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Douglas

Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
7
Hi everybody,

I have decided I am buying a Spark EV and wouldn't mind a little advice on the best way to go about buying one, and when might be a great time to buy. I thought I heard that the Bolt is due for national release this August, so I thought perhaps sometime after that we might see the prices of the Spark EV drop significantly. Thoughts?

After checking several websites, Auto Trader, cars.com, cargurus.com, craigslist, and a few others, it seems to me Carmax might be the best. This would be my first electric car, and any charging advice would be appreciated as well. I do not feel like I will have to have the vehicle charged quickly very often. 8 hours would be fine most of the time.

Thanks very much, and I look forward to joining the club!
 
I would think the Sparks are probably as low as they will get given the car is no longer produced and the Bolt has been released where the Sparks were sold.

As far as charging, it all depends on your intended use of the car.

The nominal range is around 80 miles, could be more or less depending on your driving condition and style, and the state of the battery on the car you will buy.

So if you assume a minimum of 70 miles of range, the question to ask yourself is will you ever do more miles in a single day or trip than that.
If the answer is absolutely not, basically you will only use the car for commuting and short trips within that range, then you do not care about the having the DCFC option (DC Fast Charging). You can just charge using the default Level 1 EVSE on 120 volt at night, or if you want a bit more flexibility and be able to occasionally add charge during the day for a couple of hours, you can get a Level 2 (240v) EVSE.
 
Thanks Scrambler for your reply! I should have mentioned that I do want a vehicle with the DCFC, but for most of the time, Level 1 EVSE sounds like it will work just fine. I am aware that most 2014s do not come with this option, and many 2015s don't as well I believe. I am in Albuquerque, N.M. and am aware of one other Spark EV in the State. I called the local Chevy dealership and they claim they would be able to service a Spark EV.

I do think the price of Spark EV's will come down in the ensuing months, with the release of the lower priced Tesla now, and other plug-in hybrids becoming more popular. The demand for the Spark EV I can't imagine will be very high, but I love what I've read about them, and we have a second vehicle for longer trips. I am concerned about how the car with hold up in the event of an accident, because people drive like maniacs in this state. Thanks again for your reply, and if you have any tips on buying, I'm all ears!
 
Here in the Los Angeles area, I saw a 2016 Chevy Spark EV selling for $12000. It only has 800 miles on it.
 
In a couple of years, you will probably be able to find used Chevy Spark Ev's selling for around $5000.
Hopefully technology improves soon, and there will be mechanics who will be able to service older EV's.
Maybe in the future, they will be able to upgrade Spark EV's so that they can get greater mileage.
 
i was checking carmax and they r still about same price when i bought in Jan. they r selling for 8500 to 9500 with 25 to 45k miles. i paid 9k for mine and it now has 6500 miles. 5k in a couple years? depends on gas prices. gas taxes r going up in cali again. i dont c 5k for low mileage cars anytime soon.
 
I've seen a few Chevy Spark EV's selling for around $8000. I figure if you haggle with the dealer, you can get it down closer to $7500.
Maybe even lower if it's a private seller. So it doesn't seem far fetched to say you will be able to find these cars selling for around $5000 in a couple of years.
Especially as the warranties on the batteries will be nearing their end date.

I predict that Spark EV's with low mileage will still be very desirable to people.
It really is too bad Chevy has decided to discontinue making the Spark EV. It really is a great car. With slight mods to the suspension, it would be an amazing car.
I hear Nissan is doubling the EV range on their Leaf vehicles. Why couldn't Chevy do the same with the Spark?
 
Douglas said:
Thanks. Any thoughts how soon that will start happening?
Click to expand...

My guess would be sometime around September to October. My 3-year lease for my 2015 Spark EV will be up at the end of May 2018. I plan to purchase the car if the deal is right. Otherwise, I may lease a Bolt.

I purchased my 2014 Spark EV - a used vehicle with 1500 miles on it - in August 2015. The 2015 has DCFC but the 2014 does not. I installed a Bosch 3.3 kWh L2 EVSE in my garage by using an unused electric dryer circuit in my laundry room. Works great! I also use the L1 EVSE that came with the cars to provide power to cool the battery during hot weather.
 
We also have to wait and see how CA's new 30 cent gas tax increase will affect the demand for EV's.
I know for sure it will create a huge demand for the Bolt. Not sure how it will affect the sales of the Sparks.

It sounds selfish to say this, but part of me hopes EV's don't become too popular. Because then it will become difficult to find charging stations that are not being used.
 
Isn't it interesting that waiting is almost always for Leaf / i3? There's a reason for that.

