We have been following the progress of the new Renault 5 for quite some time, and the long awaited reveal of the R5 will be live streamed tomorrow from the 2024 Geneva International Motor Show.
Some pictures of a bright yellow version of the “production” Renault 5 have been “leaked” to the press. Here is a sneak preview:
And from the reverse angle:
Continue readingToday we are finally able to bring you exciting news of a large vehicle-to-grid installation in the Netherlands, with some unusual twists apart from the sheer number of charging stations.
In a thankfully English language article in PlaceTech it was reported earlier this week that:
Edge has delivered an office building for Triodos Bank in the Netherlands engineered to be sustainable inside and out with the latest circular construction principles designed throughout. The 135,000 sq ft office in Driebergen-Zeist, Netherlands was built with the intention to harmonise with the surrounding fauna and flora, on a construction level and beyond.
Please bear in mind that the article is referring to EDGE Technologies which is part of Dutch developer OVG Real Estate, and not the U2 guitarist!
After further description of the office building itself the article eventually gets to the part of the project of most interest to us. The solar PV covered car park:
The extensive use of renewable energy, reflected in over 3,000 m² of solar panels, as well as heat and cold storage, contributes to the energy neutrality of the building. The project encompasses ‘smart charging’ electric cars from solar energy and ‘Vehicle2grid’ technology. Vehicle2grid means that the cars cannot only be charged with solar energy but also discharged, which is called bi-directional charging. The cars become an active part of a ‘smart net’, which includes such benefits as being able to store solar energy.
The PlaceTech article doesn’t go into any more detail than that but we certainly intend to, not least because the aerial view of the solar PV canopy reveals a number of electric vehicle charging stations that look identical to the one we have installed in our “wall to wall” V2G “living lab”:
Taking a look at the new Triodos car park from ground level it becomes apparent that a large array of AC V2G capable charging stations are currently being installed, both under and around the solar PV canopy:
To find out more about what’s going on we’ve had to resort to Google Translate. According to a Dutch language article on the Triodos Bank web site from earlier this year:
The largest bidirectional charging plaza in the world is under construction at the new office building of Triodos Bank next to Driebergen-Zeist station. From this Autumn, 120 smart chargers will be able to store solar energy in the batteries of shared electric cars.
Triodos Bank have realised the project in close collaboration with developer EDGE Technologies and We Drive Solar. The bidirectional chargers are directly connected to 3,253 m² of solar panels and have a triple function. Electric cars can charge here. Cars whose battery is full enough can also supply power, so that the energy can be used in the office building or be fed back into the electricity grid.
Part of the plan is that Triodos Bank will replace its pool cars with 100% electric cars, so that they become part of the bidirectional charging ecosystem. Triodos Bank will investigate how, in addition to Triodos Bank employees, the residents of Zeist and the surrounding area can also use its shared electric cars. According to Triodos Bank director Matthijs Bierman “The plan fits in with our new ambitions in the field of sustainable mobility. We want to make car sharing as sustainable and attractive as possible. Not only for our employees, but also for the local community.”
Now 120 AC V2G charging stations sounds amazing, but where are 120 or more AC V2G capable electric cars going to come from? I can help answer that question, since I attended the launch of the We Drive Solar bi-directional ecosystem in Utrecht earlier this year. According to Renault:
A fleet of fifteen Zoe vehicles with vehicle-to-grid charging will be introduced in Europe over the course of 2019 to develop our future offerings in reversible charging and lay the groundwork for the future standards —with our partners’ help. These pilot schemes will begin today in Utrecht (the Netherlands) in an ecosystem developed by We Drive Solar and on Porto Santo Island (in the archipelago of Madeira, Portugal) with Empresa de Electricidade da Madeira, an energy supplier. Following these, more pilot schemes will be introduced in France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.
