Here's a good example from a BBC article about Electric Vehicle subsidies:

There are around 1.3 million electric cars on Britain's roads but currently only around 82,000 public charging points.

Bloody hell! That's rubbish! Bring down the government! Woke nonsense!

OK, let's take a moment to contextualise those number.

There are about 34 million cars on the road. About 1.3 million cars are pure electric. So, about 32,680,000 dinosaur-juice cars.

How many petrol pumps do you think there are in the UK?

Have a guess.

Back in 2021, the BBC reported on the decline in petrol stations:

If this prediction is correct it is a death sentence for many of the 8,380 petrol stations in the UK.

Wait…! So there are 0.06 public chargers per EV, but only 0.0002 petrol stations per fossil fuel car?!!?

Lots of EV chargers will have multiple charging heads - allowing two or more vehicles to be charged at once. Similarly, petrol stations often have multiple pumps.

Let's assume that every EV charger can only do one car at a time, and every fuel station has 10 pumps. That's still a hell of a lot more chargers per EV than pumps per petrol car.

Of course, the elephant in the room is charging time. Electric Vehicle take much longer to recharge than a petrol car takes to refuel. As a rough average, an EV takes 30 minutes to get to 80% full. That will depend on the speed of the charger and the capacity of the battery. It takes maybe 10% of that time to fill a petrol car from empty to full.

But petrol cars always need to be refilled in public. Most EVs are recharged in private. Sat on a driveway or plugged into a lamp-post overnight, they start the day full. Given the average journey length of under 10 miles, the typical EV will never need to use public charger!

There are around a million home EV chargers installed. Around 2/3rds of home have access to off-street parking which would allow a private charger to be installed. That just doesn't happen with petrol. You can't install a petrol pump at home.

All of those EVs will start the day with the capacity to take 20 average trips before needing to recharge. If any of those trips end at a supermarket, work car park, or anywhere else with a charger, they'll start their next journey full.

Suppose that you do decide to drive >200 miles in a single journey. You should be taking a 15 minute break every 2 hours - but let's say you go for 4 hours, taking your car from full to empty. At which point, you probably need a piss and want to stretch your legs. Plug in at a service station, go to the loo, have an overpriced coffee and disappointing sandwich, walk back to the car and - oh look - it's practically full.

Does the country need more public chargers? Probably, yes. Are chargers all concentrated in wealthy suburbs or evenly distributed? Who knows. What are the current occupancy levels of public chargers? Those would all be excellent questions to research and publish.

Presenting context-free numbers doesn't help people understand the scale of the problem.

Frequently Made Comments

Please don't bother replying with any of the following:

peOpLe sHoUlD jUsT UsE publiC trANsporT

I agree.

wHAt ABoUt bAtTERY sWappiNg

Until every car has an identical chassis and battery, it isn't going to happen.

i liVe IN amErica And ALWAys dRive 700 MILeS pER dAy up fRozen MoUNTainS

We're talking about the UK. Most people don't have regular journeys like that.

i likE THE LOud NoISE MY eNgIne MAkes

Everyone else on the street hates you

Well, that didn't exactly turn out that way! But as our electronics have become more efficient, the cost of processing payments begins to outweigh the cost of providing electricity. How much would you pay to fully charge your smartphone? A quid? 50p? If you're desperate, a fiver?

A modern phone battery can hold about 22Wh (Watt-hours) of electricity. My domestic power provider charges about 13p per kWh (kilowatt-hour). So the energy in your phone costs less than half a penny.

If you have the latest Tesla, with the biggest battery - 100kWh I think - the total cost of electricity will be around £13. My car, the slightly more modest Soul EV, has a 30 kWh pack - less than £4 to fill from empty.

Given that most people won't be charging from 0% to 100% - and most merchants won't let you use a credit card for anything under a fiver - we can safely say that electric cars are too efficient to meter :-)

Except, that's not how the real world works. Use a litre of water at home and it'll cost you less than a penny - but buy a litre of water from a supermarket and you'll pay considerably more.

Why? Partly the infrastructure to supply you, partly the plastic bottle. Add in the advertising costs, staffing costs, insurance, and goodness knows what else - and you can see how expensive shop-bought water can be.

