Torque pro battery capacity guess...

[musterdbom]

Pulled the trigger on the replacement. Body has some more paint chips in it than the first, but this one will have 17k miles in silver instead of white. Carvana has been great to deal with so far and understood why I chose to return it, but you're right Chris. If they would go through the trouble of posting a battery capacity estimate then these cars would hopefully be easier to sell or at least price accordingly. I still think most buyers won't know what to look for unless they do a TON of research into each specific make/model battery type and degradation history. The shift to Facebook as a "forum" platform only makes it harder to find historical information and opinions.

I'd be happy with 16 kwh. If this one doesn't work out I fear I may bow out of the Spark EV game. Carvana has enabled buyers like me who live in rural areas to buy into these limited production cars by solving the biggest problem, physically getting the car HERE. For that I applaud them and hope this next one works out.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Pulled the trigger on the replacement. Body has some more paint chips in it than the first, but this one will have 17k miles in silver instead of white. Carvana has been great to deal with so far and understood why I chose to return it, but you're right Chris. If they would go through the trouble of posting a battery capacity estimate then these cars would hopefully be easier to sell or at least price accordingly. I still think most buyers won't know what to look for unless they do a TON of research into each specific make/model battery type and degradation history. The shift to Facebook as a "forum" platform only makes it harder to find historical information and opinions.

I'd be happy with 16 kwh. If this one doesn't work out I fear I may bow out of the Spark EV game. Carvana has enabled buyers like me who live in rural areas to buy into these limited production cars by solving the biggest problem, physically getting the car HERE. For that I applaud them and hope this next one works out.

When the car arrives and if you can measure battery capacity with TorquePro, would Carvana allow you to check the battery capacity before they roll it off of the truck?

 

[musterdbom]

Pulled the trigger on the replacement. Body has some more paint chips in it than the first, but this one will have 17k miles in silver instead of white. Carvana has been great to deal with so far and understood why I chose to return it, but you're right Chris. If they would go through the trouble of posting a battery capacity estimate then these cars would hopefully be easier to sell or at least price accordingly. I still think most buyers won't know what to look for unless they do a TON of research into each specific make/model battery type and degradation history. The shift to Facebook as a "forum" platform only makes it harder to find historical information and opinions.

I'd be happy with 16 kwh. If this one doesn't work out I fear I may bow out of the Spark EV game. Carvana has enabled buyers like me who live in rural areas to buy into these limited production cars by solving the biggest problem, physically getting the car HERE. For that I applaud them and hope this next one works out.

When the car arrives and if you can measure battery capacity with TorquePro, would Carvana allow you to check the battery capacity before they roll it off of the truck?

They roll the car off and let me drive it around for 30min or so to make sure I want to keep it. So yes I can absolutely pull the capacity with Torque and if it's low I can have the driver load it back up and take it back at no charge or obligations.

I had that stupid junky ebay OBD2 dongle that wouldn't read the capacity so I couldn't give it a good evaluation on the first white car or I would have most likely denied delivery of it. I have the reader that works now and will know immediately the answer to the battery mystery. Also want to confirm it has DC fast charge. I chatted with Chevy online and they say it does have it, listing on Carvana didn't list it. In my Carvana experience I have chatted with chevy on MULTIPLE VIN's and more often than not they have DC fast charge but Carvana doesn't list them as having it.

 

[Chris101]

I've been happy with my Silver Spark FWIW!

Where 'middle of nowhere' do you live anyway musterdbom ? ...just curious

 

[musterdbom]

I've been happy with my Silver Spark FWIW!

Where 'middle of nowhere' do you live anyway musterdbom ? ...just curious

I'm in Blacksburg, VA or Virginia Tech. Nearest Carvana is in Greensboro, NC so they drive it 2hrs one way and I drive 7 miles to meet them to avoid a $399 delivery fee. There's a free Greenlots DC fast charge station downtown at the courthouse and several free L2 spots around town. I still have an L2 here at the house from when I had a 1st gen Volt. Great car, but got totalled when wife was driving it last November.

 

[SparkyJ]

My 2015 read 14.8 kwh with 28,400 miles on it today. I have to go back to the thread I originally posted in...I think it was 16.1kwh in july 2018 with around 20k miles. Nothing I'm concerned about if all that is accurate with daily charges all week over the last year. I don't see an issue with any year spark ev that has 25k plus miles on it with kwh's over 13-14...hopefully that is where the capacity loss starts to slow. I will have mine around 2 more years and will keep tracking.

