Originally Posted by
dave2010
Now have a Renault Zoe to play with - since mrs d wanted one. It has features I don't like, though maybe they can be tamed. Turns out that range isn't a problem - or hasn't been so far, but it can be a bit worrying to see the available range area diminish, particularly going up mountains. However, the range area may expand again on coming down mountains, and also with a slightly less heavy right foot. It's certainly possible to do a round trip of 150 miles with little difficulty, and no top up charges, though would/could be a pain for long distance (200+ mile trips).
The theory is that most people drive a lot less than 100 miles per day, so charging not a problem most of the time. Also longer trips can be handled by the charger infrastructure, but that assumes several things - (a) chargers are available en route (b) chargers are actually working (c) chargers are compatible with the EV and (d) other cars, such as Teslas, haven't already nabbed the fastest charger in the charging unit, and lastly (e) some plonker with a petrol or diesel car hasn't parked in the EV charging place.
ECO mode feels like it's stopping the accelerator pedal from going down - OK - it's trying to keep energy consumption down - but it does feel hard work sometimes. Kick ECO mode out, and then acceleration is pretty good.
I'm not sure that all of the features are only issues for EV cars. One which I also find tricky is the lane guidance feature, designed to keep one driving in the middle of each lane. The car seems to detect the white lines on the road. Veering off to the right or left gives a rather unpleasant twitchy feel to the steering wheel. This could be just haptic/tactile feedback, and not reflect anything really going on with the car - but it feels rather like a car (without such features) about to hit an ice patch. I suspect that in fact it's OK - but it's unpleasant enough not to risk it. The problem with this is that going into bends it doesn't seem to take into account that one might not want to take a line which it thinks is central. The feature can be turned off, but then why have it at all?
Regarding the accelerator pedal feel, this can apparently be controlled to give more or less degrees of responsiveness - but I've not tried that yet.
The ride is fairly hard, and it's not the quietest car on the road inside - there's a fair bit of road noise. However, at slow speeds it's very quiet, and makes a strange noise deliberately to warn pedestrians, but it's probably not a noise they're familiar with, so doesn't necessarily help too much.
One issue is reversing - particularly in car parks. There is a parking brake. Pressing the accelerator will release the brake, but this can give a very fast reverse, which seems dangerous. The same issue is there in forward driving, but that's less of a problem as normally the driver can see well in front.
There are two "solutions" for reversing. One is to blip the accelerator pedal, which at least doesn't give a hard and continuous reverse. The other, which is better - but takes a few days to discover - is to deliberately turn off the parking brake (a bit fiddly, and needs to be done carefully) and keep the foot brake on. Then applying a small amount of power and releasing the foot brake gives much better control. This is then much like other cars I've driven. This kind of feature may not only be an issue for EVs - but EVs have a lot of power and acceleration at slow speeds, so perhaps manufacturers should think about how to avoid this one. Some people will almost certainly be injured or killed because of accidents due to this. Rear visibility using the camera is really rather good, and the sensors are good too, but ultimately drivers will need to be really aware of the surroundings for some manoeuvres.
I think the weight of the batteries does affect the handling, though how much I'm not sure. The suspension can be dynamically controlled and modified electronically it appears, from the manual, so maybe it's possible to get a smoother ride, or a more secure one, by tweaking that.
There is fairly new research which seems to show that overall EVs really are good re CO2 and other emissions, and overall energy use, so despite any issues which drivers may be concerned about, if one is going to have and use a car at all, these are significantly better for the environment and planet than fossil fuel cars. One concern (myth) is that EVs simply shift pollution to power stations, but it seems that even in countries like China this isn't true. In the EU and UK where more power stations are now using more environmentally friendly technology, the move to EVs - while requiring new capacity and infrastructure - does seem really to be a good thing.
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cost a fortune but it was fun to do.. i was no expert as you can see, the fit n finish aint great, but it was solid. had leckie/ battery and mains plus gas. could sleep 4 at a push but was really a 2 or 3 in comfort. mileage was poor and top speed was about 50/55mph..
