I just received the news. No DC Fast Charging - WHAT-

[benwa]

For those of us who bought our wonderful Chevy Spark EV'S before December 2013. This is the news I received today!

The DC Fast Charge option needs to be ordered before the vehicle goes into production and cannot be retrofitted. I apologize if the dealership was misinformed and let you know it could be installed at a later time.

To pursue this concern further I would advise contacting your sales person at your purchasing dealership.

NOT GOOD!

My response was...

I would like to make sure I read your email right. Do you mean to tell me it cannot be retrofitted. Please explain why? It has the cap for the addition of the DC Fast Charge to be installed. No, I'm sorry, I will not blame the dealership for this... because they are still waiting for GM to provide them answers? I suggest GM either come up with a way to retrofit my Spark with the DC Fast Charge or purchase my vehicle back and give me one that has it installed. This is a corporate issue, not the dealerships!

 

[cwerdna]

Lack of dealer knowledge and dealer misinformation unfortunately happens w/other brands too.

FWIW, the Leaf can't be retrofitted to add their DC fast charge port either (Leaf uses the CHAdeMO standard, which is 1 of 3 incompatible DC FC standards in the US).

Here's why on the Leaf: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=289770#p289770. (Ingineer is a very talented EE who is behind evseupgrade.com and has been featured in the NY Times.)

I guess we kinda got our answer to http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3633.

Even if you had it on your car, we have no idea where you live, so we have no idea if you'd have a good chance of being able to use the J1772 CCS DC FC port anyway. It's not like there are (currently) many working publicly accessible J1772 CCS DC FCs. You may not be missing out on much.

(Hint: One way to find some of them is via http://www.plugshare.com/ then going to More Options in the upper right and unchecking ALL outlet types except SAE Combo. And please read http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5913#p5913.)

 

[TonyWilliams]

Well, CHAdeMO or any other DC charge standard can, of course, be added. It's just a matter of how much money do you want to spend!

We are working a CHAdeMO retrofit for the Toyota Rav4 EV called JdeMO. It can be done, given enough persistence.

 

[cwerdna]

I'm replying to your post at http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5949#p5949, instead of further polluting that thread.

I think they should focus on allowing the rear wheels to REGEN while the front wheels drive the vehicle. I was told that there's too much $$$ at stake to allow that to happen and that Oil Companies and Power Companies would not allow that to happen. Just think if your car could someday store enough power to arrive home to plug it in and allow the power to release it's power into the grid?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. You seem confused.

They'd need to add another motor/generator to the rear wheels. Why is regening on the rear wheels going to help as opposed to the front, where it is now? Store power from where?

Perhaps you don't understand the law of conservation of energy and conversion losses?

BTW, re: storing power, there is this V2H solution in Japan only (and it's CHAdeMO only): http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/NEWS/2012/_STORY/120530-01-e.html. There are folks working also on V2G (vehicle to grid), but it's using an EV battery as a buffer (e.g. charge at night at lower rates, feed to grid in the day to reduce peak demand and during expensive electricity).

With that said, I purchased the Spark EV without the DC Fast Charger and my dealership could have sworn that it would have been able to be retrofitted at some point in time. After all, it does have the extra-capped fixture below the original factory plug. I have one thing to say at this time!

Chevrolet EV Engineers need to come up with a way to RETROFIT MY SPARK NOW! So I can drive with suffering from Range Anxiety!

It would be interesting to know if you could find out the cost of the parts that would need to be replaced and the labor involved. Perhaps you'd be the first test case.

To be clear, you are NOT adding a DC fast charger to your car nor is ANY Spark EV equipped WITH a DC fast charger. You're looking for the J1772 CCS inlet and any associated hardware to enable DC fast charging. I'd imagine, at minimum you'd need a new inlet and two wires or a wiring harness.

The DC fast chargers themselves are HUGE. Here are 20 kW ABB J1772 CCS DC fast chargers I saw in action at CES in January 2014, charging the BMW i3 test drive vehicles: https://picasaweb.google.com/105684180251177299188/CES2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXR0p_PwbjOUA.

 

[gatedad]

Benwa:
I feel for ya...My little Mitsibushi I-MiEV(about the same size as the Spark EV)did nto come with the QC installed option. The dealer actually had the exact car as mine, with the QC hardware in it. I decided not to spend the extra money because there were no QC charging stations in Philly (and it seemed unlikley that there would be any for quite some time to come). Of course, turns out that late last year not only are they nopw available, buit there is one less than a mile from my home and another less than a mile from my workplace(where we don't have charging for employees). Sometimes you eat the bear, somethimes the bear eats you. What is especially frustrating is that it would have added only $700 or so to the cars price... And haviogn that ability in this nast winter woudl have allowed me to QC on my way home from work, adding only 10-15 minutes to my day, to get me full and allowing me to use my heater withiout fear of my batterty going too low.
Lou

 

[benwa]

I'm sorry to make it sound as if I'm confused? Here in San Diego, we have many options for charging. DC FC is one I am looking to useing when I travel North to the Laguna/Newport Beach area! I need to have the means to charge at these locations but my car needs FAST PRVISIONS in stalled. Also, thank you for your info regarging the whirring needed to do so! I will be pursuing this further with my dealer and hope that Chevy will see the light and come up with a way to Retrofit My vehicle???

 

[psykokid]

I can count the SAE Combo Equipped charge stations in CA on one hand. The only known working one in the southern half of the state is near you at the Fashion Valley Mall in SD. As far as a quick charge station up near newport/laguna, again the closest two SAE Combo equipped chargers are in Irvine off of Sand Canyon North north of the 5 and just south of the 405 off of Sand Canyon. Currently neither of those two charge stations are working on the SAE Combo Plug side.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I'm sorry to make it sound as if I'm confused? Here in San Diego, we have many options for charging. DC FC is one I am looking to useing when I travel North to the Laguna/Newport Beach area! I need to have the means to charge at these locations but my car needs FAST PRVISIONS in stalled. Also, thank you for your info regarging the whirring needed to do so! I will be pursuing this further with my dealer and hope that Chevy will see the light and come up with a way to Retrofit My vehicle???

There are well over 500 total charge stations in San Diego and Orange counties, with about 30 DC quick chargers. Of those, only three are of the SAE CCS "Frankenplug" type which is used by the Spark EV and future BMW i3 and VW eGolf.