The Mobega plan offers, from mid 2011 until the end of 2012, the chance to experience the daily use of an electric car in Galicia (Spain). The user can rent an electric car for 15 €/day (20 $/day) by this subsidized rental plan. It’s financed by “Xunta de Galicia” (regional government), CEAGA (Galician Automakers Cluster) and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER). The chargers installation and maintenance is carried out by Bluemobility company. These chargers are located in the most important Galician cities. The Citroën C-zero (more info on this link) and the Peugeot Ion are the vehicles rented under the Mobega plan.
This post is a summary of the experience during the 3 rentals that I made under the Mobega Plan.
General data
My first experience with the Mobega was a one day rental on November 2011. Most part of the data for the measurements section on the C-zero post come from this rental day. The second rental was also one day long on August 2012 and the third rental was for 2 days on November 2012. By chance, a Citroën C-zero was always the supplied car.
The vehicle is picked-up and returned in selected offices of National Atesa, found on the web (www.mobega.es). Returning the car to a different office is not allowed. During the first few months it was not allowed to repeat the experience. Some time later this requirement was removed and anyone could rent a car multiple times, but other conditions were added:
- The vehicle cannot be picked-up or returned during holidays(even if the rental office is opened that day).
- The rent is managed solely through Mobega plan (www.mobega.es or 902 996 080). Previously you could complete the formalities at the office of National Atesa, but it was not possible last time I checked.
- It is not allowed to pick-up or return the vehicle during weekends. The rental period must as well cover the entire weekend or end before the weekend. You can rent it for one weekend, but the rental period must cover the two days.
The total rental price (including VAT) is 15 € per day, regardless of whether you rent a single day or the maximum 1 month period. Charges are for free during the rental period in Mobega plan charging stations.
Booking, pick-up and return
The booking process is currently done through the form in mobega plan website or through its telephone number 902 996 080, from Monday to Sunday from 9 to 20 hours. Driver data and desired rental office needs to be provided. After that, an authorization process is started. It usually ends with a confirmation email which includes the National Atesa office information, personal data and the dates and hours of the rental period starting and ending.
The pick-up is carried out in the National Atesa office. Rental documents are signed and a credit card needs to be provided to pay the rental and lock the insurance excess (400$, more or less. A debit card is not allowed). I’ve never had any problem or extra charges during many rentals (within the Mobega plan and in other rentals in several countries with different companies). So, my advice is that there is no need to fear the use of a credit card. I’ve always been asked during pick-up if I had experience with the car. The first time, a member of the National Atesa crew kindly explained the basic operation and the charging process. They give the car keys, a license and registration folder and the Mobega plan card for identification in the charging points. The rental company indicates the area and the parking spot number where the vehicle is parked and the process is finished. I personally recommend to check the vehicle looking for significant damages not identified in the documentation provided (it only happened to me once so far, outside the Mobega).
The return is made in the same office. This is a much simpler process in which the car is parked the car in the National Atesa area and the keys, the documentation folder and the mobega card are returned.
Charging process
The vehicle can be recharged at any time. It can be done in two ways (for more information on recharge systems you can read a previous article of this blog):
- Using a household outlet
Among the supplied cables in the trunk is a charger that plugs into a 230 volt household outlet, for a mode 2 charging. It is something like a cellphone or laptop charger but way bigger. A cell phone uses 5 to 10 W of electrical power during charging, a laptop between 50 and 100 W and this car is around 3500 W (15 Amps at 230V). It is therefore important to have a reliable and grounded wall outlet. Damaged or thin wires and connections with adaptors or multiple connectors should be avoided. The other end of the wire plugs into the right side of the vehicle, in a Mennekes plug. The charging time will depend on the initial battery charge, with a maximum of 6 hours at 220 volts, as specified in the characteristics of the vehicle. When the charging process is finished or when we want to drive away, the charger must be disconnected and the car is ready.
- Using a slow charging point
The other of the two cables supplied with the vehicle has two Mennekes connectors. One of them needs to be connected to the slow charge point and the other to the right side of the vehicle to charge in mode 3. The car needs to be connected with the aforementioned wire and the charge needs to be activated on the node. This node may be the cabin of the parking where the chargers are installed or a terminal located in the immediate surroundings.
Bluemobility runs most part of the slow charge points in Galicia, also the Mobega charging stations, which can be used for free during the rental period. In these stations the user must be identified with the Mobega card. To end the charging, the above procedure must be repeated to unlock the terminal connected to the post.
