Very nice - a lovely car.
Hopefully more fun EV hatches will follow.
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They do look great. Iāve only sat in one at the Renault dealer and was most impressed. Our challenge is that we only have one car, our Megane. Most of the time we just drive locally but a few times a year we go to France. On Saturday we are off to the south coast for a few weeks and the R5 just isnāt big enough bootwise to contain our stuff, and the limited range would be a bit challenging. But if we had two cars it would be absolutely perfect. I think we will see more small EVs coming along. So many are just absolutely vast and so many are pig ugly. Small and cute is what we need.
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Pigs can be cute 
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In what way? 
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Very nice. Echoes the original Renault 5. Looks great!
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Weāve just switched tariffs from Agile to Octopus Go (Intelligent Go isnāt available for the Pod Charger / R5E combination).
Much as I loved Agile, the prospect of regular charging means we really need more certainty of a low overnight rate, and Go is 8.5p per kWh for 5 hours every night. At 7kw charging I make that a fraction under Ā£3 for perhaps 150 miles of range.
Meanwhile, my first EV mini-win happened on Thursday. We had an 8 hour power cut at home, and by 3pm, whilst the mifi was fine, my laptop was dead. We live in the middle of nowhere and so I thought Iād have to go out and try to find a quiet cafe for an online meeting. Anyway, spoiler alert - I remembered the R5 has V2L, an adapter was sitting in the boot and I was able to charge up without incident. This felt very cool.
I suppose the next thing is to investigate how I can integrate V2L with our main home electric circuit. With 2 EVās sitting outside, that seems possible.
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There is allegedly a free V2L upgrade for the Megane coming soon. 2025 cars have it but ours just missed out. Vehicle to grid is different, though I believe the R5 can do it in France, but not yet the U.K. it would be really helpful to us in the winter, as it would hugely increase our battery capacity.
Today we are embarking on our longest EV journey to date. What could possibly go wrong?
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Fair play to you Nigel. I hope it all goes well.
.sjb
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V2L is a great bonus on an EV.
I certainly wouldnāt buy a car without it now. Mainly used for supplying hot coffee for our regular seaside walks.
.sjb
If you like the Renault 5 but it is too small for the odd longer trip then a Renault 4 may be worth a look. The 4 is a small/med SUV style but with the same tech/battery/traction setup as the 5 and has larger luggage space etc.
Good luck. I expect it will be fine.
We got all the way to the South coast without problems. We have moved up the Northern Rhone, went to charge the car and the connector wouldnāt go in. So off we went to the local Renault garage. The security pin that prevents removal of the connector while charging is stuck in the down position, hence why the connector wonāt go in. At least it didnāt get stuck while we were on a charger!! Hopefully they will be able to fix it simply, or we canāt get home.
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Fingers crossed.
Hopefully, because youāre in the home of Renault, any needed parts will be readily available
.sjb
Hopefully, but no. They couldnāt fix it so removed the locking pin altogether. We need to take it to the local garage at home. I imagine itās because Renault UK is somehow separate. I spoke to Portsmouth Renault and they referred to Danās of worms and how the pin should not have been removed. Of course they didnāt say how they would have enabled us to charge without removing it. So on Monday I will go to see them and go from there. At least wr can charge tomorrow
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aargh!
We just had 2+weeks in France (Brittany/Lot Valley) with the EV3. I donāt drive it a lot here as it is my wifeās daily but as it has more range than my EV6 we took it for this holiday. Have to say after all those miles it was superbly comfortable, practical and just easy to live with. No charge issues in terms of finding or using them on main roads or in small villages/towns. Even at the big charge stations such as on the Autoroute we were struck by how few cars seemed to be using them, and many seemed to be from countries other than France (Dutch esp).
Used the big charge hub at NEC Birmingham on the journey home from Portsmouth too. Very good (if pricey). Easy access from the M42.
Did see a fair number of the new R5 though, looking good.
Bruce
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The Alpine A290 is the one I want! Iāve seen quite a few around.
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We collected our nearly new Toyota BZ4X just under 2 weeks ago and so far weāre in love with it! Itās incredibly quiet and comfortable and commuting in it to LHR has been a joy (and vastly cheaper than petrol/diesel cars we have had!) Iām getting 240 miles from it on my mostly motorway journeys doing an indicated 75mph most of the time. On Intelligent Octopus Go I reckon my 90 mile round trip is costing around Ā£1.50 which is unbelievable!
Our only fairly lengthy road trip so far was taking our daughter to Uni in Birmingham (around 340 miles all in) and I found the Tesla superchargers at Solihull really fast and easy to use on the way back for a quick top up. I joined the Tesla club this month for Ā£9.99 which unlocked 37p/kWh charging costs vastly undercutting the 87p many other places seem to be overcharging! It topped up there at 140kW speed (itās supposed to be rated up to 150kW). The driving position reminds me of an old Land Rover Discovery we had - youāre quite high off the road, I think Land Rover used to call it the āCommand Driving positionā which feels very secure, but despite that it seems to handle pretty well. Itās even got a 50cm wading depth and has huge amounts of space to take our camping, cycling and kayaking kit so weāre looking forward to lots of adventures in it! Personally, I really like the styling and wedge shaped angular nose in particular, it manages to look sleek, purposeful and tastefully distinctive I think.
Honestly after using this for a commuting/road trip car I am never ever going back to petrol again, although the MX5 is staying because Iām not convinced of the merits of electric power in a driver orientated sports car just yet!
Thought some pictures are in order!
As a lifelong petrolhead Iām honestly blown away by electric propulsionā¦
JonathanG
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The main thing is you can charge it. I hope your Renault dealer fixes it quickly and easily.
Have a safe trip and enjoy the rest of your holiday!
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You sound like a convert.
Hopefully Toyota have sorted thisā¦it was 2022 early in the production run!