About to purchase a 2015....

Hi i just joined the forum because im thinking about buying a 2015 1lt spark ev. Im alittle confused about the charging.
I know it does not have the dc fast charging. So what are my options for charging?
Am i stuck charging for 20hrs on 110? Or does the plug w/o dc charging allow for 240v?

My commute is 65 miles a day round trip and i will be able to 110 charge at my farm. The spark can handle that correct? Pardon me for my noobness.
Also any advice for a new owner would be much appreciated thanks!

You can do 240v AC charging if you buy a 240V cord and have or install a 240 14-50 plug in your house

3kw an hour charging (12 amps at 240v)

Since 4.4 miles per kw that's about 13 miles for each hour of charging if you drive easy you can easily get 5.5 miles per kwh and in that case it would be 16.5 miles range per hour of charging

If your commute is 65 miles round trip and it's mostly highway driving (60 to 70 mph) you better make sure the car you buy has good battery capacity and even then you will barely make it home unless you can charge at work. If you live in cold weather forget it

https://youtu.be/ylDwKVUFX24

xCYCHOTRONx said:

My commute is 65 miles a day round trip and i will be able to 110 charge at my farm. The spark can handle that correct?
Also any advice for a new owner would be much appreciated thanks!

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I'll keep it as short as possible, I own a 2015 Spark EV and 2019 Bolt EV. Before I got laid off, my daily commute round trip was 62 miles with no ability to charge at work. I ended up buying a Bolt, because between the commute and another life change which led to having to drive even more, driving the Spark wasn't practical anymore.

(Edit: During the Carolina winter, making my commute started getting dicey, always returning home below 20%/orange battery bars. Even with 110v charging at the farm, if you're doing highway speeds, you may still encounter this, and you probably will start losing a fair amount of battery capacity with all of the cycling.)

I would have never considered the Spark of not for the fast charging option, which I've used the hell out of (maybe you have no infrastructure).

The Spark may meet your needs, but you REALLY need to evaluate your situation and make sure you're not setting yourself up for failure. If the Spark would be your only vehicle, you may want to consider a Volt, as it sounds like you will be able to do almost all EV miles with your shared circumstance.

If I had a crystal ball at the beginning of 2018, I would have bought a Volt over the Spark, and I love the Spark.

Yea im driving 60-70 mph (usually 60-65) hwy commute. So it would only be worth it if i have 240v connection at home and the farm? What about the nissan leaf? I was also looking at a 2012 leaf with 19kmiles. I was told it had 109miles range.
As for other charging places, im in olympia WA and on the way to my farm is the dealership who will let me use thier charger for free any time. Im also waiting to hear from them about installing the dc fast charging is an option.
The goal was to find a used EV that would cost me the same money as im paying in gas with my truck (150-200per month).

xCYCHOTRONx said:

Yea im driving 60-70 mph (usually 60-65) hwy commute. So it would only be worth it if i have 240v connection at home and the farm?

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Keep in mind, if all of a sudden you need to go somewhere else (back home, hospital, etc), you may have hours of wait time for charging. Just my opinion, but this is not practical.

xCYCHOTRONx said:

What about the nissan leaf? I was also looking at a 2012 leaf with 19kmiles. I was told it had 109miles range.

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The Nissan LEAF had horrific battery degradation for 2011-12 and they didn't do much afterwards. Unless you're looking at a 2018 with 40kwh battery (I personally wouldn't buy one), you're probably going to quickly regret it.

You would be lucky to get a driving range of 55 miles (half of the 109 you mentioned) in a 2012 LEAF. I can not recommend buying a Nissan LEAF except for: purely city travel or a secondary town roundabout vehicle.

xCYCHOTRONx said:

As for other charging places, im in olympia WA and on the way to my farm is the dealership who will let me use thier charger for free any time. Im also waiting to hear from them about installing the dc fast charging is an option.
The goal was to find a used EV that would cost me the same money as im paying in gas with my truck (150-200per month).