- Using a fast charging point
In this case the the plug is on the left of the vehicle, a mode 4 under CHAdeMO standard. A fast BlueMobility charger is placed in Mobega stations. Its use is also for free under the Mobega plan. There are two connectors on this charger: a Mennekes AC mode 3 of 45 kW (for Nissan Leaf, Renault ...) and a CHAdeMO mode 4 of 50 kW (for Mitsubishi, Citroen, Peugeot ...) used on the Citroën C-zero.
The fast charging procedure in Mobega stations is simple:
- The CHAdeMO charging connector is released by pressing a button on the top, where the thumb is placed when grabbing the connector as a gas pump. So, the terminal is unlocked and can be detached from its holder on the charger.
- Connector is inserted into the socket of the vehicle and pressed. An accordion is compressed, the user pulls the trigger and the terminal is locked to the vehicle.
- The driver uses the supplied identification card on the charger attached to the vehicle. There are several options: exit to the main screen, change the language and the two types of fast charge: AC 45 kW and 50 kW DC. The CHAdeMO DC 50 kW is selected. It shows that the vehicle needs to be connected to the charger, something we have already done. Select next and we get a screen with a “press start to begin”. We press start and the charging starts. A red indicator lights on the terminal connected to the vehicle, the cooling system of the charger starts making noise and the car ventilation and air conditioning is connected to reduce the interior temperature during charging.
- The charging process ends around 80%. If the battery is completely empty this process would take about 25 minutes. If we want to charge up to 95%, the process could be restarted and it would take another 25 minutes.
Conclusions
The plan Mobega is certainly a unique opportunity for anyone wishing to try the everyday use of an electric vehicle. The only aspect that could be criticized is the use of public money for this purpose in the current context with important social needs. Personally, I think this is debatable, considering that part of FEDER funds have been used, like the PLAN-E (Spanish government funds for increasing employment based on building public infrastructures), for purposes as "productive" as renovating sidewalks and pavements. Surely, in case there was an economic indicator for sidewalk quality in relation to GDP we would be on the top. I think there are many budget items that should be reduced without affecting the technological progress and, of course, education, health system or social services should not be part of those candidates. In any case, the plan expires at the end of 2012 and no one knows what will happen later.
Leaving this aside, the plan is a good proposal and is available in Galician main cities. Personally, I was surprised by the ability of the C-Zero to cover most part of my driving needs, with the exception of long trips. It's reasonably comfortable, very agile in town, reasonable out of it and has enough space even to carry a baby in his restraint system and the stroller in the trunk. The biggest step backwards from a conventional vehicle is the heating, which does not come from a surplus of engine heat and involves an extra energy need and, something worse, a loss of range. So, if you need a range close to 60 miles (100 km), you should take a cardigan in winter. In summer the air conditioning consumes energy like any other vehicle, but in this car its impact on range is worrying and discourages its use.
The pedestrians are another problem. They don’t hear the vehicle coming and it leads to complicated and dangerous situations. In my opinion, this is not a vehicle but a pedestrian problem, that also takes place with hybrids. I realize that may be a problem for the blind people, but that is a caution the driver should have. None of the many emergency brakes I had to make was because of a blind person, just pedestrians crossing without looking (they could be equally hit by a cyclist). Another related point that strikes me: it is common that some of the pedestrians who do observe the vehicle don’t hurry up as would do in front of a regular car, causing a strong brake on many occasions. This is not a one-time observation, I often find myself in these situations with both the Mobega vehicles and the Prius I use regularly.
Last time I used the Mobega plan, I made longer trips during the 2 day rental period. This trips were about 60 miles (100 km): Pontevedra - Ourense, Ourense - Redondela, Redondela - Santiago and Santiago - Vigo. Each of them has been conducted in a single charge and on conventional roads, since highway use at slightly higher speeds increases the energy consumption per mile and significantly reduces the range. In every test, it has reached the destination with over 10 miles of range left.
In previous rental periods I have always experienced the “range anxiety”. It should be noted that this vehicle has fully charged range similar to a conventional car in the reserve. The driver just can’t help doing continuous maths to know if the car would reach the destination. The thing is more serious if the road has more uphill sections than expected or if the air conditioning or heating is accidentally activated (which is easy due to the obscure and out of sight controls of the C-Zero). Moreover, the air conditioning is activated automatically when the knob position for windshield demisting is selected, but it’s not disabled when changing that position. In one occasion this made me lose range from 30 miles (50 km) I had to less than 20 miles (30 km). To make things worse, last stretch was a considerable uphill that swallowed the last 3 lines of battery, range became 0 and light requesting immediate recharge lit on the instrument cluster. These situations cause anxiety in the driver and, luckily, there were at least 3 extra miles (5 km) that allowed me to reach the destination. The first time I made a Mobega rental, I designed a route of 55 miles (90 km) that ended in a full charge in Pontevedra. This time I was the only one to blame for the "range anxiety", because I hadn’t read the Mobega instructions carefully. So, once in Pontevedra train station, there was no charger, only the rental office. After reviewing the information (something I should have done before) I foun out that the charger was in a parking lot about 2 km away. I drove there and there was no such charger. I came back to the information and saw a note regarding thad the charger would not be installed until next month. At that point, with a 10 miles (15 km) range, I had to return home, which was more than 12 miles away (20 km). The driving was tense, but luckily the road between Pontevedra and Redondela is quite flat and the destination was reached just when the last line of battery went off, but inmediate recharge light was still off. These situations lead to consideration, because a normal vehicle would not need more autonomy, but it provides a lot of comfort to know it's there.
