel.   It was only after about half an hour and many phone calls that I managed to secure a hire car to be there for me at  County Renault on our arrival.  Although this could only be authorised of a maximum of 5 days.  This could be a problem considering that I'm supposed to be flying out to Spain from Bristol for 5 days on the 26th. Still, not worth thinking about that today, we'll see what tomorrow brings. 

After about another hour (after finishing all the telephone debates with Renault Assist) a lovely young man from Weston Recovery arrived to collect us and the Zoe and take us down to Barnstaple.  By this time, the children were fed up.  My daughter "hates that car", my health was deteriorating and we were all ruing the day that we'd invested in EV technology.  The only thing we could be thankful for was that we'd made the decision to travel this morning.  Originally we were going to travel down last night after work.  This means, we'd have been stranded on the motorway in the dark and cold, with nothing open and Enterprise car hire not available to ensure our onward travel.  It just doesn't bear thinking about.   Again, to add insult to injury, three Nissan Leafs charged while I was waiting to be towed away.

We made it to Barnstaple, collected the hire car, transferred all the presents and cases and made it to my parent's house.  Tired and worse for wear.  We'll await the report on the car when the mechanic arrives at County Renault tomorrow morning.

Weston Recovery coming to tow us away

Zoe being loaded onto the truck

Zoe reduced to an undrivable car

8th Dec: Evie Zoe is returned to Renault

If you've read the previous posts in this blog you'll know that I've been having some problems with the Zoe.  The list of these has slowly been getting longer and longer.  Today, I had to take time off work in order to return the car to City Motors Renault for the faults to be addressed.

The faults that needed looking at were:

Service light: the car had come up with a warning light saying that it needed a service despite it stating on my vehicle order form that it did not need a service until May 2015.  The gentleman at  City Motors Renault couldn't understand why it had illuminated either and said that they reset it. Nothing fixed, simply reset.

Climate control: despite driving the car for in excess of an hour the Zoe doesn't seem to heat to the required temperature.  It's been really cold lately and the cold interacts with my illness making the symptoms worsen, so I need this to be functioning.  The advice from  City Motors Renault today was that there was no fault with the climate control, but that the cars don't heat very effectively.  I was told to set the fan setting to low in order for the car to heat up quicker.  This doesn't sound like climate control to me, but I agreed to try it.

USB: when attempting to use the USB port multimedia option on the radio, it repeatedly disconnects and connects a few seconds at a time. I can't begin to explain how annoying this is and I often use this feature for listening to podcasts while I drive.  I asked  City Motors Renault to look at it, they said that they replaced the USB port and blamed my connecting wires.  I've tried other wires and it still doesn't seem to work, even with the new port.   I don't think that this can really be acceptable quality.

AUX socket: because the USB hasn't been working I tried to use the AUX input for the stereo.  Again, this didn't work.  City Motors Renault said that they're not wired up on Zoes.  However, on page 9 of the Zoe brochure it's listed as a feature.  So I don't think that this is acceptable either.

Activation code: Still haven't got the activation code for the smartphone app.  I asked again, the customer services agent emailed the person at City Motors Renault dealing with it, asking for it to be sent through asap... lets see.

So, a list of faults and the more I think about it, the more that I can't help but feel none of the resolutions are satisfactory.  I have a feeling that I'll be returning to City Motors Renault

28th Nov: An Unwanted Light and Searching for a Code

Since I had my domestic charging point fitted, I have been falling more and more in love with my car.  Driving an EV is nothing like driving an ICE car.  It's much more fun, the car talks to you and tells you how you're driving, what the air pollution is like around you, how economically you're driving etc etc.  I do really love the feedback it gives you.

But, and this is quite a big but...

I bought my Zoe from City Motors Renault Bristol as an ex-demo model.  One of the features of the Zoe is that you can access the comfort timer and programme your car via a smartphone app.  However, to do this you need an activation code.  For new Zoes this comes with the car in a welcome letter.  For used Zoes the code is more illusive than unicorn feathers.  The advice that the Renault website gives is to contact your Renault Dealer.  I've asked City Motors Renault three times now for the code, each time they've said they'll get back to me.  I've asked again today, nothing so far... This means, that unfortunately I cannot report on this feature and even more unfortunately, I can't use this feature. Disappointing to say the least.

To add to the disappointment,  today my Zoe also decided to display a 'Carry out service' warning light in bright orange together with a nice bright orange spanner warning light.  I've checked the documents and it says the service isn't due until May 2015.  Guess it's back to Renault to get this seen to and to get the climate control fixed.  Not overly impressed with all the glitches in the Zoe, first the battery charging impossible, now this.  Hmmmmmm expected more.

25th Nov- The Self-Defrosting Car

Today is a smug day to be a Zoe owner.

I usually have to leave my house at 6.20am in order to start getting my two children to school and me to work.  The temperature her in Bristol has dropped and the overnight temperature was predicted to be in the minus figures.  Leaving the house at 6.20 is bad enough, but having to defrost your car at that time is just offensive.

