01/13/2015

A ZOE is interesting, because she can charge triple phase 380 volt 32 amps (she even could do 63 amps on a GEN 1 ZOE).

Our charging station charges with 32 amps 380 Volt and fills up a ZOE in 1.5 hours. All other electric vehicles on the current market do 220 volt AC (6-8 hours charging time) or up to 50 amps 400 volt DC (costs for a home charger 15,000 Euro). Only the ZOE, Tesla and the Smart ED can fully use our 32 amps 380 volt charging station.

A Tesla is over my budget, so no question. A Smart is not enough "car" to me, so last car standing is the ZOE.

I had the opportunity to testdrive a ZOE for a weekend and I quite liked the car. Everything works as it should and the driving experience is great. Even the purchase price is reasonable.

Purely economically it makes no sense. I did a quick calculation, that the car costs, due to the battery leasing, as much as a car that consumes 7 ltr. petrol on 100 kilometers. But that is not the question in this early stage of e-mobility. The question is how we can reduce CO2 emission ans is emobility doable? I believe so and I want to try it out.

My first idea was, to buy a ZOE as a next hobby car. But it didn't feel that good. I already have a hobby v8 (79er Oldsmobile Starfire) and how many cars do I really want to own? The car of my wife, my v8 hobby and my dailly driver are enough. So the idea gets clearer.

The ZOE should become my daily driver ...

Now, that is a huge step for me. Within seconds the usual doubts pop up. Will charging get me on my nerves? Will it limit my freedom? Will I only be planning my next trips in my spare time? Questions, questions, questions. That is where my super wife got THE idea of the still very young year (01.2015). "Why don't you rent a ZOE for one month and see how it works?". Brilliant!

I already found www.e-wald.eu on the net. E-wald is a carsharing company in the bavarian woods, not far from us. And hey, they give the opportunity to rent a Renault ZOE for one month inkl. all kilomenters for a fixed price. Cool. I did a last quick thought and signed up online. So in short, next Saturday I will pick up our 4 week test ZOE and will post here some more text about our emobiliy adventures :-)