Six months with my 2016 Spark EV

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qrper

Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2019
Messages
12
Gang...

My wife and I have owned this spark EV now for about six months. We both throughly enjoy the car... But there are some issues that I think will keep most people from taking the plunge to a EV.

Some of my observations:

The cold weather beats the battery up. Summer time range was about 100 miles, and now in January in Ohio, I'm seeing only 60ish mile range. That's simply not enough to go any place other than the store and back. Basically, I can drive 30 miles before I need to turn around and head back home.

Using the heater trashes what range I have. To be uncomfortable is simply not an issue most people will deal with. My strategy has been to use the seat heaters, and then on the way home, run some heat. While I do preheat when charging at home, you can't do that when the car is sitting in a parking lot.

The charger seems to be based on time and not battery charge. I might be over thinking this. If the display says 3 hrs to charge, does it only charge for 3 hours and then shut off or charge until the battery is full even if it takes longer than those 3 hours?

I don't know why, when I turn the car off, and leave the home screen on, ( only the clock display) when I come back and start it, the home screen now shows the radio.

I personally don't care for the 'creep' . When I'm at a stop light, the car shouldn't creep. I know they did that so the car feels like an ICE car with an automatic tranny. Give me the option to turn 'creep' on or off.

The regen in "L" isn't quite one peddle driving. There should be more than one setting for regen. And the way the car creeps at a stop light, you still need to press the brake peddle.

Don't get me wrong, the wife and I love this little car. However, that being said, it certainly wouldn't work for us as the one and only automobile.

We like it enough to perhaps to jump into a Chevy BOLT.
 
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