The Zoe has what's called a 'comfort timer': (as long as the car is plugged into a power source) you can set the time that you want the car to be ready and it will prepare the vehicle to be comfortable for you to drive in.  I'd read that this mean that the car defrosted itself too, but I didn't really believe it.  I haven't had chance to try this feature out before because I wasn't able to leave the car plugged in, but, thanks to my new Rolec unit (courtesy of SOL Electrical) I can now leave EV plugged in overnight.  With the temperature predicted to be so low, I thought I'd give it a go and set the comfort timer for 6.15am.

The alarm went off at 6am (yes, I only leave myself 20 minutes to get out of the house - I can't bear to set it for 5 something) and I could hear a whirring noise from outside.  It was actually quite loud, but I do live on the edge of the countryside and it's very quiet here.  I still thought that the car might just be warm inside, but I'd have to scrape the windows.  To be honest, I wasn't hopeful at the inside temperature being warm because I've driven it for over an hour at a time and it's yet to reach the climate controlled temperature.  The kids and I went out to the car at our usual time and to our great surprise, the car was warm and completely defrosted.  We drove to the school bus stops this mooring with smug looks on our faces as we drove past all the ICE cars that were all iced up.

I'm starting to really love my car.

23rd November: Midsomer No Go

Since I had my domestic charging unit fitted I've been using that rather than charging publicly.  So far, I haven't had the best of experiences with trying to use public charging points and I worry whether the EV infrastructure in the Bristol area is up to supporting EV drivers.  However, I've decided that I need to do something to fix that if it's not, rather than being passive and just charging at home. Besides, if I need to undertake longer journeys (which I will because my family all live over 100 miles away) then I'll have to get used to relying upon public charging points.  Public charging is one of the main aspects of driving an EV after all.

Today I had to join a friend and head down to Bognor Regis, so I decided to find EV a charging point near their home that I could leave EV parked up in, while I continued my journey with them.  I found a POD Point charging unit at South Wansdyke Leisure Centre which was 45 mins drive and 22 miles away from my home.  I'll be honest, I wasn't overly confident, so I made sure that my Zoe was fully charged before I went, meaning that I'd have enough battery to get back should it not work.

I arrived at the leisure centre, found the sparky parking bays easily, all looked promising.  I attached my cable, tried to activate the unit with my card, and... nothing.  I couldn't get the unit to recognise a card was being presented to it.  I tried both my POD Point and sourceWEST cards, to no avail.  No free public charging for me today.  I left Zoe parked there thirsty, while I continued my journey in my friend's ICE car.

When I arrived back to my car, it was dark, late and very cold.  It took me a while to defrost the car.  The climate control still isn't working, so it was a long, cold 22 miles back home.  I'll have to find time to take off work in order to get the climate control fixed. Not such a great day for EV driving today.

EV parked up and ready to accept a charge

This is the only thing that this point wanted to say today

20th Nov: Domestic Bliss - Home Charging Activated

I'll be honest, where I live, unless you have an external plug socket (and a lot of time), completely relying upon public charging points is a bit of a pain in the bum.  This means that having a domestic charging point installed is really the best option.  I have been enjoying driving EV - I love a gadget and this is one of the largest I suppose that I'll ever get - but, I'm a single mum, I work full-time and have a chronic illness, so I can't really afford the time to go out of my way everyday finding public charging points.  Needless to say, I was extremely excited about the domestic charging unit install today.

I've been talking to Marie from SOL Electrical who is absolutely lovely and a fellow Renault Zoe owner.  Marie arranged for Simon (the electrical installer) to be at my house for 7.45am ready for the big install.  True to their word at 7.45 Simon, and all the Rolec bits and bobs were there.

SOL Electrical arrive

The install begins

 Mine isn't the largest of electricity cupboards, but Simon achieved it anyway...

After only a couple of hours, my charging point is up and ready to go.  Simon did a great job; it was all very easy, stress free and had perfect results.  I'm a happy EV owner today.

The Rolec point in place

EV plugged in at home and charging up.

15th Nov: Unravelling EV Charging Networks

Today marked another landmark for EV Zoe  and the Electric Alice family.

So, far I've used either trickle charging or charged my Zoe at Ikea which is supplied by Ecotricity.  After the Bath Debacle (Electric Alice: Day 2: The Bath Debacle) on the second day of having the Zoe, I've been a little cautious.

I had a free afternoon and a good friend of mine was in Bristol for the afternoon, so I decided to try out a sourceWEST charging point for the first time.  sourceWEST is funded by Bristol City Council and is an EV car charging network that covers Bristol City.  You need to register online for a card, this costs £20 per annum, but at the minute you can get the first year free.  There are some charges (I explain these below) but if you use the 7Kw chargers, they are free.  

So, EV, me and Mini Alice started our trip to the centre of Bristol in search of a sourceWEST point, heading for the Millennium Square charging point as our preferred option.  

