7.5% charging capacity loss after one week?

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sanrevl

New member
Joined
May 5, 2016
Messages
2
Hi everyone,

I just leased a 2016 spark last week. When I leased the car it was given to me with a full charge of 82. During the week I charged it 3 times to full capacity. The first time charged to 82. Yesterday it charged to 76 and again today at 76 again. Should I be concerned? I know loss of battery capacity is to be expected but about 7.5% loss in one week seems absurd. Any ideas? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. My wife also leased a spark ev during the same time period and her car has not shown any charging capacity degradation.

Thanks
 
sanrevl said:
Hi everyone,

I just leased a 2016 spark last week. When I leased the car it was given to me with a full charge of 82. During the week I charged it 3 times to full capacity. The first time charged to 82. Yesterday it charged to 76 and again today at 76 again. Should I be concerned? I know loss of battery capacity is to be expected but about 9% loss in one week seems absurd. Any ideas? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. My wife also leased a spark ev during the same time period and her car has not shown any charging capacity degradation.

Thanks


Range depends on your driving style, terrain, weather, etc. You likely haven't lost battery capacity, the car is simply trying to estimate your range based on how it is being driven.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. That's a big relief. Do you know what the best way to check the charging capacity to make sure nothing strange is going on?

Thanks again
 
sanrevl said:
Thanks for the quick reply. That's a big relief. Do you know what the best way to check the charging capacity to make sure nothing strange is going on?

Thanks again


You might want to look at the thread http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4491 about Maintaining Battery Life. In particular there is a graph of the battery capacity in my Spark EV over the last 2 1/2 years.

Kevin
 
sanrevl said:
Thanks for the quick reply. That's a big relief. Do you know what the best way to check the charging capacity to make sure nothing strange is going on?

Thanks again

You can estimate the battery capacity by pressing the leaf and going to the "energy details" screen with the pie chart. If your last charge was a full charge, you can add up the three percentages (Driving and Accesories, Climate Setting, and Battery Conditioning) and divide by 100 to get the fraction of the battery that has been used. This screen also has "Energy Used" in kWh. Divide the "Energy Used" by the fraction to estimate the usable battery capacity in kWh. You will probably get a more accurate number if you wait until the battery is at least 40% used. In summary here's an equation:

Code:
(battery capacity in kWh) = 100 * (Energy Used) / (Driving and Accessories + Climate Setting + Battery Conditioning)

With my 2016 Spark EV, so far I have recorded capacities of 17.95, 17.97, 17.75, and 18.03 kWh.
 
Great explanation, greenspark!

Those numbers look about right. I've done 12kmi on my '15 and it averages to 17.9 kWh battery capacity using the same technique.
 
NORTON said:
sanrevl said:
Hi everyone,
... Should I be concerned? .....
Might I suggest -------- RTFM ?

I read the manual and I actually wondered about this very issue. The only statement I see in the manual is--

"The number in the ball is an estimate of how far the vehicle can be driven. MAX is the current maximum and MIN is the current minimum range based on recent driving habits."

It's always been clear to me that the max and min reflect recent driving habits, but it actually hasn't been clear to me whether the range estimate displayed when you turn the car on (i.e., the "number in the ball") reflects recent driving or just state of the battery (I have certainly seen it cycle from 60s to 80s depending on climate).

Is there a general consensus-- or anything clearer in the manual-- that if I drive more slowly/carefully for a week that will increase the range that my Spark shows when I turn it on?
 
greenspark said:
sanrevl said:
Thanks for the quick reply. That's a big relief. Do you know what the best way to check the charging capacity to make sure nothing strange is going on?

Thanks again

You can estimate the battery capacity by pressing the leaf and going to the "energy details" screen with the pie chart. If your last charge was a full charge, you can add up the three percentages (Driving and Accesories, Climate Setting, and Battery Conditioning) and divide by 100 to get the fraction of the battery that has been used. This screen also has "Energy Used" in kWh. Divide the "Energy Used" by the fraction to estimate the usable battery capacity in kWh. You will probably get a more accurate number if you wait until the battery is at least 40% used. In summary here's an equation:

Code:
(battery capacity in kWh) = 100 * (Energy Used) / (Driving and Accessories + Climate Setting + Battery Conditioning)

With my 2016 Spark EV, so far I have recorded capacities of 17.95, 17.97, 17.75, and 18.03 kWh.
My 2015 Spark EV battery capacity, with 10K miles on the odometer, is very close to those numbers and I calculate the battery capacity as explained above. You have nothing to worry about. I try usually discharge to 50% before taking my reading.
 
Homer said:
Is there a general consensus-- or anything clearer in the manual-- that if I drive more slowly/carefully for a week that will increase the range that my Spark shows when I turn it on?
Homer--Each time the battery is recharged full, the car resets the estimated range based on recent usage. It may only consider the last time since the battery was full, or it may go back a certain amount of miles, or number of recharges; I don't know and I don't recall reading on the forum or seeing anything in the manual that specifically describes the calculation.

Generally speaking, if you're going to use the car similarly to how it was used during the last charge cycle, then the initial range estimate is pretty close.
 
I was in the same situation, but much worse. I bought my '14 SparkEV in So California back in December and had it shipped to Michigan. My average range during the winter and my high speed highway driving to work was averaging around 61-63 miles range! I changed my tires to sticky R-compound tires which did not help but really didn't take too much from the range. THE #1 factor is driving style, #2 is using heat in cold weather.
Now that the weather is approaching 70, the range has increased to upper 60's.
Yesterday, I drove downtown in city streets and traffic, the range went up to 78!
My Spark has 12200 miles on it now and loving it every day (its not raining). Don't worry about your battery, range changes every time you charge it as it estimates from the last time you drove.
I just wish we had another 100 in front of the range meter- guess Ill have to wait for the Bolt.
 
We've only had our Spark about 9 months, and I'd say the biggest factor (or variable) in range seems to be ambient temperature. Now that it is warm, range and efficiency are going way up. Even running the AC doesn't have a huge impact on range, nothing like cold ambient temperature (even with the heater off, though the space heater can be a huge energy consumer).
 
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