Ovo Charge Anytime works by switching the car to instant charge at a time that suits their economics (plus your specified charge % and time (i.e. by 7:30 am)). Ovo will typically charge in several time blocks and it sounds as if it got to 65% and subsequent charge blocks failed for which I would suspect the Renault comms arrangements. I find they don't switch back to the prior Custom plan when they finish and I have to do this myself every time. I also find that Ovo sometimes does not stop charging e.g. at 80% but continues to 100% when the car itself will curtail charging. All my problems with Ovo, which have not been excessive, seem to due to Renault's remote software access which Ovo has to use.

I use a Commando socket outside my garage door plus a 6m 32a cable/dongle to connect to the car. I have used this arrangement for almost 18 months and the only issues have related to Renault's remote software which Ovo and possibly Octopus use to determine how much power you have used at the reduced EV rate of 7p/kWh. Other info - most switched commando sockets have a relatively poor rating against water ingress and, while this has not been a problem for me, I once spotted a much better socket that had a significantly better rating t a higher price I would have paid If I had known about it. Lastly, all EV charging arrangements are now required to have specific protection against faults coming from the grid in relation to earth potential - a Commando solution is unlikely to have this unless the socket's earth conductor is wired directly to an earth rod.

I can't speak from a great deal of experience of DC charging. My charge rate in the summer is never better than 43kW - possibly the car is reducing the charge rate due to cold temperatures ? At least the system is allowing a DC charge which indicates it does at least work.

Stopping short of 100% is a personal choice but I think this gives the battery the best chance of a longer life. I use Ovo as Electricity supplier and their App lets me choose how full I want the battery and the time I need it to be charged by. They achieve this by remotely monitoring charge progress and switching between instant charge when they want charging to start and scheduled charge (with far off times) when they want it to stop. If you are prepared to calculate roughly how long it will take to get to your preferred charge level, you can work this yourself by setting a calculated time window for the charge i.e. 4 hrs at 7kw will give you ~28kw which would take you from 26% charged to 80% approx.

Are you saying your phone is on EE or that you know that Renault are using EE to connect their server to the car ? My experience has been a few lost days over the past year - inconvenient but not a show-stopper.

Bought my car with 6700 miles, now a year later and 16700 miles. Service tech said the tyres were about haf worn but with one showing just <4mm I would say I will want to replace sooner than that. If I get 25k I will be happy.

Ian I disagree that "constant charging is bad for the battery "- though I completely agree that constant charging to 100% is going to degrade the battery faster. My understanding is that the best outcome arises when you keep the battery closer to a half charge for most of its life which inevitably means adding some charge more frequently.

On the infrequent times I need to get good range from a full charge I reduce my speed to 56 or even 53 mph if the road is quiet and the 180 miles I need to cover is achieved with 25% or more battery and an indicated 50 - 75 miles in hand at the end. It is tedious but it works if I want to move the car from London to S. Wales without an intermediate charge. These days a large part of this run is limited to 50 or even 40mph anyway for road works. I do not suggest this as a strategy for regular commuting but it shows what is possible if you reduce speed below the legal limit. I have seen an indicated 270 mile range on several occasions 5.2mph/kWh i.e. distance covered of 180 plus remaining indicated range.

I am not going to try to justify any particular charge/discharge regime because we all have different requirements and the main takeaway should be that charging to 100% and leaving the car for weeks will not give the best possible battery life, nor would leaving a battery at 0% for extended periods. If your travel needs can be met by having 40% of the 52kWh available each day (so around 80 to 90 miles) then operating between 30% and 70% charge might work for you. Prof Dahn discourages venturing close to the extremes where this can be done without inconvenience for maximum battery life. Others have further suggested that it is better to recharge regularly such as every night, rather than waiting until the battery is nearly empty before charging. My reference to 50% was not to suggest this as a target charge but to suggest this is perhaps a good average level for the battery to rest at, so I charge to 60% and discharge when I get to 40% provided I don't expect to need more than 20% of the car's range that day., or 70% and 30% if I need 40% of available range. Most of us apparently only cover 20 miles per day.

The Zoe uses air cooling, I don't know what VW do though I suspect it might be water cooled which is the "gold standard". Anyone interested in this topic might want to search YouTube for a video from Prof Jeff Dahn titled "Jeff Dahn on charging between 70-30% SOC for maximum EV battery longevity". Jeff narrowly missed a Nobel prize for his part in creating Lithium Ion batteries.

No idea where the reserved capacity lies - maybe half at top, half at bottom ? All reference to SoH I have seen have been calculated as remaining % or original capacity - it is possible in some cases they may release some of that reserved capacity to offset ageing, I can't say.

The Zoe ZE50 has a 55kWh battery (54.7) with 52kWh available to use. The nearest VW is the ID4 City which also has a 55kWh LG E78 battery with 52kWh available to use.

The Zoe ZE50 uses LG Chem NCM 712 E78 cells. The VW id3 also uses E78 cells. VW recommend only charging to 80%. The Zoe battery warranty runs for 8 years or 100k miles but only applies if the battery falls below 70% state of health which is a pretty poor battery. If you want to maximise battery life you should avoid high ambient temperatures as far as possible, minimise fast charging and try to keep the battery as close to 50% charged for as much of its life as possible. If you regularly fast charge and keep it fully topped up it will still last a long time (and not trigger the Renault warranty) but not as long as if you treat it gently, as above. This has been an established and well understood characteristic of NCM Lithium cells for many years. One of the reasons 80% is often referenced is that fast chargers usually slow the charging rate considerably at this point which is a different issue - in normal home charging 80% is not a magic threshold, 70% is better, 65% better still etc but 80% is a good compromise. If you need 100% for regular long journeys then fine but your battery state of health should be expected to degrade slightly more quickly.

I had had this problem with older alloys before. When new they will have something like a clear coat paint finish which protects against atmospheric corrosion. This has now gone and tyre fitters will brush goop on the inside rim before fitting a new tyre to compensate but a full wheel refurb might be a better bet - always assuming you don't have a faulty valve or cracked wheel.

Range is estimated by the car based on available charge and recent driving so you will not get a good range prediction until you reset and cover a few miles the way you intend to drive yourself. I charged last night and the Renault app is showing 114 miles predicted range from the 62% charge I put into the car.

If most of the cells are at 15% but one is near empty - that is a fault condition not imbalance.

No, I am talking about the discharge cycle. Clearly the car restricts speed as the battery trends towards empty and then it stops, to avoid damage of the sort you described.

It wouldn't - it would just stop all supply to the car, i.e. all current flow through the series string, which is the way all BMS work.

A bms is not much use if it doesn't monitor individual cell voltages so it can stop the car dragging any cell to a dangerous level. I think that CanZE rather like Leafspy will show individual voltages.

I agree that an occasional full charge is a good and necessary thing to do. From what I have read, charging to 100% and particularly leaving the battery at 100% for extended periods will not do any "harm" as such but it is not the optimum way to store a battery for the minimisation of degradation. Panasonic research on early 18650 showed that high charge was actually worse for a battery than allowing the battery to go to a very low state of charge. The BMS will not allow any individual cell to be fully depleted or for that matter, to be over-charged.