The journey, as always in EV, was great.  I haven't spoken much about actually driving EV yet, but it is honestly the best car that I have ever driven.  You feel as though you are floating down the road, it's quiet and accelerates amazingly quickly.  The climate control doesn't seem to be working on EV at the moment, so it's a bit chilly, but hopefully I can get that fixed by Renault. 

We arrived at the Millennium Square car park and managed to find the EV charging points straight away (they are just on the left as you go in).  The charging points are unteathered, this means that you have to use your own charging lead to connect to the point.  However, the card was recognised straight away and there is a sign on the wall with detailed instructions on how to charge your car at the sourceWEST points.

The points look a little different to any others I've come across and it was worth reading the signs to check I was doing everything correctly.  This is what they look like:

With EV plugged in,  Mini Alice and me when to meet our friends for our own sustenance.  By the time we returned, EV was fully charged and we'd only had to pay the usual car park fee.  This has to be the easiest public charge to date.

Public Charging Explained

One thing that you'll need to know and understand if you're considering using an electric vehicle (EV) is how to charge your car at public charging points.  This took me a minute to get my head around when I first started looking into EV driving.  So, I thought that I'd explain how things work in the UK.

Unlike in Ireland, where I believe that there is a single charging network to sign up to (ESB), in the UK charging points are fitted and maintained by different companies who each have a network of charging points.  To be able to charge your car at a public charging point you need to check three things:

1. which type of chargers are supported by the charging point
2. which network the charging point belongs to
3. whether there is a cost for using the charging unit

Types of charging points

Depending upon your car, you need to select a charging unit suitable for your car's connector type.  The Renault Zoe uses a Type 2 charger, the others are listed here by this informative piece written by Zap-Map: Know Your Connectors.  This link will give you all the information you need.

Networks

In the UK most of the charging networks require some kind of subscription before you can start using them.  At the time of writing this, the majority of charging points are still free to use.  However, I've noticed that many of the companies who run charging networks seem to be setting up their services to be able to accept payment for charging in the near future.  I sincerely hope that this is not the case, because it's my opinion that having a fee for public charging will prevent owning an EV from being a viable option for most.  Below, I list the main networks and whether there is a fee for using the charging points.

The main networks:

Ecotricity. These points are most commonly found at UK motorway service stations and IKEA stores.  You need to register for an Ecotricity Swipe Card but these are free and arrive very quickly.  Most of the Ecotricity points are provide a fast charge (47Kw/ 50Kw) and these are free to use.  Personally, I am a huge fan of Ecotricity. 

Plugged-In Midlands.  This part of the national network scheme that runs at council and other regional public spaces, for East and West midlands.  You will need to register of a PiM card which will cost you £20, but this is the only fee that you will need to pay (unlike sourceWEST, a similar scheme for the Bristol are, where there is a fee for rapid charging). 

POD Point.  These points are fairly wide spread and you can also ask them to install your domestic charging point (I don't know whether there are fees for this).  In order to use POD Point charging units you will need to register for a Charge Card, this costs £12.50.  At the minute, the use of POD Point chargers is free.  However, their website is referencing a Pay-as-you-go mobile phone app, which makes me think that free charging through POD Point is limited. 

POLAR Network.  This network is part of the chargemaster company.  POLAR do not offer any free charging points.  The fees for using the charging units vary depending upon the subscription you choose. The full list can be found here POLAR charging fees.  I have not used any POLAR charging units because I do not see the need to pay for public charging at the present time.

Source London.  Personally, I don't have any experience of this network.  However, from the website it looks as though there is only a £5 registration fee to use the Source London charging units.  There is no mention of any other fees, you also don't have to pay the congestion charge if you're driving an EV. 

sourceWEST covers Bristol City and also covers: Bath and North East Somerset, and the Counties of South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Gloucestershire.  The sourceWEST network is provided via Charge Your Car.  You need to register for a charging card that will give you access to the charging units provided through sourceWEST. There is a fee of £20 p.a although you can claim the first year free at the time of writing.  You will also need to register a credit or debit card to your account because there is a cost for some of the charging points.  There is no clear link to charging costs on their website.  However, as far as I can see, the standard charging points (7Kw and under) can be used free of charge.  The rapid charging points are charged at £4.50 per hour. 

ZeroNet  run by Zero Carbon World.  This is a network of charging units that you do not need to register or pay for.  The units are provided to businesses free of charge by Zero Carbon World for members of the public to use.  Although there are no registration fees, sometimes there are access restrictions when using these charging points (for example if the business is only open 9-5, the point may only be accessible 9-5).  The charging map provides details of the types of charging unit at different locations and any access arrangements that need to be adhered to.

There may be other networks that you'd like listing, if so, just comment and I'll add them.

Finding a suitable charging point

There are a number of websites that provide details of the different charging points and types.  Each network also provides an interactive map of their point on their websites.  So far, I haven't been able to find a smartphone app that covers all the charging points (I wish there was one!).  The best app I have found is: The Open Charge Map

Zap-Map provide the most comprehensive list of charging points, their fees, types of charging point and the networks supporting them, but I have also stumbled across charging points not listed, so it is by no means complete.