So that explains 15 prototype AC V2G capable Renault ZOE’s across Europe in 2019, but that’s a lot less than 120 in the Triodos car park! As far as I am aware Renault have not announced when V2G enabled ZOEs will go into production, but when ultimately they do Triodos Bank will be ready! In the meantime I’m sure that plenty of “smart charging” will be going on in Driebergen-Zeist and across the Netherlands
All in all the project sounds a lot like a combination of our “Camelford Electric Car Club” and “Static and Mobile Distributed Energy Storage” projects, albeit on a much grander scale! That probably explains this remark by Robin Berg of We Drive Solar to Bobby Llewellyn at the recent Fully Charged LIVE event at Silverstone in the summer?
If you want to discover more about the We Drive Solar bi-directional ecosystem then please feel free to attend this webinar on September 23rd at 13:00 British Summer Time:
Earlier this year Cornwall Council declared a climate emergency. According to the Council’s original announcement:
Cornwall Councillors met at the Full Council on the 22 January 2019, where Councillors debated a significant motion on tackling climate change and voted to support the declaration of a climate change emergency.
This was an amendment tabled by Councillor Jayne Kirkham to the motion put forward by Councillor Dominic Fairman calling for ‘Urgency on Climate Change’. The amended motion was agreed by the Council and a climate emergency was declared.
View the minutes of the Full Council meeting on meeting on 22 January 2019
The declaration requires the Council to prepare a report outlining how it can sufficiently reduce carbon emissions through energy and other Council Strategies, plans and contracts to ensure Cornwall works towards carbon neutrality by 2030.
Section CC/381 of the minutes concerning “Urgency on Climate Change” reveals that:
A key element of the planning system was reduced car dependency and a move towards electrification was now government policy to help improve air quality. Other issues included highly energy efficient homes to tackle fuel poverty and well insulated homes also added protection for the vulnerable during heatwaves. Members were reminded that Cornwall was the sweet spot of the UK for renewable energy having the best resource in Western Europe and the best solar and geothermal resource in the UK.
A few days ago there was a lively debate on the topic in the Council chamber. Now as part of the process of drawing up that action plan the Council held an energy strategy workshop at the Penryn campus of the University of Exeter yesterday. Here is my brief report on what went on behind the closed doors of the Green seminar room:
The county of #Cornwall recently declared a #ClimateEmergency. Today's discussions at the #Penryn campus of the @UniofExeter are subject to #ChathamHouseRules.
However I have received permission to publish the following images:#ClimateCornwall #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/cn1PArc2lh
— Jim Hunt (@jim_hunt) June 5, 2019
Here too is one of our own suggestions for “reducing car dependency and moving towards electrification of transport” whilst improving air quality in Camelford:
“The Camelford Electric Car Club”
Apart from improving air quality an electric vehicle club in Camelford would also reduce the number of cars sitting unused in garages and car parks for much of the time. One car club vehicle can result in 10-20 private cars being taken off the road. If you don’t possess a car you’re more likely to indulge in healthier alternatives such as walking or cycling for short journeys. In rural areas with poor public transport car clubs allow people who could never afford a car of their own to make occasional longer trips they would otherwise be unable to, except perhaps by taxi.
Here are a couple of popular potential car club vehicles:
Renault ZOE
Production begins of the new Nissan LEAF in Europe
Which would you prefer to drive?
In a press release earlier today Renault announced:
Groupe Renault, the European leader in electric vehicles, is beginning the first large-scale pilot schemes in reversible electric charging. Our alternating-current technology has the particularity of placing the reversible charger inside vehicles, so it just requires a simple, inexpensive adaptation of the existing charging terminals.
A fleet of fifteen Zoe vehicles with vehicle-to-grid charging will be introduced in Europe over the course of 2019 to develop our future offerings in reversible charging and lay the groundwork for the future standards —with our partners’ help. These pilot schemes will begin today in Utrecht (the Netherlands) in an ecosystem developed by We Drive Solar and on Porto Santo Island (in the archipelago of Madeira, Portugal) with Empresa de Electricidade da Madeira, an energy supplier. Following these, more pilot schemes will be introduced in France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.