The same applies to supplying electricity for someone to consume. Even if you're just fitting a domestic plug socket, there's a labour cost involved, and the cost of periodic checks, and the cost of advertising that it is available. If you're supplying a rapid charger - 50kW as opposed to a domestic 7kW - there are some huge costs for equipment and supply.

For example, Electric Highway charges 30p per kWh to use their rapid chargers. But, even so, filling up from 20% to 80% is only going to cost a fiver. Once you factor in credit card fees, it's hardly worth collecting the cash. (And anyone who mentions a dodgy cryptocurrency being able to transfer funds instantly and for zero cost gets permabanned from this blog!)

So what are companies supposed to do? Broadly speaking, public car charging schemes fall into four categories.

1. Pay-as-you-go - with an inflated cost per kWh.
2. Pay-per-minute - sort-of makes sense if you're also paying for parking.
3. Pre-pay - top up your account by £X and pay per kWh from there.
4. Membership - pay £Y per month for unlimited charging.

For me, PAYG using a credit card makes the most sense. I mostly charge at home and don't regularly stop at the same charging station. I've used dozens of different charging schemes - here's a quick comparison.

Free! (ish)

I already had a standard 220V socket in my garage. My car came with a domestic charger. I plug it in when our solar panels are generating delicious free-range electricity from the sky gods.

Some public chargers are set to free vend. Usually in supermarket car parks. Electricity is a loss-leader; like cheap baked beans.

PAYG

This is the simplest method. Unfortunately, some schemes require you to pay using their app rather than just having a contactless credit card reader.

• 30p (15p if you're an Ecotricity customer) - Electric Highway
  • Uses a pretty rubbish app, but works fairly well.
• 33p - On street lamppost charging from Chargy
• 39p - Shell Recharge / Smoov
  • Tap to pay with credit card. Nothing could be easier! Read my review
• 30p + £1.80 connection fee - GeniePoint
  • prices vary depending on location and speed of charger

Pay by time.

I think this is a hangover from the cost to park usually being in time-based increments.

Pod Point have an excellent app, but a weird charging structure. Some are free, some cost 25p/kWh, some are £1 for 3 hours, and some change their cost throughout the day.

Pre-pay

A fairly annoying option - unless you always use the same charging network. I have a bunch of credit with various apps which I doubt I'll ever use again - and there's no way to reclaim.

• Polar Instant. £10 minimum top up, £1.20 connection charge. Some chargers are free, some cost £1.00 per hour, others are £6.00 for 30 minutes.
  • Verdict? Confusing, complicated, expensive. And the app is crap.

Membership

Are you a member of your local petrol station? No! The idea is ridiculous. You might collect bonus points from them, but why would you ever subscribe to them?

• £39 / month for up to 200kWh - On street lamppost charging from Chargy
• £68 / month for unlimited - On street lamppost charging from Chargy

If you have no charging at home, and can reliably use a lamppost near your home, this could be a decent service.

Worst of both worlds

Source London have a truly user hostile scheme. £4 per month, and then charging per-minute between 3.6p - 9.5p per minute - plus a surcharge in certain parts of London. Or you can pay a one off fee and the pay more per minute. Or PAYG.

Given the PAYG rates are only about 5p a minute more, you'd have to spend 80 minutes a month on charge to make it worth paying the monthly fee.

Confused? I think that's the idea!

What a mess!

Customers, mostly, don't want to interact with competitive capitalism. We aren't Homo Economicus constantly adjusting our behaviour to find the cheapest deal. We just want reasonable service at a reasonable price.

The infrastructure for charging electric cars is mostly here - but the infrastructure for charging money has a long way to go.

My car has more than enough range for me, but on a recent journey I decided it would be prudent to do a splash-and-dash - shove a few kWh in the battery just in case. I fired up Zap Map and was pleasantly surprised to see that Shell had a rapid charger near me. So, here's my review. Can a station forecourt deliver the power I need?

Location

The charger was clearly signposted and in a prominent location - no hunting around the back of the building. There was a dedicated parking space marked out as EV only, so hopefully it won't get ICE'd

The Recharge unit isn't under cover, but the petrol pumps are. Could be a bit grim in the rain.

Payment

This was perfect! I tapped my American Express card on the unit and the charge started. Proper pay-as-you-go. This is so welcome. Lots of EV chargers require an app, or a special card, or for you to prepay, or to subscribe to paid membership. Shell Recharge is EV charging as it should be - tap to pay, and pay for what you use, not the time you spend charging.

