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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Weston Recovery coming to tow us away |
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| Zoe being loaded onto the truck |
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| Zoe reduced to an undrivable car |
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