Gibbo2286 wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 09:38
In one of those videos Neil posted there was mention of not plugging in until the payment was set up or the charge might fail.
Have you got a home charger Neil or do you rely entirely on those out and about?
Up until April this year there was a freebie 7kW charger, like the one at Etal Village hall, so no point using our own electricity, and I could put up with the mild inconvenience for free charge. They bumped that up to 35p/kWh so that is when I got out the plug-in granny cable to charge up from a domestic socket, and thats what I use from home now. Probably around 17p kWh on our current Scottish Power tariff.
Still some freebies around...all 7kW. Northumberland County Council contracted out management and maintenance of "their" rapid chargers which remained free up until June 2021, but are now all the same as the rest of rapids on the road at 35p ish/kWh. Not that much different from petrol. Depending on the car and how you drive it its around 4 miles/kWh. Showing on the dash 4.5kWh right now but it maybe drops to 3.5miles/kWh in winter.
Interested to hear of your Zoe story. It really is a great price for that car. Comparable costs of a used ICE right now of similar year and size, ie a Renault Clio 14 Reg low milage, are retail north of £6,000. It could be argued as the Zoe gets older the battery lease gets better value. Like I say though you have to trust that should the Zoe reach 75% battery capacity Renault stick to their side of the bargain. I wouldn't bank on a no quibble battery replacement from Renault.
One of the vids I linked too mentioned the thermal management of the Zoe battery resulting in less degradation which is a good thing.
The degradation is a matter of physics/chemistry based on the number of charging cycles, mileage, age, and the optimum temperature being maintained. Charging in the range 20% to 80% is gentler on the Li-ion battery than a regular 100% charge, I guess with my Leaf being low range, and our typical journeys requiring an on the road charge usually at a rapid 50kW DC charger, it isnt the optimum. Shorter journeys and you could run the car on a single home charge for a few days.
I would say 50% at home 50% on the road would be our typical charger activity now.
Regards Neil