It looks like we’ll have to (metaphorically of course) twist someone’s arm at Renault to let us try one or more of their modified Zoes with AC V2G capability! I was at the launch in Utrecht today and spoke to a variety of representatives from Renault Netherlands and Renault France, who by and large seemed amenable to the idea of a suitably funded UK pilot project. Renault’s press release was of course accompanied by a variety of images. However I took lots of pictures of my own, and a fair few videos too. Here’s the three Zoes that were lined up in Utrecht today:
and here’s King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands driving away in one of them, accompanied by Robin Berg of We Drive Solar:
Here too is a video recording of some of the excellent entertainment at the event, provided by the Hillsback Brassband:
Invigorated by the brilliant brass section here’s one of the press release infographics that I couldn’t snap for myself. Renault’s visualisation of vehicle-to-grid technology in action:
2019 – Recharge bidirectionnelle
Charging during the day on the left. Discharging during the night on the right. Much like our very own V2G UK banner above! Renault’s press release continues:
Vehicle-to-grid charging — also called reversible charging — modulates the charging and discharging of electric-vehicle batteries in accordance with users’ needs and the grid’s supply of available electricity. Charging reaches its maximum level when the electricity supply exceeds demand, notably during peaks in production of renewable energy. But vehicles are also capable of injecting electricity into the grid during peaks in consumption. Electric vehicles can therefore serve units of temporary energy storage and become key drivers in the development of renewable energy. In this way, the electricity grid optimizes the supply of local renewable energy and reduces infrastructure costs. At the same time, customers enjoy greener, more economical consumption of electricity and are financially rewarded for serving the electricity grid.
Reversible charging will be piloted in several projects (electric ecosystems or mobility services) through seven countries and alongside various partners to lay the groundwork for Groupe Renault’s future offering. The aim is twofold: to measure large-scale feasibility and potential gains. In particular, these pilot schemes will help us:
- Underline the technical and economic advantages of an onboard solution in electric vehicles
- Demonstrate—in concrete terms—the value of services provided for the local and national electricity grid, such as encouraging consumption of solar and wind energy, checking the grid’s frequency or tension, and reducing infrastructure costs
- Work on the regulatory frameworks of a mobile energy-storage scheme, detecting any pitfalls in it and offering concrete solutions
- Establish common standards, the basic requirement for an industrial-scale roll-out.
I now have a few more videos of the event to go away and edit, but whilst those are being prepared here’s one that Renault provided earlier, illustrating both “Smart charging” and “Bidirectional smart charging”:
V2G is now a hot topic in the UK mainstream media! A few days ago The Times newspaper published an article on vehicle-to-grid technology. According to Edward Lucas:
The hunt is on for cheaper and better storage, which is where electric cars come in. For its owners, the car battery is an unused asset most of the time, just as the engine is for those of us with old-style vehicles. Yet for grid managers dealing with the spikes and troughs in demand, a terawatt hour stored in spare batteries is exactly what is needed. Instead of subsidising standby generators, we can pay car owners to sip power from their vehicles’ batteries.
But making this work on a larger scale requires change. Our existing energy set-up is centralised: big power plants transmit large amounts of electricity over long distances to passive consumers. This arrangement copes with the 115,000 electric cars we have now. But it will not be fit for 2040, when the government intends to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars. By then we are predicted to have more than 25 million electric vehicles.
Done wrong, that will resemble something like a vast network of electric kettles. Charging them all at once at home would crash the grid. Consumers will curse, costs will soar and benefits will shrivel. To avoid that, the electricity system of the future will have to look like the internet: decentralised and interactive. Consumers will also be producers — perhaps from rooftop solar panels or by supplying power from their car batteries back into the grid when needed. Demand will be smarter: appliances will adjust their consumption according to price. Electric car owners, for example, will not mind exactly when their vehicle is charged, so long as it is ready when they need it. They will take advantage of cheap electricity just as consumers do already with night storage heaters.
