Prospective Spark EV Owner Questions

[user 1070]

Hello all, I’m interested in purchasing a used Chevy Spark EV, and had a few questions I hoped someone could answer. I've done plenty of reading on the forum, but haven't seen specific answers to the questions below.

How do you determine the remaining battery capacity? I know the Leaf EV has bars that indicate battery wear…does the Spark EV have something similar? After writing this, I happened upon some forum comments regarding high battery degradation. I would need round trip capability of 60 miles, plus a buffer, after starting with a 80% from the DCFC. Too much battery degradation would be a deal breaker.

I have a 90 mile round trip twice each week for softball practice. There’s a DCFC about two-thirds of the distance there. What is the charging rate for DCFS in kWh per minute? I anticipate needing a 5 – 10 minute charge to cover part of that distance. It's usually covered at speeds ranging from 50 to 75 mph.

Our games are usually in suburbs that are 70 to 80 miles away. I anticipate being able to use DCFC or a small generator, if necessary, to recharge at a 1kwh rate since we spend hours at the field. Is that feasible?

I saw several references to brake failure incidents. Have those brake issues been resolved or otherwise addressed?

How is the vehicle acceleration and handling on the highway? I drive mixed urban and suburban traffic in Houston, ranging from 35 up to 80 mph. I’m anticipating 3 – 5 kWh/mile average. I test drove the car on the highway, but it was very brief. Based on my drive, I don't anticipate this being an issue, but I'm interesting in opinions from longer term owners.

Can the car handle a small hitch mounted basket? For games we usually have coolers and other gear that probably won’t fit inside.

Houston summers are very humid, but winters are mild. How much do AC and heat impact mileage when the car is stationary? Our practices are 5 - 6 hours, and sometimes I lounge in the car with the climate control on.

I test drove a Spark a week ago…it was quick for a subcompact. However, it didn’t feel like 400 ft-lbs of torque. I didn’t adjust any of the settings and I think the traction control may have been limiting the torque. Can the traction control be defeated? Are there tires available that improve grip without sacrificing too much mileage?

Whew, that was more questions than I expected. From what I’ve read, it seems as though most folks are pretty happy with the vehicle. I’d love to join the club!

 

[scrambler]

1- Battery capacity:
You can get an idea of what is the remaining battery capacity of the car by looking at the energy screen.
You get the energy information to be displayed in the center console by pressing the leaf button at the bottom right of the center console

This energy screen shows % of battery used (3 numbers that you need to add) and a number of kWh used.
You can deduct he battery capacity by dividing the kWh number by the sum of the % number.

For example if it reads 10kWH and a total of 60%, this would mean the battery usable capacity of 10/0.6 = 16.67kWh

Now that number is not 100% accurate and fluctuates, it is also subject to imprecision when the % is low.
So ideally you want to extrapolate these numbers when the battery shows over 50% of being used, and ideally get that number over a few charge cycles.

But all in all it will be a good indication.

Now as you probably have read in the other thread abut degradation, there is no 100% certainty of what the original usable battery capacity is.
But around 18.4kWh does seem like the probable one.

2-Range:
Now that is a the really big question. The nominal 18.4kWh is rated for 82 miles of range (about 4.5 miles per kWh), If you always plan a 10miles reserve, then your effective range would be 72miles
But that can vary quite a bit based on your driving style and conditions. The Number of miles per kWh can be as low (or lower) as 3 miles per kWh with lead foot or harsh driving condition, up to 7miles per kWh in low speed city driving and good conditions.

So if you are planning to go 75mPh on the highway, you may not get 60 miles of range

3- DCFC:
I have o direct experience on this so I will let people who do provide answers

4- Brakes incident:
No knowledge of that

5- Highway driving:
No issue there for me, but as I mentioned, if you are going to do 80mph expect a very low number of miles per kWh.
May be someone has done actual test at sustained 75mph or 80mph and can provide a number for you

5- Hitch:
No direct experience there, but they are available

6- Heat and AC consumption when stopped:
No actual numbers for you there

7- Torque:
You can turn off traction control.
If not in Sport mode, you need to Floor the pedal to get the full torque
If you are asking these questions, expect your range to be on the very low side
I read non LRR (low rolling resistance) tires can lower your range by 10%

 

[nikwax]

I can answer a few of your questions:

range varies a great deal, depending on the ambient temperature (warm is better for range), and if you are using heating or AC or not. I find in sub 50 degree weather that my indicated range is around 60 miles. If it's really cold, it's less, as I'm running the heat and a large percentage of my battery consumption is going to support that. In the summer, I get around 100 miles per charge, even at freeway speeds (though freeway speeds here aren't very fast). AC doesn't seem to have as much of an impact as heat.


DCFC is a great feature. We've done a 200+ mile trip, with a couple of brief stops at DCFC to top up. if you're at a very low state of charge, say 20 minutes to top up to 80%. One of my DCFC stops was only 5 minutes as I was at about 50% charge. Mostly I'm charging at home, so I've only DCFC'd a handful of times. 110 volt charging is so slow as to be almost pointless. I have a 220 volt charger at home


Brakes: we seem to have two reports of brake issues.


Hitch: there is no hitch for a Spark, and the factory forbids the installation of one.


Highway driving: this thing is a rocket. It is limited by poor OEM tires, and the suspension isn't exactly F1 spec with a live rear axle. Put on a set of decent tires and you should be good to go, there are lots of choices. Traction control can only be disabled at low speeds. There is 400 lb ft of torque at the motor (2014) but you can't deliver all of that at low speeds without spinning the wheels or breaking metal parts.

