Renault Zoe ZE50 – Charging stops during initial handshake with EVCS v2.07

Q&A and troubleshooting DESS
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1

Vehicle

  • Renault Zoe ZE50 R110
  • On-board charger: Caméléon
  • EVCS firmware: v2.07 (C025)

I’m trying to determine whether this is a known compatibility issue between the Renault Zoe and the Victron EV Charging Station.

Symptoms

Charging occasionally fails during the initial AC charging handshake.

The behaviour is repeatable.

The EVCS starts charging, then after a few seconds the Zoe stops requesting current and eventually reports “Battery charging impossible”.

What has already been checked

  • Battery SOH: 95.3%
  • Cell delta at 100% SOC: only 11 mV
  • 12 V battery OK
  • No faults in LBC or VCM
  • Only BCB-OBC stores:
    • P01263
    • P0631B

Interesting observations

  • The original Renault Flexi Charger always starts charging correctly.
  • The Victron EVCS fails mainly when charging starts at higher current.
  • Lower current improves reliability.
  • High ambient temperature (35–37 °C) makes the problem much more frequent.
  • During cooling, the Zoe briefly stops drawing current.

Public charging stations

I also tested several public AC chargers.

One charging point always fails.

Another charging point (same charging station, different socket) always charges successfully at about 20 kW.

This suggests that the Zoe is very sensitive to the initial IEC 61851 negotiation.

Related discussions

I found several Victron Community threads describing very similar behaviour with Renault Zoe vehicles.

My question is:

Has Victron identified any compatibility issue between the Zoe Caméléon charger and the EVCS handshake sequence?

Is there any configuration parameter, beta firmware or timeout setting that could improve compatibility?

I can provide CanZE screenshots, charging logs and further diagnostic information if required.

2

Additional observations after further testing:
Ambient temperature: 35–37 °C.
The problem becomes much more frequent at high temperatures.
The Renault Flexi Charger (10/16 A) always starts charging successfully.
After charging for a short time with the Renault Flexi Charger, the Victron EVCS often starts charging correctly afterwards.
Public AC chargers show mixed behaviour:
Some charging points always fail.
Other charging points (even another socket on the same charger) work perfectly.
This suggests the vehicle is extremely sensitive to the initial IEC 61851 handshake and/or interruptions during battery cooling.

3

I don’t know if this makes any difference, but there is a newer EVCS firmware update v2.08 -10 June 2026

● Updated to the latest BLE SDK with stability and performance improvements

Good luck!

4

Thank you for the suggestion.
I will update my EVCS from v2.07 to v2.08 and perform the same tests again.
If the problem persists, I will report back with the results.

5

Thank you for the information.
I have now updated my EV Charging Station to firmware v2.08.
I haven’t been able to test it yet because my Renault Zoe is currently at around 85% SoC, but I will perform several charging tests over the next few days, especially under the same conditions that previously caused the problem.
I will report back here with the results so we can see whether the firmware update has solved the issue.
Thank you again for your help.