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New user

New user

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30 Messages

Monday, June 10th, 2024 3:32 AM

Is the State of Health of an EV battery included in an NRMA pre-purchase inspection report?

When the NRMA does a pre-purchase inspection of a used car, the NRMA sites says "We plug in a diagnostic scan tool to detect any fault codes on all car types including electric and hybrid." Does the report on the vehicle include reading out the 'State of Health' (SOH) of the car's traction battery? IE Does the report tell a prospective buyer that 'The battery retains x% of its originally rated capacity'. This would be useful information to give confidence to a prospective buyer and would also help the seller to demonstrate that the battery remains in good condition. I think this would be the single most useful thing to know about used EV. 

Bronze user

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91 Messages

6 months ago

In the absence of a response from NRMA, if the current owner keeps a log of charging, energy use and distance travelled etc (we do), then it is possible to determine, reasonably accurately, what the battery SOH is.

I've yet to find an OBD2 scanner that is guaranteed to work with my vehicle, but a decent quality unit that works with EVs may be able to give SOH information too.

Silver user

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251 Messages

6 months ago

Hello @PeterCa , apologies for the delay here. We've checked in with our vehicle inspection partner and can confirm that their process is as follows:

  • We take a screenshot of the vehicles' onboard display screen which shows the remaining battery range left on the battery (if available).

  • Where possible, our scan test will also pick up open circuits or fault codes in the battery system (eg for hybrids), however not all EV/hybrid makes/models make their data available so there are some limitations in scope at the moment based on the available technology in market.


    As the 2nd hand EV market matures, the industry is working to improve and respond with what data us available and accessible to give a more precise reading on the battery. 

 

New user

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6 Messages

I bought a CanZe dongle for my Renault Zoe on ebay and it transmits data to a phone app, including SOC.  You just have to make sure you get the appropriate dongle for your vehicle and find the OBD2 port.  Cheers  Jack

New user

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30 Messages

@Jack777​ Yes. I am surprised that the NRMA reply mentions scanning for fault codes, which implies plugging in an OBD device, but does not then also record the state of health of the battery while they are there. 

Photographing the screen to see the guesstimated range and state of charge at that particular moment is better than nothing but only a very rough indication of the battery state of health because the range guesstimate varies quite a lot depending on recent driving, city or country, heavy or light foot, warm or cold etc. 

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