 

[evboy]

Hello all, I’m interested in purchasing a used Chevy Spark EV, and had a few questions I hoped someone could answer. I've done plenty of reading on the forum, but haven't seen specific answers to the questions below.

How do you determine the remaining battery capacity? I know the Leaf EV has bars that indicate battery wear…does the Spark EV have something similar? After writing this, I happened upon some forum comments regarding high battery degradation. I would need round trip capability of 60 miles, plus a buffer, after starting with a 80% from the DCFC. Too much battery degradation would be a deal breaker.

I have a 90 mile round trip twice each week for softball practice. There’s a DCFC about two-thirds of the distance there. What is the charging rate for DCFS in kWh per minute? I anticipate needing a 5 – 10 minute charge to cover part of that distance. It's usually covered at speeds ranging from 50 to 75 mph.

Our games are usually in suburbs that are 70 to 80 miles away. I anticipate being able to use DCFC or a small generator, if necessary, to recharge at a 1kwh rate since we spend hours at the field. Is that feasible?

I saw several references to brake failure incidents. Have those brake issues been resolved or otherwise addressed?

How is the vehicle acceleration and handling on the highway? I drive mixed urban and suburban traffic in Houston, ranging from 35 up to 80 mph. I’m anticipating 3 – 5 kWh/mile average. I test drove the car on the highway, but it was very brief. Based on my drive, I don't anticipate this being an issue, but I'm interesting in opinions from longer term owners.

Can the car handle a small hitch mounted basket? For games we usually have coolers and other gear that probably won’t fit inside.

Houston summers are very humid, but winters are mild. How much do AC and heat impact mileage when the car is stationary? Our practices are 5 - 6 hours, and sometimes I lounge in the car with the climate control on.

I test drove a Spark a week ago…it was quick for a subcompact. However, it didn’t feel like 400 ft-lbs of torque. I didn’t adjust any of the settings and I think the traction control may have been limiting the torque. Can the traction control be defeated? Are there tires available that improve grip without sacrificing too much mileage?

Whew, that was more questions than I expected. From what I’ve read, it seems as though most folks are pretty happy with the vehicle. I’d love to join the club!

I bought a 2014 about 2 weeks ago and have no issues. I LOVE the car. i read about the brake issues on here but have not seen those issues personally. i slammed on my brakes really hard twice when someone came into my lane and they worked great. those issues are probably a small number of people.I feel the car is actually safer than a big car. i had a 18 wheeler that was getting a little to close for comfort, so I booked it and flew past him and avoided any possible crash from him.my bigger corolla i had would have taken forever to pass him.

if u buy u will be in a small but privileged club. I dont know about the other owners, but i feel like we r in on a great secret that nobody else is a aware of. If i put 10k miles a year on the car at 2.50 average a gallon(400 gallons based on 25mpg regular car) over the next 5 years, i will save 5k in gas. i paid 9k for the car. subtract 5k and the car cost 4k to me. if its worth 4k in 5 years, the car was free.

 

[user 1070]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Using the method described above by Scrambler, I visited Carmax and measured 16.9 kwh of capacity in a vehicle with 28K miles. Is this degradation normal for a vehicle with this number of miles? Does the degradation trail off over time? I'd normally be in the 20 to 80% charge range for my commute, so my battery usage wouldn't be too harsh. This has me rather nervous about purchasing a car remotely, because I can't be sure what condition the battery would be in.

Also, since the car is not capable of using a hitch, can the car handle a roof rack?

 

[scrambler]

I am not sure about the trailer hitch issue.

I can see Chevy would not want people to attempt trailing big stuff with a small car like the spark. But if you plan to just pull a small thing I see no reason why not.

And there are Hitches that are reported to fit the spark if you do some web search.
http://chevysparkforum.com/topic/983-trailer-hitch/
https://www.etrailer.com/question-115677.html
http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3545&start=30

16.9 kWh given the imprecision of the number does not seem bad for 28k. I bough a used 50kmiles Spark EV a few weeks ago and the number I extrapolate from the energy reading fluctuates between 16kWh and 16.8kWh.

From the historical data reported by a user on this forum (will try to dig it up), it seems the degradation is slowing down over time, but who really knows.
What you do know is that you have a warranty for a max of 35% over 8 years or 100kmiles, so that would be you worst case scenario

 

[SparkieVee]

I am not sure about the trailer hitch issue.

I can see Chevy would not want people to attempt trailing big stuff with a small car like the spark. But if you plan to just pull a small thing I see no reason why no.

And there are Hitches that are reported to fit the spark if you do some web search.
http://chevysparkforum.com/topic/983-trailer-hitch/
https://www.etrailer.com/question-115677.html
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3545&start=30

I'd generally say no on the trailer hitch, unless you're willing to rig something up. The hitch for a gas Spark won't fit because Chevy modified the rear to fit the battery. You'll notice that the etrailer.com link, despite the "expert response" telling you which hitch to use for a Spark EV, attaches a video of a gas Spark showing he doesn't recognize the difference. The third link shows someone who was willing to rig something up, so it's definitely possible but I'd suggest you should have a certain level of comfort with cutting things up if you're going to go that way.

A roof rack seems like a better bet. But if you're planning to go 70-80 miles on a charge, at least at anything approaching highway speeds, a roof rack might make that nearly impossible. Granted, I've done over 120 miles on a charge on multiple occasions, but that involved keeping it to about 60 and getting a bit of help from a semi, so I wouldn't recommend it for something you do often.