Cost

This is where things get a little tricky. The sign on the charger says 39p per kWh.

That's about 3 times what I pay at home for electricity. But, like bottled water, you're paying for convenience. According to my maths, the real fuel efficiency of an electric car is about 165MPG - so 3x electricity costs about the same as unleaded petrol.

But, there's also an app you can use. The weirdly named "Smoov" - that says the price is 25p/kWh.

I couldn't be bothered setting up the app, so I tapped with contactless.

£20 was reserved on my contactless card. It took 2 days for the final charge to come through: £1.85.

That's the 25p/kWh promised in the app. Obviously the sign is outdated.

Update! The 25p price was a promotion. The regular price is now 39p.

Interface

The interface is basically fine. A colour screen with fairly clear instructions, and push buttons to control it.

It took me a few seconds to figure it out - I doubt I would have enjoyed doing it in the rain.

Stopping the charge wasn't obvious. None of the buttons worked, and I didn't want to hit the prominent "Emergency Stop". Eventually I realised that I had to use the same payment card as I'd used to start. I waved my credit card, and the charge ended. Then I got this message:

This screen hasn't localised this for the UK; we don't use the comma as a decimal separator. I have no idea what "DTC:" means. The 78 at the bottom is current battery percentage - that's not explained anywhere. It also doesn't show the total cost.

Not a very helpful screen, it has to be said. But improvements are on the way.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

When you end a charge there's a summary screen. @AllegoCharging haven't localised this for the UK. We don't use the comma as a decimal separator.
I have no idea what "DTC:" means.
The 78 at the bottom is current battery % - that's not explained anywhere.
It also doesn't show £. pic.x.com/esnhotBGdM

---

Allego

@AllegoCharging

@edent Hi Terence, thank you for your feedback, I will forward this to the correct department! DTC stands for Diagnostic Trouble Codes, codes that report malfunctions to the vehicle. We hope to see you back soon! 😊

---

Speed

I wanted a quick charge. Batteries usually charge fastest from empty. I got 7.5kWh in 10 minutes - that's about 45kW. Given the unit is rated at 50kW, I'm happy with that speed. Typically, a half-hour charge will take a battery from empty to 80% full, after which charging rates can slow significantly.

There wasn't much to do at the station - it's a fuel stop, not a motorway services. So we bought some sandwiches and ate them in the car. Glamorous!

Verdict

I'm impressed! Shell are still, no doubt, a morally reprehensible oil company - but they can see that the future is electric.

The price for charging is fair, if a little confusing. And the user interface needs to be localised and properly tested with users.

That said, being able to tap to pay - without any intermediary apps or subscriptions - is a welcome addition to the UK charging market.

Bluetooth

Connects quickly, and no glitches with streaming audio. Call quality was clear, but didn't show caller's photo - which is a shame.

Doesn't show album artwork - so no AVRCP 1.6 support.

I couldn't get it to do a 30-second-skip using the steering wheel buttons. It is next/previous track or nothing.

Android Auto

Allows mirroring of a small number of apps onto the car's main display. Android Auto is basically fine. It shows your GPS on the screen, and some other approved apps. Honestly, it isn't much better than having your phone visible in a holder.

Because it needs a hardwired connection, you need to plug the phone into the car's USB port. Sadly, this is very slow at charging. Annoying, because you'll probably want a faster charger if you're using GPS, streaming podcasts, etc.

Voice Control

Pretty shitty. If you're using the car's voice services, you'll be continually frustrated. Slow and inaccurate.

GPS

Bargain basement GPS. It works, but you'll probably want to use Google maps. There's no live traffic in the Kia, updates to the maps are done yearly, and cost £25! WTF?

The one good thing is that it does show you the speed limit for the road you're on.

Missing mobile app

In a major oversight, there's no mobile services for the car. The Zoe's app was utterly crap - but at least it allowed me to pre-heat the car on demand.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

@KiaUK when will Uvo be available on UK Kia Soul EVs?
Got the car expecting it to be included.

---

Kia UK

@KiaUK

@edent Hi Terence, we have no plans at this time to add UVO compatibility but can pass your feedback on to our product team.

