Do you ALWAYS plug in at home or only when needed ?

Just curious if you all plug in every night if you had only gone, say 20 miles that day ?
Or do you just plug in so you are in the habit of it.

I work 16 miles total to work (maybe 23 if I stop on the way home).

So I am thinking that I only need to plug in 1-2 times a week (not including Weekends).



Is there a real reason to plug in every night (if you only use it for work travel and only about 20 miles a day) ?

Would it be better to run the battery down (not dead, but close) ?
Is it NOT a good idea to do that.

Would there be ANY benefit to do that ?

There is reason to think that the pack will last longer if it is stored less than fully charged. Also, plugging in does cause a little wear on the connector etc. We plug in if we have used more than about 25 miles or if we think we will go somewhere the next day. Sometimes that means every day, sometimes once ever few days.

tigger19687 said:

Just curious if you all plug in every night if you had only gone, say 20 miles that day ?
Or do you just plug in so you are in the habit of it.

I work 16 miles total to work (maybe 23 if I stop on the way home).

So I am thinking that I only need to plug in 1-2 times a week (not including Weekends).



Is there a real reason to plug in every night (if you only use it for work travel and only about 20 miles a day) ?

Would it be better to run the battery down (not dead, but close) ?
Is it NOT a good idea to do that.

Would there be ANY benefit to do that ?

Click to expand...

I plug it in every night. The manual recommends that, and I expect that Chevy is doing some form of leveling on cells to extend life. That said, I'm leasing the car, so the longevity of the battery is less important than if I were trying to get 10 years+ out of the car.

Pull into the garage, get out, plug in; that's my routine. If I always do this, I never forget and leave myself low. Anyway, by leaving her plugged in all night, the battery is maintained at the optimum temperature so it doesn't have to be warmed or cooled in the morning.

I do always plug in unless it is between 1pm-7pm Mon.-Fri. My electric costs me cheap after 7pm.

VonSpark said:

I do always plug in unless it is between 1pm-7pm Mon.-Fri. My electric costs me cheap after 7pm.

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As a reminder, the spark has a very full-featured system for charge management. You can tell the car when your expensive electricity is, and whether to charge at that time, or delay till the cheap power.

I always plug it in, makes for a good habit and is the way the manufacturer intended the car to be charged.

The effect on battery life is irrelevant, the battery warranty far, far exceeds my lease term.

The connectors are designed to be plugged into more times than I'll be plugging in during the life of the car. These are big, high current, robust connectors used at public charging stations far more than you'll use yours at home.

I bought a car with 80+ miles of range, I have no interest it turning it into a 60 mile range car.

I plug-in every night for two reasons:
1. I want my Spark to be able to keep its battery optimum.
2. I want to be ready for any emergency or need that might crop up. Since I've sold my gas-using car, it's important that this car will be able take me anywhere I need in the county.

Trickle charging with 120V will reduce battery gassing and extend battery life .
Having a "full" charge will relieve you of worry.If traffic backs up for an hour or two due to a wreck or weather.
The car will always be ready for an unexpected trip.

I only drive the car on surface streets and that is about 3-5 miles per day. I have a Golf TDI for my work commute.

Part of me wants to know the maximum miles I can get per charge. But if I keep it plugged in all the time, then I will never get to know that.

Should I also keep it plugged in all the time?

sparkyps said:

The effect on battery life is irrelevant, the battery warranty far, far exceeds my lease term.

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I highly doubt you will get a battery replacement if your battery has degraded slightly due to not plugging in during times of extreme temperature.

As it says in the owners manual, if temperatures outside exceed 90 degrees, then the car should be plugged in if not running in order to activate the thermal management system. I doubt any battery would be damaged enough to cause replacement if these steps are not followed, but may result in at least some degradation.

I drive about 90 miles a day round trip to work. I live in the mountains so up hill uses power and it charges well when rolling down hill. I always plug in when not in use. The car was at the dealer for 2 weeks for service and I was out of town. I called them and asked them to plug it in so I could drive home. With the remote on my iPod i could tell that they didnot move the car and is was not plug it for those 2weeks .. When I pickit up today I was asking them about some of the issues I had and I told them I know the car drove 2 miles while it was there and it didn't move for 3 days.

karenspolly said:

I drive about 90 miles a day round trip to work. I live in the mountains so up hill uses power and it charges well when rolling down hill. I always plug in when not in use. The car was at the dealer for 2 weeks for service and I was out of town. I called them and asked them to plug it in so I could drive home. With the remote on my iPod i could tell that they didnot move the car and is was not plug it for those 2weeks .. When I pickit up today I was asking them about some of the issues I had and I told them I know the car drove 2 miles while it was there and it didn't move for 3 days.

