RAIN!!

[jsca72]

I had to use my windshield wipers for the first time since I got the car in July to actually keep the glass clear of precipitation falling from the sky! Yay! BTW, the wipers worked fine.

 

[rockytt]

Yeah - glad to see that those boys worked fine

Anyone else have their range take a big dump yesterday in the rain? Been doing the same commute for two months now and I also get 4.7m/kwh on the way to work and 5.1 on the way home (or so the car tells me) and I make it home with about 50% left on my battery. Yesterday in the rain/wind it got knocked down all the way to 3.5 both ways and I had only 15 miles showing on my guage from a full charge in the AM. (52 mile commute). Hoping it was just due to the weather and not something that popped up with the car at the same time.

 

[Pegasus]

I had to use them a couple of times since January already and boy do I need to apply some Rain-X! I recommend everyone do so for safety (and your wipers last much longer due to less use!) It makes a big difference.

Rockytt: I think the wind was far more to blame than the rain, though constant use of the wipers at high speed will increase drag somewhat, but not as much as what you saw.

I hauled 150 lbs of digital piano in mine yesterday (for 30 miles) and still got over 70 miles on the charge with 13 remaining. I would've gotten more if I didn't go fast (70MPH) for part of it. But there wasn't much wind here, just rain.

 

[jsca72]

I don't have enough experience driving in rain to tell if windshield wipers are diminishing range, and our weather has been so benign that I don't have too much experience driving in high winds. But, in the fall, a couple of months after I got my car I found myself driving into strong winds. A drive that is usually a range-gainer since it is mostly downhill used more range than usual. I don't remember the exact amounts, but a 22 mile drive that usually uses only about 5 miles range because of all the coasting I can do, used closer to the 22 miles I drove.

 

[blope]

I actually used my heater today and my various trips totaling about 45-50 miles got me to the lowest of the bars in the yellow by the time I got home.

#socalproblems

 

[Nashco]

You guys are funny. I have only had about 10% of my miles driven in the Spark without any heater or wipers. The wipers do work well, nothing quite like fresh blades on fresh glass.

Bryce

 

[jsca72]

Bryce,
Right before the rain we were hitting highs in the upper 70's & low 80's. We would feel horrible guilty to comment on what a nice day it was. We'd feel obligated to add something like, "But, oh do we need the rain," or "my poor lawn." Anything to take away the pain of enjoying the wonderful weather.

 

[Nashco]

That's ok. Today as I was driving in the cold and wet, noticing that 9% of my energy today went towards heating up the battery pack...I thought how awesome summer will be and how you guys will all be talking about the air conditioning and I won't.

I changed my rear wiper setting today so that it won't automatically turn on when in reverse and with the forward wipers on. The last few times this has happened the rear glass was very dirty and I didn't actually need the rear view due to the situation. I kept thinking how that dirty glass would tear up the nice new wiper for no good reason! Back to life as usual, I'll just flip the switch if I need the rear view like my other cars.

Has anybody noticed that if you turn the wipers to the shortest delayed (intermittent) setting that the wipers will adjust to continuous on for some situations? My Saturn Sky does the same thing, which I appreciate, but it seemed more predictable than the limited exposure I've had to the Spark EV. If you turn it to the fastest intermittent setting in the Saturn while going slow and then hit highway speed it automatically turns to continuous on. I haven't figured out what triggered the Spark EV to automatically switch yet, since I only noticed it once and couldn't duplicate the response.

Bryce

 

[emv]

I doubt that the wipers are a serious drain on range. A little googling tells me to expect the wiper motor to use 5 amps or less during normal use. That's about 60 watts or close to the draw of one headlight. Considering the safety benefits of seeing where you're going, a very fair tradeoff.

The real problem with rain, is that it takes more power to go through the water on the road. We've had the Spark for a little over a week but have driven Priuses for the past 11 years. That's another car that makes you very conscious of efficiency. A decent rainstorm that put any amount of water on the road made for a noticeable drop in mpg. The range of the Spark would, it follows, fall prey to the same increase in rolling resistance.

 

[GeorgeChevy]

I actually managed to run out of electricity driving home last Friday night... This was a worst case scenario that I could have avoided but basically I wanted to see if I could make it home. I was about 2 min (I had about a mile of surface streets after the freeway exit) from home.

