Commuting 160 miles in a Spark EV

MrDRMorgan said:

2014 spark EV no DCFC: @ 14,144 miles, 17.2 kWh; @ 18, 474 miles, 16.2 kWh. Degradation rate: 4330 miles per kWh. (TorquePro)

2015 spark EV with DCFC: @ 1414 miles, 18.8 kWh; @ 18,900 miles, 17.1kWh. Degradation rate: 10,286 miles per kWh. (calculated method)

2016 spark EV with DCFC: @ 10,284 miles, 16.6 kWh; @ 19,041 miles, 15.5 kWh. Degradation rate: 7,960 miles per kWh. (TorquePro)

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Sorry - I'm not sure I understand your metric of degradation rate (x miles per kwh). Can you please explain what this means: "Degradation rate: x miles per kWh."

Thank you

flyingpertyhigh said:

MrDRMorgan said:

2014 spark EV no DCFC: @ 14,144 miles, 17.2 kWh; @ 18, 474 miles, 16.2 kWh. Degradation rate: 4330 miles per kWh. (TorquePro)

2015 spark EV with DCFC: @ 1414 miles, 18.8 kWh; @ 18,900 miles, 17.1kWh. Degradation rate: 10,286 miles per kWh. (calculated method)

2016 spark EV with DCFC: @ 10,284 miles, 16.6 kWh; @ 19,041 miles, 15.5 kWh. Degradation rate: 7,960 miles per kWh. (TorquePro)

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Sorry - I'm not sure I understand your metric of degradation rate (x miles per kwh). Can you please explain what this means: "Degradation rate: x miles per kWh."

Thank you

Click to expand...

Sure.

1. For my 2014 Spark EV - My data shows my HV battery degrades 1 kWh for every 4330 miles driven.
2. For my 2015 Spark EV - My data shows my HV battery degrades 1 kWh for every 10,286 miles driven.
3. For my 2016 Spark EV - My data shows my HV battery degrades 1 kWh for every 7960 miles driven.

For comparison purposes, assume 1 kWh = 5 miles of GOM range.

The data for my 2014 and 2016 Spark EVs, which I still own, was taken using TorquePro running on a Nexus 7 Android tablet and an OBDLink MX OBD2 adapter.
The data for my leased 2015 Spark EV, now returned to the dealer, was calculated using the data from the Energy Information screen in the car.

As an added note, for the last 1000 miles, neither my 2014 Spark EV nor my 2016 Spark EV has shown any evidence of further battery degradation. I need to gather much more data but I attribute this to limiting charging to 80 to 90% SoC. I need to continue to gather data for each car for 10k miles or more to see if this is true or not.

Given the wide range of miles, do you have the corresponding period for each.
This may help us weight miles versus time as impact on degradation.

I rarely charge to over 85% and I very, very rarely charge to 100%. (I'm a geek and I did a *huge* amount of research about Li-Ion batteries, which may or may not be applicable to the Spark.)

I had almost no noticeable battery degradation on my original 2016 Spark (2 years owned) before my wife wrecked it (18K miles), and not enough data yet on the 2015 I recently bought to add.

However, in general, Li-Ion batteries do not like being fully charged or fully discharged (it does depend on exact chemistry). So, as I said, I rarely charge to 100% and I try to not take the battery below 20% charge. It does happen (both) - in fact I try to do a 'full' charge every 2 months or so to make sure the battery cells are balanced.

When I know in advance that I need close to full range, I charge it up to 100% - it's better to be 'full' than empty - but it is something that I avoid doing on a daily basis.

scrambler said:

Given the wide range of miles, do you have the corresponding period for each.
This may help us weight miles versus time as impact on degradation.

Click to expand...

2014 Spark EV: 10 June 18 thru 20 May 2019
2015 Spark EV: 1 July 2015 thru 3 July 2017
2016 Spark EV: 10 June 18 thru 23 May 2019