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I would get it documented in the service protocol, just in case the battery does degrade and they are looking for someone to blame. It's unfortunate, but it is a revolving door at the most dealerships and they just don't give a dam about anything including you and your car. That calls for you to make them write everything you want them to do in the service order, telling them anything is most of the time worthless.

VonSpark said:

I do always plug in unless it is between 1pm-7pm Mon.-Fri. My electric costs me cheap after 7pm.

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You could use the charging delay setting.

I have 178 miles on my 2015 Spark. I drive 12 miles per day on city streets with an extra 10 miles 3 days per week. That's 124 miles per week typically. I only have 3 hours of charge time(currently 120 volts @ 12 Amps) available at home, except on weekends, when I can give it a full 24 hours at while I use my 2005 Chevy Malibu LT V6. (I'd like to sell it someday). On Monday, I started with a full charge and have logged in 71 miles as of Thursday morning with 21 miles remaining.
I use Low instead of hitting the brake for stopping. I would use low all the time around town if I thought it would extend my range. One downside is that the ride tends to be a little jerky unless you have a steady foot.
I would also plug it in every day for 3 hours if I was sure it would not affect battery performance. That would put about 20 kwh in my "Tank" each week. There is a free level 2 charging station along my daily travel route, where I could top it off when needed. Ultimately, I expect to put in a 3.3kw charging unit in my garage.
My electric meter has a time of day feature which makes my cost per KWH less than $0.11.

NRGTestdrive said:

VonSpark said:

I do always plug in unless it is between 1pm-7pm Mon.-Fri. My electric costs me cheap after 7pm.

Click to expand...

You could use the charging delay setting.

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Where does one find this setting?

I plug my car in after I expect I'm done driving it for the day. In the mornings when I have my daily walk I unplug it.

I'm using the Delayed Departure setting, with the car configured to be done charging by 6AM when our electricity becomes more expensive.

Pawl said:

NRGTestdrive said:

VonSpark said:

I do always plug in unless it is between 1pm-7pm Mon.-Fri. My electric costs me cheap after 7pm.

Click to expand...

You could use the charging delay setting.

Click to expand...

Where does one find this setting?

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In the Onstar app (you can also do this in the car in similar fashion using the "Electric Info" screen):
1) Select Vehicle Status - Diagnostics
2) Select Change Charge Mode

This screen will show whether you're set to
- Immediate - Charge upon plugging in
- Departure - Complete charge at set time [This is the setting you want]
- Departure & Rate - Charge during off-peak hours

At the bottom of the screen, select "Departure Times". Here, you basically set the time for each day of the week you want the car to be fully charged by. I set mine to about a half-hour before I plan to leave, then remote start it before I unplug. That way, inside the car is warm and ready when I leave without using any of the stored energy.

I plug in when I get home for the day and, based on how full the battery is, it will start charging at the appropriate time so its ready when I plan to leave.

hth

I received my new Spark EV 6 days ago with 45 miles on the odom. That night I plugged it in and the odom only went to 62 miles. I drove it down to 50miles showing, plug it in and it went to 67 miles showing. My question is why I'm I not getting a full charge. BTW the first night I had it at 12amp and the plug was very hot, now have been using the default 8amp 24 hours at a time, I only get 9 to 11 charge miles at a time. BTW I'm using the 110V setup that came with the car, thank you.

IBKING
newbe looking for answers

ibking said:

I received my new Spark EV 6 days ago with 45 miles on the odom. That night I plugged it in and the odom only went to 62 miles. I drove it down to 50miles showing, plug it in and it went to 67 miles showing. My question is why I'm I not getting a full charge. BTW the first night I had it at 12amp and the plug was very hot, now have been using the default 8amp 24 hours at a time, I only get 9 to 11 charge miles at a time. BTW I'm using the 110V setup that came with the car, thank you.

IBKING
newbe looking for answers

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I'll bet those 45 miles included several demo drives. A good Spark salesman is going to encourage flooring it several times during the demo as the power is an impressive sales tool (hey, this ain't no glorified golf cart!). That is, of course, terrible for range and the guess gauge reflects how the car has been driven lately. Give it some gentler, normal driving for a time and it should creep up. And I'm talking less than a week to get up to the 80's.

And trust me, you'll want a Level 2 charger. 220 in a Spark may not be fast but 110 is slooooooow!