1. Started the day off with about 70% charge because I came home really late and it didn't charge all the way back to full when I left.

2. When I returned to my car after work (I use the included charger at work) there was an "Unable to Charge" message, I guess the EVSE turned itself off to prevent damage because there was really heavy wind and rain.

3. There was 30 miles range indicated (It's about 29 miles home for me) so I thought I could make it if I drove around 60 mph all the way home.

4. Tire pressure was low 2-3 pounds due to the low temperature (does anyone else notice a huge variance in tire pressure depending on the temperature?)

When I had completely run out at my exit, the car indicated that I had averaged 3.9 miles per kwh, so the rain and low temperature conspired to a much higher electricity consumption than I expected. Called OnStar Roadside Assistance to tow me home, but it took a lot longer than expected (I guess due to the weather).

Essentially I was an idiot and had two chances to recharge (I could've charged at work and waited a while or stopped at one of a few dealers with chargers a few exits before mine) but I wanted to see if I could make it and due to the conditions I was unable to do so. Lesson learned.

Also I guess the included 110v EVSE cannot be trusted under non-ideal conditions, but it would've been nice to receive a message from the RemoteLink app that this occurred because it was charging when I left the car but I did not get a message that it was interrupted or stopped.

 

[fengshui]

I actually managed to run out of electricity driving home last Friday night... This was basically a worst case scenario that I could have avoided but basically I wanted to see if I could make it home. I was about 2 min (I had about a mile of surface streets after the freeway exit) from home.

How far did you go past 0 range?

 

[GeorgeChevy]

Not far at all, maybe a quarter mile-at that point it was in turtle mode and I was coasting to a stop. It went from 1 mile to none on the display pretty quickly.

 

[rockytt]

small update -
mileage seems to be back to normal (knock on wood) - Would low (for California anyway!) temperatures have contributed in any way to poor performance?

I'm thinking a combination of low temps and high winds was what did me in for a few days last week...

 

[Nashco]

Low temperatures reduce range for two reasons...increased energy use for climate control and reduced battery efficiency. Even if you don't use the heater at all, the battery will perform slightly less efficiently when cold. If it's below 35ish, the battery will use energy to power the battery heater as well.

Bryce

 

[gra]

Low temperatures reduce range for two reasons...increased energy use for climate control and reduced battery efficiency. Even if you don't use the heater at all, the battery will perform slightly less efficiently when cold. If it's below 35ish, the battery will use energy to power the battery heater as well.

Bryce

There's a few more reasons. Colder air is denser, so drag increases. And wet roads boosts rolling resistance. Oh, and at lower temps tire rolling resistance is a bit higher as well.

 

[jay5729]

I've had my Spark for a few weeks now and can tell you that wind is by far the factor in bad weather that makes a difference. ( aside from sub freezing temps, which we haven't gotten yet). My regular commute is 75 miles one way from Tracy to Sacramento. There is a pretty steady wind from the south that blows up hwy 99 and it consistently reduces my range south bound compared to northbound. I've started checking wind speeds through Lodi and Stockton and have found that with a 5 mph wind from the south, I get about 90 miles of range heading north at 65 mph and 80 heading south at 62 mph. With the recent storms there were winds of upwards of 10 mph from the south. Heading north I was getting ranges of just over 100 miles (about 104) at 65 to 67 mph, but heading south my range was reduced to 76 miles at 55 to 57 mph. ( I barely made it home). The math makes sense as heading north at 65 with a 10 mph tail wind, the car "feels" it's going 55 mph, but heading south with a 10 mph headwind at 60 mph it "feels" like it's going 70. Really, once you get over 35 or 45 mph, a lot of the energy is used to "push" air out of the way, so any additional wind at freeway speed will eat up range.

lucky for me, there are several free L2 charging stations in Lodi, with wifi nearby. On stormy nights, I just hang out for an hour to get that extra 10 to 12 miles and watch some netflix on my tablet.

Love this car!

