Chevrolet Spark EV: 82 Mile EV Range, 119 MPGe

[FenwickHockey65]

Chevrolet Spark Most Efficient U.S. Retail Electric Vehicle
General Motors

April 24, 2013

NEW YORK – The 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV is the industry benchmark in retail electric vehicle efficiency with a combined city/highway EPA estimated range of 82 miles when fully charged and an EPA-estimated combined city/highway 119 MPGe fuel economy equivalent.

Compared to the average new vehicle, the Spark EV can potentially save its owners up to $9,000 in fuel cost over five years. The Spark EV goes on sale this summer in California and Oregon.

“Being able to provide our customers with the best overall efficiency of any retail EV has always been a key target for the Spark EV engineering team,” said Pam Fletcher, GM executive chief engineer for electrified vehicles. “We’re poised to deliver to the market an EV that’s not just efficient, but also thrilling to drive thanks to the 400 lb-ft torque output of its electric motor.”

The Spark EV’s 21 kWh lithium-ion battery pack will continue Chevrolet’s tradition of offering industry-leading limited warranty protection – eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Spark EV will be the first vehicle on the market to offer as an available option the recently approved SAE combo charger for DC Fast Charging. The capability, available shortly after launch, will enable the Spark EV to recharge up to 80 percent of its capacity in approximately 20 minutes. The battery system is capable of handling multiple DC Fast Charges daily. Charging can also be completed in less than seven hours using a dedicated 240V charge. A 120V charge cord set comes standard. Charging can be managed and monitored remotely using the Spark EV’s smart phone application, provided by OnStar, which is standard for three years.

"The Chevrolet Spark EV is a great city car which blends technology, functionality and style in an unexpected package" said Cristi Landy, director of Chevrolet small and electrified vehicle marketing. "We built on the success of the Volt and the gas-powered Spark to offer an affordable, fun and efficient mini car our customers will love to drive."

The Chevrolet Spark EV will set an acceleration benchmark for an urban city electric vehicle – 0-60 mph in under eight seconds due to the mating of a permanent magnet electric motor, which produces more than 100 kW (130 hp), with the coaxial drive unit.

The GM designed oil-cooled, permanent magnet motor is the heart of the Spark EV’s propulsion system. Putting more than half a million road miles on development versions of the Spark EV enabled engineers to make the performance of the electric motor the best it could be by using a bar wound copper stator and unique rotor configuration.

The motor and drive unit are assembled at GM’s Baltimore operations plant in White Marsh, Md. Last week, the plant celebrated Spark EV motor production, marking the first time a major U.S. auto manufacturer has designed and built both a complete electric motor and drive unit for a modern electric vehicle in the United States.

[GretchenGotGrowl]

Nice

[sspolo]

I wonder what it will cost. My dad would be interested in one of those cars.

[snizzle]

I'll take a Volt instead.

[TheCaptain]

Wait, so the $500 "fuel" cost is the electric bill based on $.12/KWh. Right? Or does the Spark use a variant of the Volt's hybrid battery/engine?
I'm sure the EV means a total EV, non hybrid. Correct?

[FenwickHockey65]

No gasoline generator. It's a pure EV.

[mikeyg36]

Smell that? That's range anxiety

[G8GT4now]

Originally Posted by TheCaptain

Wait, so the $500 "fuel" cost is the electric bill based on $.12/KWh. Right? Or does the Spark use a variant of the Volt's hybrid battery/engine?
I'm sure the EV means a total EV, non hybrid. Correct?

The $500 fuel costs are based on 15,000 miles traveled per year. It takes 28kW/h to travel 100 miles, so to travel 15,000 miles it would be 28x150 or 4,200 kWh used. The 4,200 kWh times .12 cents per kWh yields $504.

[Sir Nuke]

TOTALLY pointless for me.....it would run out of "juice" part way home from work VERY FIRST DAY!

[menendez1293]

Originally Posted by Sir Nuke

TOTALLY pointless for me.....it would run out of "juice" part way home from work VERY FIRST DAY!

I like the idea of electric cars but in my opinion we don't have the technology completely there. Not bashing the Spark or any other of these cars just saying that on a good day I drive more than 80 miles a day. Heck it's at least 20 miles just for me to go get something to eat

[Tyler360]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

No gasoline generator. It's a pure EV.

Wait, so once the battery is dead, your stuck? 82 miles? Yeahhh, screw that! That just barely gets me to work and back. Now, if it had a gas generator, I might consider. Also for charging the battery, you could buy one of those solar panel battery chargers. It might take longer than 7 hours to charge that way but you would get some charge. But since it has no gas generator...

[FenwickHockey65]

Yepp. Keep this in mind: I believe California is mandating every manufacturer needs to sell some number of pure electric cars in their state. This leads to a crapload of compliance cars like the Spark EV, RAV4 EV, Focus Electric, etc.

I'm sure GM really didn't want to build this considering how much they extolled the virtues of Volt and its range extender. But, California...

[KMPrenger]

Oh heck...and here I thought it was a Volt-like hybrid but at a much cheaper price and smaller size.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Tyler360

Wait, so once the battery is dead, your stuck? 82 miles? Yeahhh, screw that! That just barely gets me to work and back. Now, if it had a gas generator, I might consider. Also for charging the battery, you could buy one of those solar panel battery chargers. It might take longer than 7 hours to charge that way but you would get some charge. But since it has no gas generator...

It would take much, much longer than 7 hours to charge. There's a bit of guestimation going on here, so bear with me

If you covered the roof, you might get 2 square meters of area to use. Durring the summer, around mid-day you can probably expect an average of about 600 watts per hour per square meter to hit the roof. At a 15% effeciency rate (not uncommon for regular commercial grade solar cells), over the course of 9 hours that would yield 1.62 kWh ... or not quite enough to drive the Spark another 6 miles. Even swapping in some more optimistic numbers, the added range doesn't go up much farther than 8 miles. And those are under ideal circumstances. That number goes down quite a bit during the winter or on cloudy days -not exactly the best plan if you are counting on it to get you home at the end of the day. But back to the charging thing ... it would take 2 weeks or so

I'm not sure how much 2 square meters of solar panels cost, or the associated inverters and other bits needed to send the juice to the car, but I can't think it would end up being worth it for the limited range that you get from it.