The Renault Zoe will plug into a conventional wall socket with a new smaller charger

Renault Zoe electric in Frankfurt

The Renault Zoe has received harsh critics in France, because it cannot plug into a conventional wall socket. Buyers need to buy a wallbox, and have it installed at their home by a professional electrician. This calls for several hundreds euros extra, and that’s a deal-breaker for many people in France, where millions have electric heating. In a country which is world leader in nuclear energy, the government has said for decades that electricity will always be cheap and abundant.

It’s not very true, and the strength of the French grid is much exaggerated, but it’s a fact that the average French doesn’t understand why some special home equipment is needed to charge an electric car. Many journalists complained about it (none from our team!), and Renault had to do something about it. It unveiled its solution at the Frankfurt motor show.

A technical change was needed because the Cameleon charger in the Zoe is a very smart unit, which theoretically accepts all charging from from a low 2.3-kW to a strong 43-kW. In the real world, the system’s inertia prevents it from running fine below at least 3.7-kW. Something had to be done, and Renault has chosen to add another charger, a very small, low power unit, which will enable the Zoe to charge from a conventional wall socket at 2.3-kW (230V 10A). This will be very slow charging, but to someone who only charges during nighttime, it will be appropriate.

The Zoe should appear with that new second charger in early 2014.

4 thoughts on “The Renault Zoe will plug into a conventional wall socket with a new smaller charger

    1. Laurent J. Masson Post author

      Definitely, all Zoes will be able to get the new charger. I can also add it should be available at a moderate price (not free, though) for all Zoe owners.

    1. Martin Winlow

      The JuiceBox is a Level 2 charger designed for non-mobile installation. What we’re talking about here is unit that you can take with you in a very compact format that can plug into any standard EU domestic socket (230/240VAC, 3kW). The device in the picture appears to be near-identical to the one that comes *as standard* with the Mitsubishi i-Miev (and Ion and C-Zero). This should not be a surprise (the identicalness, not the standard equipment) as both the Mennekes socket used by the Zoe and the J1772 socket used on the i-Miev both conform to the same IEC 62196 standard. These ‘boxes’ can be bought on ebay for around £300.