Renault ZOE and its Chameleon Charger - Breakthrough or Problem ?

Renault introduced a new charger called " the Chameleon Charger " with its ZOE : Is it a breakthrough or a false good idea ?

Well, it is a breakthrough because, like the picture says, it can take high AC power, from 3kW to 43kW, convert it to DC, and feed it to the Zoe battery pack: It is the first time we see this kind of equipment onboard an EV ! They did a great job reducing the size and weight of what used to be pretty big and heavy to a "small box" that sits on top of the ZOE powertrain in the front engine bay

It allows Zoe to be charged from a wallbox at home - at 3 or 6 kW -, on the street or Autolib stations - at 3 kw -, or at even higher power charge stations - mostly to be installed - at 22kW and 43kW, and all these last ones are not that expensive because they are "just" a "simple" delivery of 3-phase AC that is running undergroud anywhere, reducing the cost of installation

Now, the only downside to this good news is that the engineers at Renault forgot that many people just want to plug in on a regular outlet at home and charge during the night; They also want to be able to go to Grandma's house and be able to fill up also on a regular outlet... and the problem is that people realized that charging at 10A (Amps) on a regular outlet, the charge time is very long : 18 hours from empty

Renault started press releases on the Zoe, giving one to our Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourd, then delivering ten to a Leclerc Supermarket in Brittany; and this is where the first people actually tested this low current charge using charge stations delivering both 3kW and 2kW; People charging at 3kW - with the Type 3 to Type 2 cable - had no prblem and the others, using the other side of the charging station, charging at 2kW on a regular outlet 220V under 10A realized it took a very long time to charge ...

This incident has been reported and Renault then decided to cancel the use of the "occasional charge cable", the regular outlet cable or EVSE you find in any LEAF, i-MiEV, etc

Then started a wind of protest on EV blogs and some customers cancelled their order, others did not and had to have a Wallbox - 3kW- installed at home, adding an unexpected expense - around 1,000 EUR- to the purchase price.

Others decided to still use an EVSE, buy one, and some even made one, and this lead to an electronics designer, an Italian named David R., making his own EVSE with selectable current, compatible with any AC outlet, few weeks ago

David's contact at ELPA : el.pa@tiscali.it , I think he's selling his EVSE for 500 EUR, which is a good price

Now using this EVSE, a new ZOE owner tested it at 10A 220V at home and here are the real figures on this "slow" charge: (Source http://renault-zoe.forumpro.fr/t1446-temps-de-recharge-effective-a-10a-teste-avec-le-cro-de-davidr )

J'ai fait cette nuit un test de charge à 10A avec le Câble de Recharge de DavidR (voir http://renault-zoe.forumpro.fr/t838p30-30a-cro#20418 ) .

10A étant la charge que peut supporter une prise 16A en continue sans danger.
La charge a démarré en 10A et a fonctionné toute la nuit sans problème.

Heure ........ Batterie chargée à .......... Temps de charge restant (affiché par la ZOE)
22h08 ................. 28% ........................ 14h15
23h08 ................. 34% ........................ 13h20
. 5h08 ................. 65% ........................ 7h10
. 8h08 ................. 78% ........................ 4h30
10h08 ................. 90% ........................ 2h20
11h08 ................. 96% ........................ 1h20
11h28 ................. 98% ........................ 1h
11h38 ................. 99% ........................ ---- (plus d'affichage du temps restant)
12h30 .................100% 

En résumé, le CRO de DavidR fonctionne et permet de recharger la ZOE à 10A sur une prise classique. La recharge se fait de façon presque linéaire sauf pour le dernier %.
Une recharge à 10A permet de recharger entre 5.5% et 6% par Heure soit entre 6.5 et 7km par Heure.
En faisant la moyenne on obtient :
Temps de charge ........% de charge ............Km possible
............ 1 ........................ 5,8 .................... 6,8
............ 2 ........................ 11,5 .................... 13,5
............ 3 ........................ 17,3 .................... 20,3
............ 4 ........................ 23,0 .................... 27,0
............ 5 ........................ 28,8 .................... 33,8
............ 6 ........................ 34,5 .................... 40,5
............ 7 ........................ 40,3 .................... 47,3
............ 8 ........................ 46,0 .................... 54,0
............ 9 ........................ 51,8 .................... 60,8
............ 10 ...................... 57,5 .................... 67,5
............ 11 ...................... 63,3 .................... 74,3
............ 12 .................... . 69,0 .................... 81,0
............ 13 ...................... 74,8 .................... 87,8
............ 14 ...................... 80,5 .................... 94,5
............ 15 ...................... 86,3 ................... 101,3
............ 16 ...................... 92,0 ................... 108,0
............ 17 ...................... 97,8 ................... 114,8
............ 18 ..................... 100,0 .................. 120,0

18h pour une charge complète c'est bien ce qu'annonce Renault dans son manuelle d'utilisation de la ZOE. A savoir 30% de charge en 6h avec un câble de recharge occasionnel.

=> So that is 18 hours to fully charge from empty battery pack

And the worst part:

Si on ne compte pas la phase finale de la charge, ça donnerait 16 heures pour passer de 5,8 à 92%, soit 5,3875% à l'heure, donc une puissance utile de 1,185 kW.
Il faudrait vérifier la consommation réelle, mais en 10A, on est censé consommer 2,2 kW au compteur EDF.
Le rendement serait donc de 53,8%  

Ou dit autrement, une consommation de 34,2 kWh pour un stockage de 19 kWh et 15,2 kWh perdus en chauffage des petits oiseaux  
C'est pas grave, c'est mémé qui paye  

=> The overall consumption to fill up the 22kW battery pack is almost doubled ... and this is probably why Renault decided to remove this EVSE from their orginal ZOE catalog


Renault said they will find a solution to this problem, but today, still no news

I personally think the only way to deal with this is to add a small onboard regular charger - like the one you have on a LEAF for example - but it could be a bit pricy

We will see what the future bings us ... Stay tuned