 

[musterdbom]

Got the new one, just under 17k miles, DC fast charge and torque batt capacity says 15.8. So I'll keep it!

Interesting energy usage though. I imagine while they were cleaning/detailing it they left the AC on full blast without driving it anywhere as the energy screen was very lopsided and it even had some battery conditioning show up so I'm guessing it was neglected a little bit, possibly left uncharged?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e7ywy8ky2ovxKP997

 

[SparkE]

I recommend getting a smart trickle charger (12V auto battery type) an trickle charging your accessory battery overnight. The car will not work if the 12V battery goes south, and if the car sat around for a long period of time the 12V battery might have been damaged. I have this one and love it :

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-865-Automatic-Battery-Charger/dp/B006CQ9BMO/

Others here have different ones and they like them as well. (I fully charge my 12V battery overnight about once a month.)

I also recommend getting a Li-Ion "jump starter" to carry around (*do not* leave it in the hot car!) because if the battery goes, you can hook it up and drive the car home. Something like this :

https://www.amazon.com/TACKLIFE-Car-Jump-Starter-Quick-charge/dp/B075K42Z1M/

(I am NOT recommending this particular item, just showing you the sort of thing I am talking about.)

 

[MrDRMorgan]

"I recommend getting a smart trickle charger (12V auto battery type) an trickle charging your accessory battery overnight. The car will not work if the 12V battery goes south, and if the car sat around for a long period of time the 12V battery might have been damaged. "

I really agree with SparkE's post regarding keeping the 12 volt battery in top shape. I have 2 Spark EVs and every month I charge the 12 volt battery overnight using a BatteryMinder model 2012-AGM battery charger. This charger has an option that allows me to charge through the OBD2 port inside of the car. It has been working great! If you go this route, it is very important that the charger you select is for 12 volt AGM batteries and that it has a DESULFATING function built in.

 

[musterdbom]

Thanks for the tips. I do have this charger that I use for everything:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N537IM7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I put two 18AH batteries in my son's power wheels so it only needs to be charged once a month or so haha.

I need to check the battery and see if it's the original, I'm assuming it will be.

Good news, brand new tires.
Bad new, they're bad non-eco Sailun Atrezzo SH406.
Conclusion, they hold air, aren't too noisy and no vibrations up to 70mph so I'm okay with them.

I had already ordered an ebay "tint kit" for the last spark as well as the Lloyd mats which should be here today. Surprise, this one came with factory mats even though the Carvana pics didn't show them, score!

 

[DFWSpark]

I saw a reference to using the BOLT PIDs for Torque Pro. I did my best perusing the Bolt forums trying to find the Bolt PIDs. Are they the same for Volt, because I found that in a thread form 2015. But, if anyone can point me to the Bolt PIDs, that would be great!

Follow-Up:
I found it here:
https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/chevrolet-bolt-obd2-pids.26666/

The direct link to the actual shared googledoc is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sY5n8WFu52U6a4_mg3MdcGcmDk3scAP8_muSy-BlXPc/edit?usp=sharing

 

[musterdbom]

DFW, yep those are the PIDs I loaded and use. Just had to change the OBD2 reader to get them to show up.

Updated on Spark No. 2 with 15.7-15.8kwh capacity. One of my hope was that I could make a 65 mile trip to my mother's house as a day trip. Ended up making the journey with the two boys yesterday. There's an elevation DROP of about 1000' just as I leave town. About 12 miles of the trip are back roads to avoid the interstate 70mph speeds. The rest is highway speeds 55-65mph. Upon arrival I had 31 miles left on the GOM which is awesome but also made me a little scared for the trip back. The last leg is all uphill, albeit back roads. Pulled into the driveway with 10 miles left on the GOM. So that's awesome! I won't try it in the winter though lol.

There is ONE Electrify America fast charge spot about 5 miles PAST my exit off the interstate (about halfway) that I will check out on the next trip to see if it works with my car. I have read mixed reviews for the EA stations and didn't want to risk it on my maiden voyage.

So Spark No. 1 would NOT have been a good fit and I'm very happy I sent it back. Kinda dig silver over the white too.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

DFW, yep those are the PIDs I loaded and use. Just had to change the OBD2 reader to get them to show up.

