Hi funsters!
Merry Christmas!
Rubbish telly, presents and over-eating are well in progress and, for the first time ever, you’ve also got the tale of the road trip in our first electric car - a Renault Zoe ZE50.
At the time, we promised some live stuff - that didn’t happen. Between driving in other countries, on unknown roads, and driving a new type of car, it just wasn’t possible to do live stuff. Apologies!
However, there is plenty of stuff and I have included it in this newsletter and the next edition too - and that one should be with you soon!
So, unplug, belt up and let’s get this one on the road!
In these electrifying editions:
I tell you about our first steps in Zozo
I explain what it’s changed
I tell you about charging and how much it costs to run
and more
So, as Jake and Elwood didn’t say, it’s 540 km to Paris, we’ve got a full tank of GPL, half a pack of Werthers Originals, it's dark out, and we're wearing sunglasses…
Pick up!
Seriously, this one is all about two cars - which is odd because I’ve never really been in to cars before! Anyway, I hope you’re up for it!
It all started after work, one night in July…
In the sort of way that only I could, I decided that we’d drive up to Paris early so that we could stop overnight and then spend part of the day doing some Paris stuff. The idea was simple enough - drive to Paris, drop off the old car, pick up the new car, drive back to Brittany in a slightly circuitous way.
The old car was a Dacia Sandero petrol/LPG car. It was a fantastically reliable car and cheap to run (especially on LPG). But age was beginning to take its toll and we had already started talking about replacing it with an electric car one day in the distant future when fate intervened. And when I say fate, I mean some idiot driving too fast into the back of our car. It still drove ok but, with the CT (French MOT) very close, I did the maths. A standard service plus repairing the back, plus work that I felt was probably needed (what do I know?) to things like the gears (apparently it’s not normal to need to push the clutch as far down as we needed to change gear) and brakes… it was a horrific amount of money. What to do?
Coronavirus had also intervened and we had time to look and think.
So, we looked and thought.
And thought and looked.
And looked and thought some more.
Then the government grant for an electric car went up to 7000€.
Then we started making phone calls.
The maths of an electric car are unlikely and also a bit of guesswork. However, based on our mileage, the cost of fuel and the likely longevity of the car, I figured that about 7 years use and it was worth it…
So a model was identified. A price was agreed. The rep understood that, on 18 July, our Dacia would no longer have an MOT and I wanted… no needed him to take it. He had to make sure that I had the car on time. It was non-negotiable.
The safety buffer was 24 hours! Any delays and we were stuffed!
Preparation…
I did a bad thing. I didn’t tell my son in so many words. I didn’t think it was fair to tell him…
“We’re going to stop somewhere before Paris tonight and then we’ll go to Paris tomorrow, drop the car off at the dealer, spend a night in Paris and then pick the new car up and drive!”
“Cool! Where are we stopping?”
“Somewhere…”
To be fair, it wasn’t untrue. It’s just that I’d not decided where. We’d drive until I was tired and stop.
We filled the car at the local LPG station and headed off.
“Where’s the hotel?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He went quiet.
Not surprising really!
In the end, we got to Laval - pretty much halfway between home and Paris. I was particularly impressed with the hotel for (a) having a room and (b) the excellent view from the window!
The next morning, we went down to breakfast - a semi-buffet affair where you asked for things from behind a coronavirus-secure screen and they were put on your tray for you to take back to your table. It sort of worked.
The breakfast tables had been marked out to ensure social distancing. Although, if I’d known that Le Pen was going to appear on the box, I would have moved even further away.
Breakfast eaten, we needed to give the car another half a tank to make sure we got to Paris. The very final time.
It was a weird feeling - as was handing over the car. It was my first car and would likely also be my final internal combustion engine car.
It’s weird what you get attached to. It’s just a chunk of metal.
Anyway, I thought about how much work it needed and got over it quick!
We didn’t actually do Paris
Well, we did La Défense and, technically, that’s not Paris.
Here’s the co-pilot…
It was the best holiday EVER!
…but we had only just started…
By the way…
I’m trying to convince the co-pilot to write a newsletter about French - a young English/French bilingual kid helping people French by writing about living in France and French things. I think it’s a great idea. Help me convince him! I think it’s a fab idea - he thinks I’m an old fart who knows nothing. These things aren’t mutually exclusive, obviously! Send me a message and I’ll pass it on.
THE. BIG. DAY.
We got up early.
Far too early.
And walked over to the showroom.
As we sat there, waiting, I decided to send the co-pilot off to find the car…
That occupied him for 10 minutes!
AND THEN HE FOUND IT!!
If you’ve not driven an electric car before it’s… weird!
All the hard stuff doesn’t happen. It’s got displays like a spaceship. It makes no noise. It’s just weird. Lovely but weird.
In a bid to keep costs down, I had opted not to have the car delivered to us in Brittany. Instead, we were in Paris. It saved a couple of hundred euro - and gave us the fun of a drive. I thought I had been very clever…
…right up until I took charge of the car.
In Paris.
Busy Paris.
Narrow streets.
The périphérique. The dreaded ringroad of doom that surrounds Paris. A place stock-car drivers would feel at home.
And, then, me and the co-driver, in a brand new car…
I’ll not lie, I don’t think I breathed for about an hour!
Stage 1 - Paris to Saarbrucken
Getting out of the dealership really was a nightmare. I was genuinely scared of the car. It’s very responsive and there are a lot of buttons - and I was driving around Paris. It was the worst place to get to know a car. The satnav was running and I needed it because I had no idea where I was. However, I was also not used to having a satnav screen - so I couldn’t look at it for fear of driving into one of the myriad scooters that were driving about 3mm away from the car or the lorries that were weaving in and out of everything, presumably to keep the drivers from becoming bored.
About half way between Paris and Saarbrucken, we stopped for a charge.
Perceived wisdom says that charging is a PITA.
Charging is not a PITA.
Bad planning is a PITA.
We stopped for lunch. We charged while we ate.
By the time we’d plugged in, wandered to the food place, ate, drank, gone to the loo and walked back, we’d got enough charge to take us the rest of our journey.
Oh, and you notice that Lidl charging point?
It was free. No registration, no cost. Lidl’s network of charging points in France is not only free, a lot of them are linked up to the solar panels that adorn the roofs of their shops. I’ve seen people plan entire journeys using Lidls like Magellan used stars!
Perceived wisdom also says electric cars can’t do fast roads. I don’t know where that comes from. Armchair experts, most likely. Obviously, like all cars, EVs burn more fuel when they go faster. But that’s all cars. You don’t hear people going ‘don’t take that petrol car on to a fast road! It’ll use more fuel!’ Odd!
Did I mention that we were doing a long road trip because someone else said that you can’t do a long road trip in an EV?
Anyway, we went on the fast road. Because.
Turns out the Zoe handles very well at 130km/h. It also turns out that you can use an EV on a fast road. It’s just like all the other cars.
We arrived in Saarbrucken, Germany, with 31% battery charge still available. We could have gone another 107km but, truth be told, I was knackered from the driving and excited to be back in Germany! So, the hotel and a restaurant beckoned.
By this stage, we’d done 425km and spent 0€ on fuel.
And so, dear reader, we leave our intrepid travelers in Saarbrucken, on the French/German border. Next stop, a little tour of the town and then a hop to Luxembourg. But we’ll come to that in the next episode!
I hope that the festive goodness is flowing freely and that it is still in full swing when the next episode arrives very shortly!
But what will come first? The end of 2020 or the next installment? I know that you will find it hard to choose which you are looking forward to the most!
See you soon!
Festive cheer to you all!
James
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