Many months ago, I did an impromptu survey by striking up a conversation with the driver while waiting. About 4 out of 5 were people living locally, but they were sitting at public charger and making me wait, because it's free. Because so many more EV that get free charging have been sold since then (Nissan Leaf, BMW i3), clogging has gotten worse. Without free charging (eg. used EV), clogging won't be as bad.
 
That is true. Whenever I go to a charging station, and there are other EV's, they are almost always Leaf's, Prius's, or BMW's.
I have yet to see a Spark EV at one of the charging stations. Although I do see them regularly on the freeways.
I am surprised that gas stations haven't added charging stations on their properties.
 
ncerna said:
We also have to wait and see how CA's new 30 cent gas tax increase will affect the demand for EV's.
I know for sure it will create a huge demand for the Bolt. Not sure how it will affect the sales of the Sparks.

It sounds selfish to say this, but part of me hopes EV's don't become too popular. Because then it will become difficult to find charging stations that are not being used.
Click to expand...

Not criticizing, but Your $0.30 gas tax increase is incorrect. Here is the language from California SB-1:

The tax increases will take effect November 1 and new vehicle registration fees will begin Jan. 1, 2018. Fees on zero-emission vehicles will take effect in 2020, according to the text of the bill.

To raise a projected $52.4 billion over 10 years, changes to taxes and fees include:

A 12-cent increase in the gasoline excise tax
A 20-cent increase in the diesel excise tax
A 5.75 percent increase in the diesel sales tax
A new vehicle fee, which will annually charge drivers between $25 and $175, depending on the value of the vehicle
A $100 annual fee on zero-emission vehicles [ I believe this starts with model year 2020]
The vote brings California's gas excise tax to 30 cents per gallon.
 
ncerna said:
they are almost always Leaf's, Prius's, or BMW's.
Click to expand...
I rarely see Prius at chargers, and when I do, they're never plugged in. Since they are incapable of DCFC, those Prius drivers just use EV charging spot as parking spot for their convenience (and making everyone wait).

By sheer number of Leaf and i3 sold, one would expect to see more of them at DCFC so that's not a surprise. The surprise came when I actually spoke with them, and the vast majority lived locally and could charge at home, yet were using the public chargers (and making everyone wait). Since they get free 30 minutes per session, practically all of them take full 30 minutes. Sometimes they unplug and re-plug for second 30 minutes session. Apparently, their time (aka, life) is worthless.

I have never seen a SparkEV, because

a) we use it sparingly, because it costs money

b) it charges so quick that most sessions end up about 10 to 15 minutes. My average over 1 year of DCFC is 15 minutes per session, and I tried real hard to take longer for testing purpose, not to mention many times that "fast food to go" ended up taking longer than charge time. In effect, using SparkEV at DCFC is like busy gas station visit.
 
SparkevBlogspot said:
ncerna said:
they are almost always Leaf's, Prius's, or BMW's.
Click to expand...
I rarely see Prius at chargers, and when I do, they're never plugged in. Since they are incapable of DCFC, those Prius drivers just use EV charging spot as parking spot for their convenience (and making everyone wait).

By sheer number of Leaf and i3 sold, one would expect to see more of them at DCFC so that's not a surprise. The surprise came when I actually spoke with them, and the vast majority lived locally and could charge at home, yet were using the public chargers (and making everyone wait). Since they get free 30 minutes per session, practically all of them take full 30 minutes. Sometimes they unplug and re-plug for second 30 minutes session. Apparently, their time (aka, life) is worthless.

I have never seen a SparkEV, because

a) we use it sparingly, because it costs money

b) it charges so quick that most sessions end up about 10 to 15 minutes. My average over 1 year of DCFC is 15 minutes per session, and I tried real hard to take longer for testing purpose, not to mention many times that "fast food to go" ended up taking longer than charge time. In effect, using SparkEV at DCFC is like busy gas station visit.
Click to expand...

My DCFC charge times [EVgo] run 13-17 minutes. At 17 minutes I need to charge to 95% to get to my destination and back to the same charger where I charge to 80-85% to get home. I have done this many times and it works out great every time. When I get home, I put the car on my Bosch L2 EVSE and fully charge to 100%.
 
I just found the one I was looking for. Here's a spreadsheet of those that may still be available: http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4883

The best method I came up with, for finding dealerships with them (tried craigslist and other private sellers that didn't work), is to search on bestride.com and then Google that dealership and verify it's in their lot from their website. Lots of sites (carsforsale.com, autotrader.com) don't seem to scrape data from dealerships as well as bestride.com does.

Good luck!
 

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