nozferatu said:
GeorgeChevy said:
The March 2014 issue of Car and Driver has a comparison with 6 EVs-the Smart ED, Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric, Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, and the Spark EV. Our beloved Spark EV won first place! There isn't an online article yet and I haven't seen any scans, I might scan it later if anyone is interested.
The article is kind of skewed against electric cars but it's interesting to see their opinion on them as they are more of an enthusiast magazine. The Spark EV had the 2nd longest range under their testing conditions, the 500e had the longest range.
Here were the rankings:
6th-Smart ED
5th-500e
4th-Leaf
3rd-Fit EV
2nd-Ford Focus Electric
1st-Spark EV
Yes please scan the article if it's easy for you to do.
Cheers
That would be a violation of copyright, and besides it runs several pages. I posted a two-paragraph exceprt in another thread, so here that is again:
The article's first paragraph reads "The makers of the cars you see here were dragged kicking, screaming and, in some cases, litigating into eligibility for this test. If truth were ever told, then these automakers would undoubtedly say that they'd rather not be here at all, thank you very much; that all of their accumulated business acumen and experience rages against the absurdity of a $37,000 Ford Focus with a 64 mile driving range" [Note: C&D range achieved on test].
The section on the Spark starts:
"Here's a car that puts it all together. It's a total effort, a studied application of brain power and enthusiasm that embraces the electric mandate with gusto and without a whiff of the government-made-us reluctance. And this from none other than GM, the company that sued California over the EV mandate; that forever bears the mark of Cain for killing off its own pioneering electric, the EV1."
The article continues on in that vein, with the only real complaints being the one we all agree about, the slow On-Board Charger, and also the lack of in-dash nav other than by using a smartphone. Not bad for a company that "isn't serious about pure electric vehicles." Here's the way they ranked them, remembering that they put a higher weight on performance, handling and driving qualities than Joe/Josephine Commuter.