 

[MysteriousJ]

I've had my Spark for a few weeks now and can tell you that wind is by far the factor in bad weather that makes a difference. ( aside from sub freezing temps, which we haven't gotten yet). My regular commute is 75 miles one way from Tracy to Sacramento. There is a pretty steady wind from the south that blows up hwy 99 and it consistently reduces my range south bound compared to northbound. I've started checking wind speeds through Lodi and Stockton and have found that with a 5 mph wind from the south, I get about 90 miles of range heading north at 65 mph and 80 heading south at 62 mph. With the recent storms there were winds of upwards of 10 mph from the south. Heading north I was getting ranges of just over 100 miles (about 104) at 65 to 67 mph, but heading south my range was reduced to 76 miles at 55 to 57 mph. ( I barely made it home). The math makes sense as heading north at 65 with a 10 mph tail wind, the car "feels" it's going 55 mph, but heading south with a 10 mph headwind at 60 mph it "feels" like it's going 70. Really, once you get over 35 or 45 mph, a lot of the energy is used to "push" air out of the way, so any additional wind at freeway speed will eat up range.

lucky for me, there are several free L2 charging stations in Lodi, with wifi nearby. On stormy nights, I just hang out for an hour to get that extra 10 to 12 miles and watch some netflix on my tablet.

Love this car!

Is there any reason why you take 99 instead of 5 besides everyone blowing past you at 80mph? I frequently commute from Manteca to Sacramento and the round trip distance is just outside of my comfort zone since there is no fast way to charge up. I really wish there would be a DC Fast Charger set up in Lodi or Manteca, that would be perfect for the few days a month that I need to make this trip. Also, Lodi is pretty great for free L2 charging, there's also a movie theater a block or two away from one of the stations so you could just pop in and watch a movie while it charges up.

 

[jay5729]

Is there any reason why you take 99 instead of 5 besides everyone blowing past you at 80mph? I frequently commute from Manteca to Sacramento and the round trip distance is just outside of my comfort zone since there is no fast way to charge up. I really wish there would be a DC Fast Charger set up in Lodi or Manteca, that would be perfect for the few days a month that I need to make this trip. Also, Lodi is pretty great for free L2 charging, there's also a movie theater a block or two away from one of the stations so you could just pop in and watch a movie while it charges up.

I actually work in Rancho, so 99 is more direct as I cut through Elk Grove. Also since the construction a few years ago 99 is much smoother through Lodi than 5 is. I agree that lodi would be perfect for a fast charger.

 

[jsca72]

Well, our rainy season (week) seems to be coming to an end. I've been meaning to put more air in the tires because their pressure had dropped to 31 psi during the colder weather, but I've been really busy and hadn't gotten around to filling them. Then yesterday we had some fairly warm weather; and without me adding more air, the tire pressure in all four tires was back up to 34 psi.

I really think GM should think about yellow as a color for the Spark EV since they seem to love warm, sunny conditions.

 

[FutureFolly]

I've had my Spark for a few weeks now and can tell you that wind is by far the factor in bad weather that makes a difference. ( aside from sub freezing temps, which we haven't gotten yet). My regular commute is 75 miles one way from Tracy to Sacramento. There is a pretty steady wind from the south that blows up hwy 99 and it consistently reduces my range south bound compared to northbound. I've started checking wind speeds through Lodi and Stockton and have found that with a 5 mph wind from the south, I get about 90 miles of range heading north at 65 mph and 80 heading south at 62 mph. With the recent storms there were winds of upwards of 10 mph from the south. Heading north I was getting ranges of just over 100 miles (about 104) at 65 to 67 mph, but heading south my range was reduced to 76 miles at 55 to 57 mph. ( I barely made it home). The math makes sense as heading north at 65 with a 10 mph tail wind, the car "feels" it's going 55 mph, but heading south with a 10 mph headwind at 60 mph it "feels" like it's going 70. Really, once you get over 35 or 45 mph, a lot of the energy is used to "push" air out of the way, so any additional wind at freeway speed will eat up range.

lucky for me, there are several free L2 charging stations in Lodi, with wifi nearby. On stormy nights, I just hang out for an hour to get that extra 10 to 12 miles and watch some netflix on my tablet.

Love this car!

I can't believe you have the guts to do this every day. You have my admiration for being able to manage range that well. You can't afford to have any drop in charge capacity over time either. You must be saving a ridiculous amount of money on gas though. Have you considered that you may be putting miles on Spark EV faster than any other owner? If you average 25 miles a day on the weekends, you will put on almost 42,000 miles a year on your EV. GM should buy your Spark back from you just so they can test it. Not unprecedented either.