The next step in the process of getting to know the ZOE was to go for a trip together with her. Yes, the ZOE is certainly a girl. Our first trip was a highway drive from Tampere to Helsinki on the winter solstice day. in Finland that is the day with the shortest period of daylight. In Tampere that is 5 hours 21 minutes of from sunrise to sunset.

I charged the Renault full in the evening and left the car in my carport over night. I went to the house to install the ”Latauspisteet kartalla” app on my phone. It is an app that uses the charger data administrated by the Tesla Club Finland and Sähköautoilijat ry

I had an appointment in Helsinki at 8:30AM, that is 1 hour before the sunrise. I started the Renault at 6:20AM. The temperature was a couple of degrees below freezing. The traffic cameras showed miserable wet black roads in the Southern Finland. A great day to be a salt truck operator! The only light into the pitch dark roadsalt bath were the lights of the ABC Hyvinkää gas station. When I drove through the depressing darkness, I noticed that the ZOE has pretty good headlights. In my opinion, the full beam lights are not special, but the dipped lights were a positive surprise.

I have noticed that many people think that an electric powertrain is the synonym of crazy performance. That is not true. ZOE is a great example of a full electric car that doesn’t offer faster than gravity acceleration. It will accelerate, when you push the right-most floor pedal down, but it is good to remember that a Renault ZOE Z.E. 50 R110 has 1/10 of the horsepowers of a Tesla Model S Plaid. My nearest motorway entrance goes uphill. When adjusting my speed to match the motorway traffic, touching the right-most floor pedal will not be enough. I will need to really floor it.

When the ZOE has reached the highway speed, it drives pretty nice on the big road. This is not really a surprise: In my opinion, the small Renaults, for example the Clio, have been always pretty nice cars to drive. The lane assist is acting a bit too aggressively, the in my opinion the driver’s seat could provide more lumbar support, and the on-center feel of the steering is not the best in the industry. But the overall experience is quite nice and the I am getting closer to Helsinki.

Driving highway speed drains the ZOE’s battery at an accelerated rate. The range is going down 20% faster than the range that the car showed in the start. On the other hand, we must remember that, the start was from a cold temperature without preheating. The ZOE’s computer shows a little bit over 17 kWh/ 100 km consumption. This is significantly lower than the figures that that Tekniikan Maailma magazine reported for many EVs in their winter tests. When I reach my destination in Helsinki, I have 30% of the 52kWh battery left.

After my appointment, I make a visit to Varusteleka. My plan is to add some range while I am shopping for some Scho-ka-ko-la and other “important” stuff. The 22kW charger in front of the shop is free. There is a reason: When I connect the cable, the ZOE’s charging light will turn red. Charging problem. Luckily, I am not in a rush.

The ZOE has an Easy Link multimedia system with Google Search. It was not instantly intuitive to me, where to open the virtual keyboard. This information can’t be found in the ZOE’s user guide. I need to find another user guide on the Internet for the multimedia system. I guess the pictures in the Easy Link user are from a previous software version or from another Renault model. I guess I will not be the only customer who will find the inaccurate instructions annoying. Once I have figured out that I need to push an arrow (that looked to me like a “center the view” symbol) to launch the keyboard, the search works nice.

I am planning to drive to a Virta charging station, but I realize that I will need to stop to buy groceries on my way home, perhaps I could “hit two birds with one stone” at a Lidl supermarket. I enter “Lidl” and follow the Renault’s instructions there. Lidl’s charger has a CSS charger and an AC charger. The ZOE could charge from a CSS fast charger at 50kW. CSS rapid charging is a factory option. My ZOE doesn’t have it, so I connect the 22kW AC charger and go shopping.

When I return from the shop, the ZOE’s range display is looking good, I start the car and head to Highway 3 northbound. This is the same road that I drove in the morning. For some reason driving to north uses less power than southbound. When I am back home, the Renault’s computer is still showing such a good range that I don’t see any reason to charge it.

In theory, the advertised range of the Renault ZOE Z.E. 50 R110 should have been enough for the trip without charging in Helsinki. Winter solstice in Finland shows the difference between theory and practice. I must say, I was expecting the difference to be bigger.

One of the cars that I had on my list before I bought the ZOE was a Tesla Model S. It would be interesting to go for the same trip with a Model S. Maybe some day. What attracted me to the Renault ZOE, beside the terms that the Renault dealer offered, is that a ZOE's claimed range is quite similar to the range of the smaller capacity Tesla Model S.

This trip with the ZOE was a positive surprise. It is great getting to know the ZOE better!