---

That also means there's no API - which is a crying shame.

Missing Tech

There are a number of other curious omissions.

The reversing camera doesn't show the direction of travel. A minor nit, but seems standard in all other vehicles.

No way to default the speed limiter or cruise control. I make heavy use of the speed limiter and I have to activate the function ever time I start the car. Why can't it remember my preferences?

Windscreen wipers aren't automatic. The lights are, but the wipers really should be too.

Power

The car has two "cigar socket" chargers - with variable power outputs - in the front.

The rear has a single socket.

Charging

A mixed bag. The rapid charger is ChaDeMo - rather than the more modern CCS. A bit annoying, depending on which rapids you usually attend.

The slow charger is similarly outdated - it's type 1 rather than the type 2 found on every other car. You can buy adapters, but it's a shame that Kia haven't modernised their charging ports.

The car comes with a standard 3-pin 240V charger, and a type 1 to type 2 Mennekes cable - so you'll be able to charge it at most public charge points.

Verdict

This review may seem fairly negative - but I've deliberately focussed on what annoys me.

I pay £215 per month for this car - and I reckon that's a very fair price. This is obviously the last production run for this version of the Kia Soul EV. I expect future ones will have more modern charging options.

The in-car touchscreen is about as bad as any other modern car. Slow and janky. But car manufacturers just aren't interested in investing in better systems.

You're better off getting a decent Android phone and using that rather than the built-in services.

It's a good little car, the tech is basically adequate for a modern vehicle - but nothing too exciting.

Here's a fairly recent trip in my Renault Zoe: That's a mixture of motorways in the cold, and gentle country paths in the summer. Hopefully typical of a mixed driving style.

It takes 971kWh of electricity to move 3,500 miles. So, what's that in MPG? Let's work it out the long way.

I pay 13p/kWh for my domestic electricity.

£0.13 * 971 = £126

So the cost per mile is...

£126 / 3,500 = 3.6p/mile

Currently, UK petrol prices are about £1.30 per litre. There are 4.55 litres to the UK gallon.

(4.55 litres * £1.30) / 3.6p/mile = 165 MPG

That's a pretty good fuel efficiency!

You can calculate it another way:

Eugene Zaikonnikov🌻💛 ✊✌️

@varjag

Replying to @edent@edent You can take it from the other end. A litre of gasoline has energy density energy of 8-9KWh, then 971KWh translates to 107L. That gives abour 1.99L per 100km, or 141.95 British MPG.

---

Eugene Zaikonnikov🌻💛 ✊✌️

@varjag

Replying to @varjag@edent The 23MPG difference is then the market arbitrage between electricity and fossil fuel costs.

---

Now, this is just my car and my driving style. But the evidence is clear; electric driving is ridiculously cheap!

At the moment, if you're getting 50MPG in a petrol car, fuel costs 12p/mile.

(4.55 * £1.30) / 50 = £0.118

The best fossil-fuel cars get under 100MPG - that's still double the cost per mile of an electric car.

If you can supplement your home charging with solar, like I do, the cost per mile falls even further.

However! All is not lost. If you log in to your Renault Account - https://www.renault.co.uk/my-account/my-car.html - you'll get details back about your car including its make, model, date of next service, and mileage!

Why isn't this in the regular API? Who knows. But here's how to get it programmatically.

API

The API to call is:

https://www.renault.co.uk/content/renault_prod/en_GB/index/my-account/my-car/jcr:content.getvehicle.json?vin=VF1ABCDE012345678

You will need to stick your own VIN on the end.

That alone won't get you very far - the API requires authentication (not always a given with automotive services!) See bottom of this page for details.

