Sparks help and frequently asked questions

No. Sparks is developed independently. It talks to your My Renault, My Dacia or My Alpine account the way the brand’s own app does, but Renault, Dacia and Alpine have nothing to do with it.

With the electric and hybrid Renault, Dacia and Alpine vehicles linked to a My Renault, My Dacia or My Alpine account. What you can see or command depends on your car’s model and connected services: a feature that Renault doesn’t offer for your vehicle doesn’t appear, or doesn’t respond. Sparks can’t create it. See compatible cars

Use the email address and password of your My Renault, My Dacia or My Alpine account. They go through the Sparks server, which passes them straight on to Renault to open the session. The password is stored nowhere, neither on the server nor on your phone; Sparks only keeps a session key supplied by Renault.

If Renault asks for two-factor authentication, enter the code you receive: it’s sent to Renault together with your credentials.

Renault can lock an account after too many failed attempts, and Sparks also limits the number of sign-in attempts. If signing in fails, check your credentials in your brand’s app before trying again and again.

It must be listed in the garage of your My Renault, My Dacia or My Alpine account. If the app says that no vehicle is linked, add the car in your brand’s app, then sign in again in Sparks. If Renault isn’t responding when you try, try again a little later (see the outage banner).

Yes, on iPhone, with the demo account: on the app’s welcome screen, press and hold the logo for 3 seconds to open the demo session. You get a fictional car (Mégane E-⁠Tech): the data is built into the app, nothing is sent to Renault, and commands “succeed” without going to any car. A Véhicule de démonstration (demo vehicle) banner stays on screen.

Because the data is missing, and Sparks would rather show that than guess. Examples: a cost per distance needs a consumption calculated from your trips, and without a usable history the tile stays empty; a charging session with no known price isn’t included in any total; an average only covers the items that have the data. A price of €0/kWh is a real value (free charging), not an absence.

Renault sends very little. Several values are therefore derived, and the app says so:

• Trips: no trip data is sent. Distance, duration and consumption are reconstructed by comparing two successive readings (mileage and battery level).
• Charging power: usually not sent, it’s derived from how the level progresses. Because the level is only given to the nearest whole per cent, the derivation is uncertain; on a slow charge, the app may refuse to draw a curve rather than draw one that would make no sense.
• Battery state of health (SOH): estimated from the charging sessions of the last 6 months, to within 2–3 points.

Each estimate has an information button that explains how it’s calculated.

The values served by Renault are cached copies whose age isn’t the age of your request: the car may have measured its level a while ago. Sparks shows the time of the latest data when it’s available. If it looks old, open the app and refresh; the car itself decides when it reports a new measurement.

“Sent” means queued at Renault, not carried out. The car may take a while to respond, or refuse. The app shows the outcome when Renault gives it; if the command is refused, a wrong PIN code, or a car that doesn’t accept that command in those conditions or with its connected services, are possible causes. Try again a few minutes later. Don’t send the same command several times in a row: Renault and Sparks both limit how often some commands can be sent (charging limit, climate control, horn).

The Sparks server watches whether calls to Renault are failing for several accounts at once. If so, the app says so and there’s nothing for you to do: don’t sign out, don’t change your password. The banner disappears as soon as data comes back. Without enough observations, the app shows nothing (“unknown” isn’t “all is well”).

Yes. Your phone links the screen to your account by scanning the QR code shown in the car, and it’s where you read your trips. The mobile app is in testing on iPhone and Android.

Trips stay in the car and go as soon as the connection is back. Once the server has them, they’re deleted from the car.

In the car, go to Settings › Unpair this screen. Choose “Unpair and erase the car’s data” to also delete what the app kept there. If the car had no signal at that moment, also unlink the screen from your phone. Always do this before selling your car.

Not today: there’s no switch. Tracking starts as soon as you’re signed in. To stop it, sign out (Réglages › Se déconnecter on iPhone, Settings › Sign out on Android): tracking stops on the server and the trip in progress is ended. Deleting your account also stops it, by erasing your cars (next question).

Limits: if another signed-in phone follows the same car, it restarts the tracking; if you sign out without a connection, or uninstall the app without signing out, tracking only stops after 30 days without news from the app. Signing out doesn’t erase the data already stored on the server (nor the charging history kept on the phone).

Réglages › Supprimer mon compte on iPhone (Settings › Delete my account), Settings › Delete my account on Android: you’re asked to confirm. Sparks then erases, for each car listed in your account’s garage, the data kept on its server, as well as the data on the phone. Some technical data stays for a while before disappearing on its own, and a car that’s no longer in your garage isn’t erased. This concerns Sparks’s data, not your brand account, which stays with Renault.

Everything about deleting your data

You can export your charging sessions and trips as CSV from the app. For any other request (access, erasure, previous owner of a car that was sold): privacy@sparksapp.fr.