The prospect is both exciting and daunting. Dieter Helm, the energy economist who recently reviewed energy costs for the government, says that the combination of electric vehicles, battery technology and digitisation presents challenges of a scale and magnitude not witnessed since the reconstruction of our electricity system after 1945.
Today the BBC have followed the Times’ lead by publishing an article by Theo Leggett with a slightly different perspective. Unfortunately they included at the top a stock photo of what looks a lot like a Renault ZOE instead of a Nissan LEAF. Here’s one of our stock photos of a 2016 LEAF, which is V2G capable:
However currently the ZOE is not. Here’s what one of those looks like:
Theo points out that:
At the Nissan Technology Centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, a number of the company’s electric Leaf models are lined up alongside a bank of chargers. But these cars aren’t just drawing energy from the grid; they’re also putting it back.
The system is called Vehicle to Grid, or V2G. The Japanese company is developing it in partnership with the Italian power firm Enel and is already operating a small trial hub in Denmark.
Electric cars are, in effect, energy storage devices, and because they spend much of their time parked up not doing anything they can help smooth out the peaks and troughs in energy demand.
“Basically, we can consider the car as a battery with wheels,” says Maria Laura Corallini, the engineer in charge of the V2G project.
“You can use the energy storage capability in the battery to provide specific services back to the grid.”
The system uses software to regulate the charging level of multiple vehicles.
When the grid needs extra power, it can draw very small amounts from each individual vehicle. When energy is abundant, it can top them up again. Users will get paid for the electricity they provide.
If thousands of cars are connected together, then the amount of energy given back to the grid can be substantial, and it can be varied on a second-by-second basis.
Initially the plan is to sell it to businesses that operate large fleets, although the company says it will also introduce a residential version. Other organisations are also experimenting with the technology.
I suppose V2G UK must count as one of those “other organisations” in this context! Theo continues by referring to an oft mentioned tale of V2G woe:
Not everyone agrees that V2G makes commercial sense, however. The chief technical officer of Tesla, JB Straubel, for example, has suggested in the past that he doesn’t see it becoming a viable solution, largely due to its cost and complexity.
I am forced to agree with JB that here in the UK V2G currently doesn’t “make commercial sense”, which further forces me to reveal once again this image of a Tesla Model S connected to a V2G capable bi-directional charging station in the Netherlands:
Unfortunately in all the circumstances that particular Tesla was only capable of charging from the kerbside bi-directional charging station. The BYD e6 parked next to it could however also discharge, ultimately to the local distribution grid. Do you suppose that if and when the “cost and complexity” reduces and V2G does “make commercial sense” in Tesla’s view, power will suddenly start flowing in the opposite direction down that stout red cable?
We think the answer to the question posed in our title for today is YES! Here’s one reason:
This is exactly what we have been waiting for. A 40 kWh #eNV200! Can we road test the 1st one in the UK please?! https://t.co/npMCtAkK8D pic.twitter.com/1WD48MVRIc
— V2G Limited (@V2gUK) September 16, 2017
Nissan recently announced the new 2018 edition of their popular LEAF saloon, with increased range over the previous model thanks to a 40 kWh battery pack. Over the weekend a “leak” revealed that a 40 kWh version of Nissan’s e-NV200 van is on the way. That will provide a big increase in range over the e-NV200’s current 24 kWh battery pack, and make the “van” a much more realistic choice for a wide variety of small businesses. Note also that there is an MPV/taxi version of the e-NV200 known as the “Combi”, which I have taken a ride in over the North Sea in the Netherlands:
That means we’re really talking about an electric vehicle club, not a mere “car” club. That’s one way of implementing the concept known as “Mobility as a Service” (or MaaS for short).