Data

The data you get back is fairly unexciting:

{
    "lastMileageRefresh": "2017-10-15",
    "mileage": 2052,
    "averageMileage": 1973,
    "lastWorkshopVisitMileage": 1853,
    "portalServices": ["ZEPORTAL", "BATTERY", "RLINK"],
    "detailedVehicleName": "Dynamique Nav",
    "registrationNumber": "PK66LTE",
    "firstRegistrationDate": "2016-08-01",
    "electric": true,
    "vehicleManual": {
        "path": "//www.cdn.renault.com/content/dam/Renault/UK/owner-services/private/zoe/X101VE/manual.pdf",
        "size": "5.46MB",
        "extension": "pdf"
    },
    "upcomingServices": [{
        "year": "2018",
        "month": "september",
        "items": [{
            "date": "2018-08-01",
            "code": "13",
            "name": "Replace the cabin filter"
        }, {
            "date": "2018-08-01",
            "code": "185",
            "name": "Z.E. A service"
        }, {
            "date": "2018-08-01",
            "code": "186",
            "name": "Z.E. B service"
        }]
    }, {
        "year": "2019",
        "month": "september",
        "items": [{
            "date": "2019-08-01",
            "code": "13",
            "name": "Replace the cabin filter"
        }, {
            "date": "2019-08-01",
            "code": "180",
            "name": "Replace 12 V battery"
        }]
    }],
    "vin": "VF1ABCDE012345678",
    "vehicleName": "ZOE",
    "smallImage": "https://3dv1.renault.com/ImageFromBookmark?configuration\u003dSKTPOU%2FSSCALL%2FPRLEX1%2FSTANDA%2FB10%2FEA2%2FDD%2FCAREG%2FVT003%2FRET02%2FRALU16%2FDRAP03%2FOV369%2FRDAR02%2FALEVA%2FSOP02C%2FTRNOR%2FLVAVIP%2FLVAREL%2FNAV3G5%2FRAD06D%2FALAR06%2FSAN913%2FBT4MR1\u0026databaseId\u003da3750aea-330d-4c06-91fd-d2ec8d82e763\u0026bookmarkSet\u003dRSITE\u0026bookmark\u003dEXT_34_AV\u0026profile\u003dHELIOS_OWNERSERVICES_SMALL_V2",
    "largeImage": "https://3dv1.renault.com/ImageFromBookmark?configuration\u003dSKTPOU%2FSSCALL%2FPRLEX1%2FSTANDA%2FB10%2FEA2%2FDD%2FCAREG%2FVT003%2FRET02%2FRALU16%2FDRAP03%2FOV369%2FRDAR02%2FALEVA%2FSOP02C%2FTRNOR%2FLVAVIP%2FLVAREL%2FNAV3G5%2FRAD06D%2FALAR06%2FSAN913%2FBT4MR1\u0026databaseId\u003da3750aea-330d-4c06-91fd-d2ec8d82e763\u0026bookmarkSet\u003dRSITE\u0026bookmark\u003dEXT_34_DESSUS\u0026profile\u003dHELIOS_OWNERSERVICES_LARGE",
    "identifier": "X101VE"
}

Authentication

In order to get these data, you will need a username and password for the Renault website. Once logged in, you should be able to inspect the requests your browser makes. All you need is the X-Mapping and JSESSIONID part of the cookie. You'll end up with a request like:

curl 'https://www.renault.co.uk/content/renault_prod/en_GB/index/my-account/my-car/jcr:content.getvehicle.json?vin=VF1ABCDE012345678' -H 'Cookie: X-Mapping-pjobmcgf=123456789; JSESSIONID=abcdefghij;

If you dig around the Renault site, you'll see they use Apigee and helpfully include their clientKey and apiKey in some of the JSON they send to your browser. I'm sure people smarter than me can figure out how to use them.

The Cake Is A Lie

I am not convinced that this is live data. It looks to me like Renault are using your average yearly mileage and extrapolating what today's mileage will be. But it is better than nothing.

edent's Car

@edent_car

🔋 100%
🚗 76 miles
🔌 Plugged in
⚡ Not charging
⚠ Secured and Locked
#RenaultZOE

---

All these API calls can be found by using the Renault ZE Services website. I am indebted to this German blog post for kicking off this work. I'd also like to thank Renault for their "esoteric" use of JavaScript!

What's Available?

This API is fairly limited, here's what you can do with it:

• See battery status, range, charging status.
• Start preconditioning
• See preconditioning history
• See and set charging schedule.
• See charging history

Getting started

First, register with Renault ZE Services. This will give you a username and password.

