Renault Captur e-tech? Get a Zoe | Plug Life Television episode 31 

Aye, I was looking at the weights of the Zoe and the Kona and there is only 100kgs or so between them. It does have a rep as a super mini but has hidden bulk

Very true, Arnold Clark have done an excellent job with the Innovation Centre. Great to see such a genuine effort to educate the public. I should stress, however, that with falling battery prices and ever-improving range of EVs, there are very few reasons to buy a hybrid. Get an EV and thank me later.

Think of the planet and dump the SLK.

@@wobby1516 I figure my Zoe is still being used by someone else and the SLK would still be on the road too whether I bought it or not. If I bought a new EV that would be an initial load of carbon produced in making it too (especially if we start scrapping perfectly usable cars to do it). If it became viable I would convert the SLK to an EV but given that I live in the flight path in Farnborough and I watch private jets flying in and out all day I find it a bit hard to feel too guilty about my own modest emissions (low mileage driver). The last year made me realise it is also important to have some fun and I'm afraid my Zoe wasn't particularly fun (though the newer ones are better in that respect).

That's interesting that your Zoe is only pulling 22kW on CCS. Which rapid charging networks and rapid charger makes and models have you tried it on?

Another vote for Will and DSG here. Don't forget they will also deliver to you if you want.

The IONIQ5's tech is mightily impressive, especially the vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality, i.e. a 3 kW domestic socket on the dashboard and a 3 kW domestic socket adapter that you can plug into the car's Type 2 charging port, that allow you to run camping stoves, heaters, power tools etc off the battery. Proper zombie apocalypse survival stuff. Unfortunately, the car is unnecessarily huge - it's bigger than a Tesla Model S! If it had LEAF or Golf-sized proportions, it would have been a real winner.

@@PlugLifeTelevision Seconded!

@@PlugLifeTelevision Horses for courses, you can’t tow with a leaf or e golf. Caravaners would find this a perfect car, all be it a bit pricey. Perhaps when we sell our Motorhome if we move to a caravan we might go for it. In the meantime our E Niro is great.

@@PlugLifeTelevision Love your channel! According to automobiledimension.com IONIQ 5 is 7 cm narrower than Tesla Model S and 33 cm shorter. IONIQ 5 is also 14 cm taller but I would still say Model S is "bigger".

@@synthdrummer Ah, I may have been thinking of the wheelbase of the IONIQ5 vs the Model S. It's still a massive car with dimensions that cause issues on narrow European roads. There's nothing stopping a Golf-sized EV from being able to tow and having as many features as the Ioniq 5 (for starters, the much smaller Honda e also has a built-in domestic power outlet, albeit rated at 1.5 kW).

It's rare, partly due to the expense of DC chargers, partly due to the expense of 3-phase grid connections to run them at high power, and partly because some Distribution Network Operators won't formally agree to them being installed on their part of the National Grid yet. There are some CHAdeMO vehicle-to-grid home chargers on the market, but these cost several thousand pounds and tend to max out at 7kW to 10kW. I'm unaware of any home chargers that can take a DC feed directly from solar and deliver it to the car via CHAdeMO or CCS.

Good point. Previously it hadn't been brought to North America because it was equipped with Type 2 only so wouldn't be able to rapid charge since North America only does CHAdeMO, CCS and Type 1. Now that the new Zoe has CCS, that issue has been resolved. However, North America's lack of Type 2 charge points means that the Zoe's party piece - 22kW destination charging via the onboard charger - wouldn't be fully utilised, as it would be restricted to the power limitations of Type 1.

@@PlugLifeTelevision Indeed. While we do have intermediate level CCS chargers here in NA (Bosch-DCFC-el-52240), most businesses will balk at the idea of outlaying 11K USD plus provisioning costs (at least for the time being). These units seem to be installed exclusively at auto dealerships (mandated by the manufacturer).

Good point. If I recall correctly, the Captur e-tech's petrol tank is 39 litres, which at 54mpg works out at around 460 miles. However, the Zoe's 200+ mile range means the driver will need to stop before the car does. 54mpg is not groundbreaking fuel economy by any means, so for any moderately long journeys, any supposed fuel savings of the Captur e-tech are wiped out, whereas the Zoe keeps on saving money. The Zoe will easily save many hundreds of pounds per year in fuel alone, quite possibly over a thousand pounds per year depending on annual mileage and electricity costs.

Who but an idiot would drive non stop in the U.K. for 400 miles? Although having said that, I met a guy towing a caravan in Spain who was driving home non stop ? like I said only an idiot. As Ewan says one needs a pee, tea stop and that’s a charger stop, plus huge savings on fuel, as well as doing ones bit to reduce the horrendous pollution made by car exhaust.