Here’s another very good reason to try and put more electric vehicles on the streets of Camelford:
Earlier this year Camelford was declared an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA for short). According to the Town Council web site:
Cllr Claire Hewlett… said “I’m very pleased that Camelford has now been declared an air quality management area, as it means that Cornwall Council and Defra have offically acknowledged we have an air quality problem. The Clean Air Group have been working closely with Cornwall Council’s environmental protection team to get this far. Talking to people in town today, everyone is excited that something might actually happen.”
As part of the consultation, the council asked for residents and businesses to convey their ideas for improving air quality, and some of these will be investigated as part of a range of options before the final plan is published.
Now electric vehicles improve air quality in town and city centres by reducing nitrogen oxide emissions and particulates from exhaust pipes and brake dust, so here’s our idea.
Apart from improving air quality an electric vehicle club in Camelford would also reduce the number of cars sitting unused in garages and car parks for much of the time. One car club vehicle can result in 10-20 private cars being taken off the road. If you don’t possess a car you’re more likely to indulge in healthier alternatives such as walking or cycling for short journeys. In rural areas with poor public transport car clubs allow people who could never afford a car of their own to make occasional longer trips they would otherwise be unable to, except perhaps by taxi. For more on the benefits of car clubs see:
Obviously a few extra EVs in and around Camelford won’t initially result in a vast improvement in air quality if lots of diesel engines keep running whilst queueing along the A39, but you have to start somewhere! The same principle applies to charging infrastructure. Camelford has the advantage of already possessing a rapid charging point in the Churchfields car park, but additional lower power EV charging points would need to be installed. If that could be achieved then a 100% electric car club would allow people to experiment with driving an electric vehicle at very little cost, and thereby discover the many benefits of EVs for themselves. Assuming that hurdle can be overcome we’d like to perform a consultation of our own.
Please take our short survey and let us know your opinion about which sort of vehicle should be the first one to be made available to Camelford residents:
[yop_poll id=”1″]
Here are those options in more detail:
smart fortwo:
Renault ZOE:
Nissan LEAF:
BMW i3:
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 4×4:
Nissan e-NV200 Van:
Nissan e-NV200 Combi:
Please also feel free to elaborate on the reason for your selection in the space provided for that purpose below.
At the recent Paris Motor Show Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Groupe Renault, announced that:
This month Renault surpassed 100,000 electric vehicles sold and now ZOE will travel up to 250 miles (400km) without recharging.
Over the past twelve months both Nissan and BMW have made similar announcements, but neither claimed as many miles as Renault. Eric Feunteun, Vice President of Renault’s electric vehicle programme, added that:
Renault has added a new dimension to the world of electric vehicles now that the ZOE’s range stands at 250 miles (400km) NEDC. It’s a breakthrough in all-electric motoring that will provide the range needed to make any motorist comfortable choosing electric.
Renault’s press release adds that:
In real-world driving, Renault estimates the new Z.E. 40 battery has a range of 186 miles (300km) in urban or suburban areas.
The range offered today by the new ZOE is the longest of any mainstream all-electric vehicle and motorists can take advantage of this step forward now. The ZOE is the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe and provides a real alternative to internal combustion- engine cars, since average daily commuting distances are well within the ZOE’s capabilities.
The new battery removes the final psychological barrier that stands in the way of buying an electric car, so-call ‘range anxiety’, since ZOE users can now travel further and enjoy a wider variety of driving situations without worry about charging.
Not exactly a range of 250 miles in “real life” driving then! We would of course like to test the range of the new ZOE for ourselves, but at the moment our local Renault dealer could only promise that they will be taking orders in November for delivery in January 2017. When a demonstrator might become available is, unfortunately, still unknown. Whilst we all wait for a test drive, here’s a video!
In a press release earlier today Renault announced that:
Renault has signed a letter of intent with the Dutch Utrecht City Council, ElaadNL and LomboXnet on Smart Solar Charging for electric vehicles.