If we don’t take into account these situations, the vehicle is easy and convenient to use, very quiet, smooth and a very good choice for a fun day for only 20$ (15 €), with no need to use more fuel than the required by the generation in the electric power grid (with great contribution from renewable energies in Galicia). I recommend everyone who is interested to try it, it’s worth the money and the experience is interesting.
Regarding the charging infrastructure, it is clear that BlueMobility is taking an interesting position among the national pioneers. It's a brave proposal and significant growth is expected in the future. However, there are certain aspects that I think need to be improved, all of them related to the charging information. For example, it’s odd that the fast charge ends at 80% instead of 100% and it’s not intuitive to initiate a second process to load up to 95%. The vehicle is probably the cause of these ranges, but the charger should provide more information. Luckily, the staff at National-Atesa renting company provides all this information and tells the user how to perform these processes.
In one occasion I made a quick charge in Pontevedra. The car arrived with a 10% load, I started the process and left. When I returned about 15 minutes later, the charger interface was on the main menu. The dashboard of the car indicated less than 50% charge. I tried again and charged from 30% to stop at 40% a couple of minutes later. I tried a third time and reached 45%. In the following attempts it did not even start charging. The charger went back to the main menu every time I tried to start the process and did not indicate what was happening, or why, or at least, if the failure was due to the charger or the vehicle. Finally I tried another charger in another city and charged perfectly. So I understand that the problem was the charger, but the absence of information on the screen generates much confusion.
On another occasion, at Ourense Mobega station, the control node allowed me to start slow charge after plugging the car to one of the posts, identifying with Mobega card, selecting the number of post and start the process. However, after a few hours, with the vehicle fully charged, I came back to make the return trip and the control node did not show the option to unlock the plug. After going through all the menus and options available, it was impossible to disengage. I was out of BlueMobility assistance timetable, so I called National Atesa and they solved the problem. They told me to leave the wire on the pole and take the car. Staff from Ourense office would recover the wire later. When I returned the car the next day in Vigo office, the wire was already there. Again the highest rate for National Atesa staff who have politely and quickly solved a problem that was not their responsibility. In any case, I insist that more and more consistent information is needed in the chargers, for example:
- While charging is in progress fast charger monitor shows only the battery percentage and an indication. The correct indication is provided only on one of them, which is: "To end the charging process use the ID card." In other cases there is another message: "To complete the process touch the badge". The latter makes no sense: there is no batch on the charger and it is not logical to press the badge on the car’s remote (it does not work, I've tried). I guess it is caused by two different versions of the software, but it should be corrected in all chargers.
- Some instructions that can be read on the side of any slow charge post are shown in the image. I miss clear information about the meaning of the different colors on the pole (green: free, blue: connected, yellow: charging). In addition, a person with interest in technology can imagine that the "control node" is some kind of terminal with a monitor, but I guess that anyone not familiar with these topics would not understand what to do. Moreover, in some cases there is no such terminal and it is not intuitive to ask the parking booth. The parking stuff should have nothing to do with the charger: for example, the people on Ourense bus station information cabin know nothing of the system and don’t operate it, but in parking Santa Clara in Pontevedra, the crew perform the slow charge management. This is not intuitive or indicated anywhere.
In any case, regardless of these areas for improvement, facilities are new, technologically leading and form a reasonably large initial infrastructure for the use of electric vehicles in Galicia. I consider these points as constructive criticisms arising from an emerging technology that, like many others, needs to be improved. I would not like these to be seen as Bluemobility problems but as difficulties that arise in any technologies under development. So, in this sense, Bluemobility effort and proposals in various applications are commendable.
To summarize, the plan Mobega is a very interesting initiative. It brings experience on the use of electric vehicles to the Galician population while creating a charging network in the territory. If the reader has the will to try this experience must be in a hurry because no one knows if it will continue after the end of 2012.
Sources:
Images:
- As Colorful As Ever, by Broke For Free (2012). Creative Commons License.
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