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The dealer staff will probably quickly tire of seeing you, it's best to use their chargers for emergency for the previous reason and the delta units aren't super reliable to begin with.

Adding dcfc is a fallacy that you need to erase from your head. Could it be done, absolutely, could it be done without a $2k price tag, I HIGHLY doubt it. As a $750 factory option, it was a bargain, and only vehicles ordered specially should have ever been made without it.

I once had borderline contempt for Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs, I thought they were the worst of both worlds), but I talked my ex into a Ford CMAX PHEV and even though it has limited electric range (20 miles), it was very practical for all electric local driving and easy to travel with & getting 40mpg. If the electric range can't meet one way of a roundtrip commute with charging in the middle.... well it's still doing something.

You can get a good used Volt for well under $10k I think. My only hesitations are premium fuel being necessary (I would have had to use has frequently for my circumstance) and I think the first gen is notorious for needing a wheel bearing replaced every 40k miles or so. Still leaps and bounds better than a lot of garbage on the road.

Again, good luck.

Well i guess im not going to find what i want till i can afford something with 150 range. I will have 240v at the farm soon for trimming equipment and at home sometime soon. Maybe next year.

I remember owing $12,000 when I bought my Corolla and having a $200/month car payment. I bet you could find a good Volt for $9k and if your credit is decent, that should be $150/month.

Fact is gas is about the same price as electricity. What do you pay per kwh? Let's say it's 15 cents going 65 70 you will get maybe 3.5 miles per kwh. So 15 cents to go 3.5 miles but wait the charging loses another 5% so now 3.5 miles is 16 cents so 60 miles is 16 x 17. So that 60 mile trip cost you 2.72 cents a gallon of gas is 1.75 were I live so that's equivalent to getting 39mpg in a gas car. Get a first generation honda insight for 1400 bucks even with a bad hybrid battery you can easily get 60mpg going 65mph..

Electric cars only make sense if you get free charging or you got solar with excess capacity or you have dirt cheap electricity or gas is very expensive were you live

If you charge in electrify america fast chargers it cost even more

https://hondanews.com/en-US/photos/photo-ae4c5fc022d455ad374b54004c354d61-2000-insight-22?firstResultIndex=40&channelsConstraint=channel-3019

So it would work most the year if i can charge 240v both at my farm and at home but it could lower battery life over time from charging up? I saw a 2016 kia soul ev today it has like 97hwy miles per charge. Some are a decent price.

xCYCHOTRONx said:

... if i can charge 240v both at my farm and at home but it could lower battery life over time from charging up? ...

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There is no evidence that charging L1 or L2 has any difference to battery life.
There is very little evidence that DCFC has any effect on battery life.

Unless that car is a Leaf....

Yup, sounds like a good decision. 65 miles just cutting it a bit close.

If you don't driving in the slow lane. Maybe a 2018 LEAF. I think they got 150 miles range.

Good point about electricity price as well. Here in the NW US, electricity is cheap at about 10 cent/kwh so I drive my little Spark as much as possible vs the other car.

The trip to my farm is 32 miles (70%hwy 30%city), im looking at putting the 240v hookup at both home and my farm. So i would be fully charged before i drove back home.
I would have to wait till next year after ive been paid so i could put a nice down payment on a 2018 or newer.
I found a 2015 spark with 22k miles on it with one owner that is super clean. I think i may wait for a EV till after i install both 240v hookups and or a larger down payment.

32 miles should be no problem

Don't forget to check GM's certified pre-owned website, though they are fewer every day. You'll get an extended warranty on the battery and two free service calls the first two years. I've really enjoyed my 2016, which is the first EV I've ever owned, and I absolutely love it.

The number one thing is to ask for a battery report. Most dealers won't do it (or simply don't know how), so don't be surprised if you don't get one.

RE: DC Fast charging. The key is to see if the charge port has an orange plastic flip-down cover on the two bottom ports. If it does, it has DC Fast charging; if it doesn't, nope. See if you can finesse the dealer into sending you a picture without letting them know that's what you're looking for. If they figure it out, it can add up to $1k to the price.

Good luck