The signature took place during the state visit to Paris of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
According to the letter of intent, the city of Utrecht could be the testing ground for the solar smart-charge project. Renault, Europe’s leader in electric vehicles, would supply a fleet of 150 Renault ZOE models through 2017 to the city. ElaadNL would handle management of infrastructures and the smart-charge standard, and LomboXnet would take charge of installing the network of unique public charging terminals powered by a 44 kW grid connection. Grid operator Stedin would be involved to balance supply and demand of the grid.
The Royal Family might have left better weather behind during their trip to Paris, but here’s a Renault ZOE charging outside the LomboXnet offices in Utrecht, in the rain:
Moving on to some more technical details of the Utrecht project:
Phase one of the project would involve setting up 1,000 smart solar-charge stations, powered by 10,000 photovoltaic panels in the Utrecht region. Infrastructure installation would run side by side with development of a car-share service of electric cars, powered by renewable energy, for Utrecht residents. The Renault ZOE R.Access connectivity and 22 kW charging make it ideal for car-share and smart charging applications.
So far so good, and then comes phase 2!
Phase two of the project would proceed with the partners developing a vehicle-to-grid ecosystem, with the network of solar chargers capable of both charging the electric cars and of feeding energy stored in the batteries of parked cars onto the grid to meet demand peaks. This could be the starting point for a new system storing renewably sourced energy.
As always at this juncture, one cannot help but wonder where and when the first “vehicle-to-grid ecosystem” will evolve here in the United Kingdom!
As we reported yesterday, the Nissan half of the Renault-Nissan Alliance made an interesting V2G announcement at the COP21 meeting in Paris. Now it’s Renault’s turn, although this one concerns “smart charging” rather than fully fledged vehicle-to-grid technology. In a December 7th press release they said that:
Renault & Eneco collaborate on smart charging solution for electric vehicles.
- Agreement signed between electric vehicle leader Renault and energy supplier Eneco on December 7, 2015 at COP21 Paris conference
- Eneco will develop smart charging app for ZOE, Renault’s 100% electric compact car
- Renault ZOE users will be able to charge their car at lower costs using renewable energy
Eneco subsidiary Jedlix will develop a version of its existing smart charging app, to adapt it to Renault ZOE. This app makes it possible to charge electric cars using renewable energy at times when the market prices are most favourable. Like at night, when the production of sustainable wind energy exceeds demand in most European countries.
As far as “lower costs” go, here’s a glimpse of V2G UK filling up a Renault ZOE 100% electric compact car 100% free of charge using renewable energy in a UK motorway service station, courtesy of Nissan & Ecotricity:
Heading back to Paris, Eneco Executive Board member Marc van der Linden said :
It is expected that there will be three million electric vehicles in the whole of Europe by 2020. To reduce CO2 emissions, it is essential that this vehicle fleet will use green power. It is also important to prevent power grid overloads as a result of peaks in demand if all the cars would be charged at the same time. Our app forms a direct link between the electric vehicle and the supply of sustainably generated energy. Consequently, the energy used for charging is more sustainable, energy supply and demand is balanced and the costs of driving an electric vehicle are reduced because users charge their cars at lower rates.
Eric Feunteun, who is Electric Vehicle Program Director at Renault, added:
Renault electric cars support the energy transition in the automotive industry as they contribute to the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energies. With smart charging systems like the one developed by Eneco, Renault electric vehicles make a big contribution to power systems’ stability and reliability: EVs turn into an asset for the grid rather than create overload. They can store and use electricity when it is less carbon-dependent and cheapest for their owners. Our partnership with Eneco is a move towards making driving a Renault ZOE more interesting and affordable and will contribute to an electric vehicles’ scale up.
Renault’s press release continues:
A pilot test carried out by Eneco in the Netherlands demonstrates that users can save up to 15% on their electricity costs by using the app. To achieve this, all they have to do is indicate by what time the car must be fully charged and the system will automatically determine the lowest price within this time frame. The app will first be available for ZOE users in the Netherlands and soon be available in other countries where Eneco operates.