Updated on Spark No. 2 with 15.7-15.8kwh capacity. One of my hope was that I could make a 65 mile trip to my mother's house as a day trip. Ended up making the journey with the two boys yesterday. There's an elevation DROP of about 1000' just as I leave town. About 12 miles of the trip are back roads to avoid the interstate 70mph speeds. The rest is highway speeds 55-65mph. Upon arrival I had 31 miles left on the GOM which is awesome but also made me a little scared for the trip back. The last leg is all uphill, albeit back roads. Pulled into the driveway with 10 miles left on the GOM. So that's awesome! I won't try it in the winter though lol.

There is ONE Electrify America fast charge spot about 5 miles PAST my exit off the interstate (about halfway) that I will check out on the next trip to see if it works with my car. I have read mixed reviews for the EA stations and didn't want to risk it on my maiden voyage.

So Spark No. 1 would NOT have been a good fit and I'm very happy I sent it back. Kinda dig silver over the white too.

If you do decide to try the EA fast charger, be sure to have sufficient battery left to return home if the charger does not work. My experience is EA chargers manufactured by ABB do not work for Spark EVs. But, EA chargers manufactured by BTCPower do work. Please post your experience and, using the manufacturer's label on the side of the charger, identify if it is manufactured by ABB or BTCPower. I am still waiting for ABB / EA to notify me that they have fixed the problem with ABB chargers with respect to charging Spark EVs. The ABB chargers seem to be ok for Chevy Bolts.

 

[CypressVH]

Is there a guide on how to set up Torque Pro for the 2014 Spark EV?

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Is there a guide on how to set up Torque Pro for the 2014 Spark EV?

I use the same TorquePro setup for my 2014 as I do for my 2016 Spark EV. The biggest difference is the 2014 Spark EV has more cells in the battery. But, I am only tracking the average battery cell voltage plus the first 96 individual cell voltages. When I tried to setup TorquePro for all of the cells in the battery for my 2014 Spark EV, I ran into nothing but trouble. So, I left it at 96 cells which is what the 2015 and 2016 Spark EVs have.

 

[musterdbom]

Update. Torque battery capacity is now reading 16.0kwh. Received from Carvana at 15.7. Just goes to show that it is truly just a GUESS.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Update. Torque battery capacity is now reading 16.0kwh. Received from Carvana at 15.7. Just goes to show that it is truly just a GUESS.

I believe TorquePro only reports what the car calculates and has stored in its memory. In May of 2019, at 18,665 miles on my 2016 Spark EV, TorquePro reported my battery capacity at 15.4 kWh. In June of 2019, at 22,476 miles, it was 15.8 kWh and in October 2019, at 24,538miles, in was again 15.4 kWh. The last full-charge GOM was 99 miles.

On the other hand, my 2014 Spark EV has shown a stepped but steady decline - 17.2 kWh in June of 2018 and 15.7 kWh in October 2019. The last full-charge GOM was 92 miles.

 

[musterdbom]

Update. Torque battery capacity is now reading 16.0kwh. Received from Carvana at 15.7. Just goes to show that it is truly just a GUESS.

I believe TorquePro only reports what the car calculates and has stored in its memory. In May of 2019, at 18,665 miles on my 2016 Spark EV, TorquePro reported my battery capacity at 15.4 kWh. In June of 2019, at 22,476 miles, it was 15.8 kWh and in October 2019, at 24,538miles, in was again 15.4 kWh. The last full-charge GOM was 99 miles.

On the other hand, my 2014 Spark EV has shown a stepped but steady decline - 17.2 kWh in June of 2018 and 15.7 kWh in October 2019. The last full-charge GOM was 92 miles.

I think you're right about it just being a memory/history based calculation. I'm guessing the battery capacity OBD2 value is averaged from miles/kwh history of some sort, maybe calculated on a set number on full charge cycles.

In winter here now and range has been down of course. Battery capacity now says 15.2. The GOM hasn't read much more than 60 miles in the last 8-9 charge cycles due to cold weather and my driving habits.

If this is true, then the battery capacity guess should start rising again as it warms up and will peak in the fall, but like you said, probably won't high the highest number seen previously due to general battery degradation. I'll check back in few months.