Secondly, you'll need to get your VIN and API token. This can be obtained by posting the username and password to Renault. For example:

curl \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -X POST \
   -d '{"username":"you@example.com","password":"P4ssw0rd"}' \
   https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/user/login`

This will get you back some JSON with your API tokens. Here's an example:

{
    "token": "AAAA",
    "refresh_token": "BBBB",
    "user": {
        "id": "CCCC",
        "locale": "en_GB",
        "country": "GB",
        "timezone": "Europe/London",
        "email": "you@example.com",
        "first_name": "Terence",
        "last_name": "Eden",
        "phone_number": "+447700900123",
        "vehicle_details": {
            "timezone": "Europe/London",
            "VIN": "VVVV",
            "activation_code": "GGGG",
            "phone_number": "+447700900123"
        },
        "scopes": ["BATTERY_CHARGE_STATUS",
                   "BATTERY_CHARGE_HISTORY",
                   "BATTERY_CHARGE_REMOTE_ACTIVATION",
                   "BATTERY_CHARGE_SCHEDULING",
                   "AC_REMOTE_CONTROL",
                   "BATTERY_CHARGE_LOWALERT"],
        "active_account": "DDDD",
        "associated_vehicles": [{
            "VIN": "VVVV",
            "activation_code": "GGGG",
            "user_id": "XXXX"
        }],
        "gdc_uid": "YYYY"
    }
}

Battery Status

Let's start with the battery. We need to use your token and VIN from above.

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   "https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/battery"

This gets us:

{
    "charging": false,
    "plugged": true,
    "charge_level": 100,
    "remaining_range": 124.0,
    "last_update": 1476472742000,
    "charging_point": "INVALID"
}

A few point to note. The remaining_range is in Kilometres. The last_update is a Unix timestamp.

Preconditioning

The Zoe can be set to warm-up or cool down depending on the last temperate you set in the car. It will also blast the front window de-mister. The process takes five minutes, so you can set it shortly before you need to set off. Preconditioning will only work when the car's battery is above 45%.

Precondition Now

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   "https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/air-conditioning"

This command does not return any value. There is also no way to cancel the command remotely - you have to physically enter the car and turn it off.

Precondition Later

If you know that you want to leave at a specific time, you can set the car to precondition at a set time.

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8' \
   --data-binary '{"start":"1753"}' \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/air-conditioning/scheduler'

As far as I can tell, the start time is when you want the conditioning to start - not when you want it to be finished.

There is no way to cancel a precondition.

Preconditioning Last Status

Want to see if the preconditioning message was received by the car correctly?

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   "https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/air-conditioning/last"

This returns information about who or what sent the request:

{
    "date": 1476538293000,
    "type": "USER_REQUEST",
    "result": "SUCCESS"
}

Preconditioning History

You can also see how often your car has been preconditioned.

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/air-conditioning?begin=1016&end=1016

[{
    "date": 1476165377000,
    "type": "USER_REQUEST",
    "result": "ERROR"
}, {
    "date": 1476079325000,
    "type": "CAR_NOTIFICATION",
    "result": "ERROR"
}, {
    "date": 1476079270000,
    "type": "USER_REQUEST",
    "result": "SUCCESS"
}, {
    "date": 1476079266000,
    "type": "CAR_NOTIFICATION",
    "result": "SUCCESS"
}]

Start Charging

You may have set your Zoe only to charge at specific times - perhaps to take advantage of cheap rate electricity. You can override this by issuing the charge command.

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge

Again, this won't return a response. If your battery cannot be charged, you'll be notified via email or SMS depending on the preference you set up when you registered.

Charging History

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge/history?begin=1016&end=1016

The begin and end take MMYY as their arguments. That is, if you want October 2016 you need to use 1016.

This returns an array, the most recent charging session at the top.

[{
    "date": 1476538527000,
    "type": "START_NOTIFICATION",
    "charging_point": "SLOW",
    "charge_level": 99,
    "remaining_autonomy": 119
}, {
    "date": 1476472727000,
    "type": "END_NOTIFICATION",
    "charging_point": "INVALID",
    "charge_level": 100,
    "remaining_autonomy": 124
}, {
    "date": 1476462129000,
    "type": "START_NOTIFICATION",
    "charging_point": "ACCELERATED",
    "charge_level": 34,
    "remaining_autonomy": 42,
    "remaining_time": 10500000
}]

The remaining_autonomy is, again, the range in Km. The remaining time is expressed in milliseconds. So 10500000 is the equivalent of 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Notifications

You can use the website to set up notifications. For example, if there is a problem with your charge, Renault will send you an SMS. This API call lets you see what notifications you have set up.