Eneco do have a UK office, but quite how Renault ZOE drivers across the UK might be able to make use of “a flexible [electricity] price negotiated electronically by computers” to save a few quid on their fuel bills whilst “prevent[ing] power grid overloads” is a mystery to me at the moment, despite the fact that I sit on committees tasked with designing international standards for such things! However, here’s Eneco’s vision of “Everyone as an Energy Supplier in 2030”:
Make sure that, if nothing else, you watch the bit at 1 minute 20 seconds which mentions that “The car plays a pivotal role as an energy storage buffer”.
A few days ago I received an unsolicited telephone call asking me if I would like to test drive any Renault car. I said yes, as long as it was possible to test the Renault ZOE in and around Exeter. I was told “Certainly sir, which free gift would you like?”. I gather this offer is by invitation only, but you can nonetheless read all about it here, where it explains that one can:
Test drive and experience any model from the Renault range before 30 September 2015 and you can choose one of three complimentary gifts. Choose from a night away for two in a choice of hotels, afternoon tea for two or a spa treatment.
That definitely seemed like too good an offer to refuse, so I didn’t! The first thing I do at times like this is to take a look at Robert Llewellyn’s always entertaining reviews of electric vehicles on his Fully Charged show. Here’s the one for the Renault ZOE, recorded in 2013:
and here are a few of Robert’s bullet points concerning the ZOE:
So far so good then, and a couple of days later we had a short drive around the Marsh Barton trading estate in Exeter. We both took our turn at driving the ZOE, and Kasia liked it a lot. Daniel Mann, the Renault Sales Manager at Bristol Street Motors in Exeter, explained that their most attractive offer at the moment is a two year PCP deal for £79 down and then £79/month, which doesn’t include the battery. The small print explains that “Battery hire is £55 per month for 750 miles per quarter“. That also sounds very much like an offer one cannot refuse, but it was at that point that I had to explain our particular circumstances to Dan. The ZOE seems to us like an excellent way of driving a few tens of miles to work and back, but V2G’s home, office and laboratory are all in the same building. We don’t do a daily commute, but we do occasionally drive to Bristol Airport, we do occasionally go on business trips to the far side of London, and we do from time to time go surfing on the north coast of both Devon and Cornwall. Our short test drive hadn’t given us much of a feel for how the ZOE would be able to cope in those situations. As Robert explains in the video above we could always hire a more conventional car as and when required, but then we’d hardly ever use the ZOE!
We had a chat to Marc Seabridge, Bristol Street Motors EV specialist (pictured below), and explained that I’d be dropping Kasia off at Bristol Airport the following weekend and then returning to Exeter. I wondered whether we could borrow the ZOE to do that trip, in an endeavour to discover if it was fit for our particular purposes. Marc said yes! When we picked the car up at 11:00 on Friday he lent us a couple of RFID cards so that we could charge the ZOE en route, one for ChargeMaster’s Polar network and one for Ecotricity’s Electric Highway:
The ZOE’s lithium ion battery was about 70% full when we picked it up, so we thought we’d get the hang of charging an EV at a public fast charger by heading straight to Exeter Services, just off the M5 motorway. That’s where our troubles began!
Try as we might, and even with lots of telephone assistance from James Cocks, the Service Manager at Bristol Street Motors, we couldn’t persuade the ZOE to successfully connect to the Electric Highway type 2 fast charger. Here’s what the problem looked like:
Whatever we tried, there was no way we could persuade a little green tick to show itself. Chastened, we headed back to Marsh Barton to top up the ZOE at one of BSM’s own charging points:
Whilst we waited I telephoned the Electric Highway helpline and explained what we’d discovered. I was told that Ecotricity were already aware of the problem, but they couldn’t tell me when it might be fixed. It seems they have quite a few non functional chargers, and not many engineers available to repair those that cannot be restored to full health via a remote connection from Ecotricity’s offices. Here’s a graphical demonstration of the problem:
To be continued……..