Renault EV charging issue with Octopus Intelligent Go

[sandafletcher]

Well, our Iconic arrived a fortnight ago & it’s a steep learning curve getting used to all the amazing features. We upgraded from a 2020 Zoe which now seems so basic as we learn to handle cruise control, lane assist, etc. - great features but ones we hadn’t experienced in previous cars - we haven’t even tried to get our heads around the auto-park option yet! However, one issue that’s causing us some headaches is with our new home Zappi smart-charger installed a couple of months ago by Octopus to utilise their cheap smart-charging overnight tariff. We’ve been very happy Octopus customers for years & thought their EV tariff a great deal, but so far it’s one we’re struggling with. When the Zappi was fitted, we started charging our Zoe with it but soon hit problems, which I hope are specific to my situation here! The Zoe kept cutting out or refused to smart-charge fully overnight, & while Octopus were really helpful, it’s been a frustrating learning-process! They initially told us we were getting ‘over-voltage’ errors on the charger so we contacted the local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) who supply our property to check this out. They said they could read the smart meter that Octopus fitted with our new charger, which showed the voltage coming into our house was okay, so it must be something within our property that was causing this problem. We checked out our solar PV battery system with our supplier & that was okay so it came back to either the Zappi or the Zoe that was causing our problem. When our Scenic arrived 4 weeks ago, the same problem continued - no overnight smart-charging or even a full daytime boost charge so we’re having to slow-charge using a standard 3-pin 13w charger we got, or go out to a commercial charger! MyEnergi have agreed to replace the Zappi under warranty which is happening next week but also told us that Renault EVs like the Zoe have known programming issues so our Zoe - which we’re passing onto our daughter - is going in to our dealer to be reprogrammed next week. I’ll let you know if this saga is resolved after the Zappi is replaced next week. Don’t know if anyone else is having similar charging issues but it’d be interesting to know.

[sandafletcher]

Well, the MyEnergi fitter called on Tuesday & replaced my Octopus-fitted Zappi with a new identical model - took 2 hours & it went very smoothly. When I plugged in my Scenic, the Zappi display indicated that there was a new 5-10 minute delay now built in before a charge begins - interesting. The fitter told me that this was requested by DNOs (Distribution Network Operators who actually supply the grid power to our homes, unlike Octopus, etc., who we pay for it) so they can avoid power surges that may cause over-voltage errors - so that seems a good change to what may have caused some of my earlier problems. When the charge started - a daytime standard rate boost/bump charge - it went up from my old charger’s maximum 2kw to a 7kw rate, which may indicate the original Zappi was faulty. I plugged in later & the Octopus App set an overnight smart-charge - which I’d set on the car & app to 80% & this morning, it was happily charged to 81% (close enough, hooray)! However, there was also an error message left by the Octopus App saying ‘Unable to control your device’ so I’m not yet sure that the Zappi & Scenic are talking politely to each other. I asked Octopus for advice about this & they told me that there were some disconnection errors on the charger that seemed to indicate problems with the Wi-Fi connection between my home router & the Zappi. Octopus couldn’t fit a direct cable link to my 1st Zappi charger, which is mounted across a backyard on the garage wall - my original ‘dumb’ charger cable didn’t have an Ethernet option in it & they couldn’t add this without digging up the concrete yard which would’ve doubled the cost. Instead, they linked the Zappi to my home Wi-Fi network (& fitted something called a Harvi in my meter box, but I’m not quite sure what that does) & these errors may indicate that this Wi-Fi link may be dropping out & causing some of my issues, so I’m going to update the Wi-Fi range-extender that’s closest to the charger & see if that helps - it’s ordered & on its way. I’ll keep monitoring this all for a week to see if the smart-charge continues to work - I’m a lot more hopeful than before but I’ll update this post if anything changes.

[TheBriggie]

Unable to control your device happens on my car (not renault yet) and seems to be a common error message with Octopus Intelligent. My charger has a built in esim so WiFi has nothing to do with my error messages. As for reason...who knows but perhaps its the car interphase not the charging station?

[jonjbwills]

I've just got my Scenic e-Tech and have been on Intelligent Go for some time with my Tesla. Go wasn't controlling the car but the Zappi so that it controls charging for both mine and my wife's cars. That worked almost faultlessly. However, the Scenic doesn't seem to accept the charge when it's been asleep for some time. I've tried with no programme set (instantaneous charging) and I'm going to try tonight with a programme set to run from 11:30 to 5:30 and see what happens.

It's a little bit frustrating.

[Scenicroute]

I am not with Octopus, we are with BG and have an Ohme pro. If you look at the other chat you will see I have had countless issues with the schedule charging until the company that fit the charger told me to turn everything off on the app and just programmed the car, so basically the charger is not asking the car to charge it, the car is asking the charger it wants to be charged. This work straight away and got the blue solid light to say it had a programme scheduled. It has worked ever since. Maybe turn all the schedules/smart charging off on the Zappi app and then put a programme on through the electric part on the cars apps.

[jonjbwills]

I've just got my Scenic e-Tech and have been on Intelligent Go for some time with my Tesla. Go wasn't controlling the car but the Zappi so that it controls charging for both mine and my wife's cars. That worked almost faultlessly. However, the Scenic doesn't seem to accept the charge when it's been asleep for some time. I've tried with no programme set (instantaneous charging) and I'm going to try tonight with a programme set to run from 11:30 to 5:30 and see what happens.

I tried the charging with the programme set as mentioned above and it charged for about 10 minutes and then stopped . Octopus had planned for three charging sessions during the night but neither of the last two worked. I bump charged it in the morning having woken the car up. It seems that the car goes into a deep sleep and doesn't wake back up when electricity is made available. I'm going to have to be creative to get charging at the best price for the time being.

If anyone finds a solution do let us know.

[neilgall]

I have seen this deep sleep issue with my Mégane too. I want to charge from my solar panels when possible but back that up with grid charging. The car charges flawlessly at night but during the day I sometimes see the car go to sleep and not accept a charge even when there's plenty excess solar.

[sandafletcher]

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your experiences of these charging issues. I've now had my faulty Zappi (that's what MyEnergi have classified it as, for the warranty replacement) for 3 weeks and I replaced my wi-fi range extender nearest to the charger last week, which has strengthened the signal to and from it. However, I've still got the blip with it shutting down the smart charge that the Octopus Go App sets up, but I've noticed a pattern that seems to indicate that the car and charger aren't communicating properly yet - perhaps supporting this 'deep sleep' issue. When I plug in anytime before the 11.30pm cheap-rate tariff kicks in, it will often start charging from my solar battery using the Eco++ option, then - after a few minutes - it shuts down either saying the charge is complete or delayed. Thinking that there wasn't enough battery charge to use - I've set it to use anything over 15% of the remaining battery charge - I've checked the battery level to find it's almost always well above that. Of course, it could be that the grid hasn't got any surplus power, which Octopus told me could be the reason for the delay, and to wait until 11.30pm for the cheap rate to kick in again. However, when I go to the car and open the driver's door, the internal screens light up and - hey presto - within a few seconds, the charger starts up again and continues charging, almost always until it's complete! WhenI spoke to Octopus Aftercare about this, they say it could be a communication issue between the car and charger which they hope future upgrades will address, but it's a simple enough hack to open the door - as long as I don't have to do it at 3am, which so far hasn't;t been necessary! Interesting!