Set Notifications

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   -X PUT \
   -H 'Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8' \
   --data-binary '{"battery_status":"EMAIL","charge_start":"SMS","charge_end":"SMS","charge_problem":"SMS","low_battery":"SMS","low_battery_reminder":"SMS","do_not_disturb":null}' \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/settings/notification'

You can change any of the options with EMAIL or SMS.

You can set a "do not disturb" option. This will suppress all notifications during specific times. Sadly, this is a fairly blunt instrument - you can only set one time which then is enforced every day.

In the above example, change "do_not_disturb":null to

"do_not_disturb":{"start":"1710","end":"1811"}}'

This will give you peace between 5:10pm and 6:11pm.

See Notifications

You can use the website to set up notifications. For example, if there is a problem with your charge, Renault will send you an SMS. This API call lets you see what notifications you have set up.

curl \
   -H "Authorization: Bearer AAAA" \
   https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/settings/notification

This returns:

{
    "battery_status": "EMAIL",
    "charge_start": "NONE",
    "charge_end": "SMS",
    "charge_problem": "SMS",
    "low_battery": "SMS",
    "low_battery_reminder": "SMS",
    "do_not_disturb": null
}

Charging Times

The Zoe's charging calendar is, sadly, crap. You can say "charge between these times" but you can only have one schedule per day. So if you only want the car to charge between 0300-0700 and 1800-2200 on Mondays - you're out of luck.

It also seemed to force me to set a schedule for every day.

This is a multi-stage process.

Create a schedule

In this example, I'm setting the charging to be active on Monday from 0100 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. All other days start at different times, but last only for 15 minutes. All start times must be at 00, 15, 30, 45 minutes. All durations must be in increments of 15 minutes.

curl \
   -H 'Authorization: Bearer AAAA' \
   -X PUT \
   --data-binary '{"optimized_charge":false,"mon":{"start":"0100","duration":"0115"},"tue":{"start":"0200","duration":"0015"},"wed":{"start":"0300","duration":"0015"},"thu":{"start":"1600","duration":"0015"},"fri":{"start":"1900","duration":"0015"},"sat":{"start":"1400","duration":"0015"},"sun":{"start":"1200","duration":"0015"}}' \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge/scheduler/offboard'

View the schedule

Let's make sure the schedule has been sent correctly

curl \
   -H 'Authorization: Bearer AAAA' \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge/scheduler/onboard'

Returned - hopefully! - is the schedule:

{
    "enabled": false,
    "schedule": {
        "mon": {
            "start": "0100",
            "duration": "0115"
        },
        "tue": {
            "start": "0200",
            "duration": "0015"
        },
        "wed": {
            "start": "0300",
            "duration": "0015"
        },
        "thu": {
            "start": "1600",
            "duration": "0015"
        },
        "fri": {
            "start": "1900",
            "duration": "0015"
        },
        "sat": {
            "start": "1400",
            "duration": "0015"
        },
        "sun": {
            "start": "1200",
            "duration": "0015"
        }
    }
}

Deploy the schedule

Be default, the schedule isn't activated. It needs to be "deployed" in order to send it to the car.

curl \
   -H 'Authorization: Bearer AAAA' \
   -X POST \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge/scheduler/offboard/deploy'

Deactivate the schedule

If you deactivate the schedule then the car will charge whenever it is plugged in.

curl \
   -H 'Authorization: Bearer AAAA' \
   -X PUT \
   --data-binary '{"enabled":false}' \
   'https://www.services.renault-ze.com/api/vehicle/VVVV/charge/scheduler/onboard'

That's all folks?

There are a few other API calls - mostly around registering and removing vehicles, and updating personal details. I've not detailed these because I didn't want to test them with my live account.

What's Missing?

Sadly, the Renault API is quite poor compared to BMW's API. Here's what I'd love to see:

• Vehicle status - doors locked, headlights on.
• Efficiency - last journey, total.
• Mileage.
• Physical location.

The End Result

edent's Car

@edent_car

🔋 100%
🚗 76 miles
🔌 Plugged in
⚡ Not charging
⚠ Secured and Locked
#RenaultZOE

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Further Reading

A living copy of this documentation is available on my GitHub account.