There are several good Youtube channels about this so rather than even try and jump on that bandwagon (and I convey myself much better through text) I’ve dusted off the ‘blog, rebooted it and will dump my EV experiences here.
Exactly 1 week prior to this post I bought myself a Renault Zoe. Used 65 plate, the late 2015 ‘slight revamp’ with the newer R240 motor and darker dashboard.
I’d been considering it for a while since someone mentioned EVs on a forum and I started watching some Youtube videos and realising that second hand, some of them – namely the Zoe – are now within my affordability. I didn’t take too much convincing that it’s the way forward and simply the way I think the future of everyday motoring should ultimately go – I’d very quickly resolved that “my next car will be an EV”. I had no desire to start a whole new ownership cycle (I aim to keep cars for 5+ years) on another ‘fossil’. To each their own and it’s by far not for everyone yet, but speaking purely for myself it just wouldn’t seem very forward thinking.
The only question was “when?” – I was umming and ahhing and my 02 plate Ford Focus has served me magnificently for, in the end, just a few days shy of 10 years, with no problems. It’d been almost completely trouble-free, only having needed some track rod ends and a change in brake disc after an incident with stuck calipers. The temptation was “hang on til it dies” as it was just really good, showing no signs of pending failure, and worth a heck of a lot more to me personally than the 200 quid I got part exchange. The emotional attachment in me even feels a little bit of regret at just dumping her at DSG and dashing out in excitement to collect my Zoe, not even saying goodbye and giving the old girl a pat on the bonnet. And I’ve never really been one for anthropomorphising cars either!
But anyway, EVs hit the motoring news pretty big, people started snapping the used ones up, and used prices went up by in some cases as much as a grand as demand and confidence rose. I watched online as 3 of the 4 used Zoes at DSG Morecambe disappeared in the space of a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I was pondering whether to quit my Focus while I’m ahead – part company on a positive note and not in x months/years when bits start dropping off and costing a fortune and I start to resent poor old Focus’s continued existence. So, one used Zoe left, I decided to at least have a test drive of it. Loved it. Less than an hour after being handed the keycard, I was signing a purchase agreement.
We had a little bit of a bumpy start. I was well aware of the more limited range of that generation of EVs (the 2017 Zoes have twice the battery capacity so fix that to a degree) and that it’s also lower when it’s very cold outside, so had understood and happily accepted that longer distances will require a little break at the services to charge. But on a full charge, seeing roughly 50-55 miles was a bit disheartening. That’s at the kind of territory where if you’re trying to make it the 40ish miles to the first Southbound services from home, in theory it should be fine but you watch it drop quickly with the heater on and you lighten your foot expecting some buttock clenching towards the end. Or indeed take the slightly “discouraged” rear access to the nearer Northbound-only services to get an ’emergency’ top up before exiting it to the lanes again and joining the motorway Southbound.
However I had heard about a firmware update to the Battery Management System that I knew about and had noticed by this point (thanks to an ODB2 adapter and an app called CanZE), that it hadn’t been applied prior to sale. I did ask, somehow it fell through, oh well. Previous versions had an issue where the health of the battery was showing as woefully degraded – one comment I heard was that it was based on the weakest cell in the entire pack (there are a lot of cells), though it’s unclear, and the bug may be different. Either way my State of Health was on 70%, meaning every journey had 70% of the range (calculated) that it should. So it shows a low range and you don’t really want to grind to a halt so you don’t do any further. Some argue that firmware updates don’t magic life back into a battery (which is true) and that if you calculated consumption vs. capacity you can work it out in your head and don’t need no stinkin’ updates. Or that it’s just the power down of the car that forces a State of Health recalculation, not the update itself. But whatever, it has a positive effect as lots of owners have reported. I’d rather have an accurate picture of what I can achieve right there in front of me, it makes me more comfortable.
So today, one week later, I was booked in under the symptoms of “less range than expected, takes forever to charge past 99%, battery SOH reading taken on OBD2 device and reports 70%, below the 75% Renault agrees to replace it at”. After having Zoe in for the day, she now has a vastly improved 98% state of health and the improvement in range is remarkable (Edit: another week later, still good. It transformed it in my eyes). Now I can travel to the nearest properly accessible Southbound services and onwards with ease and confidence – and now the actual enjoyment of my Zoe without the looming battery worries, shall finally begin. Time to enjoy being one of the pioneers (alright that was a bit earlier…. let’s say a relatively early adopter) of the zero emission motoring revolution…