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Chevy Spark EV

core2slow

core2slow

Senior member
Thinking of getting one for my 20mi roundtrip commute and saving the RS5 for the weekend duties, anyone here own one or have any experience with them? I know they share similar parts with the Volt so that's a good track record to have (was also considering the Fiat 500e but too many engine-related problems) and its pint size is perfect for the narrow streets of DT Long Beach.
 
If you want electric why not get a 500e? That should be the cheapest route (assuming they still have that stupid cheap lease).
 
NutBucket said:
If you want electric why not get a 500e? That should be the cheapest route (assuming they still have that stupid cheap lease).
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Seems like Chrysler doesn't really like producing the 500e and is losing about $10k on each car and is only making it for EPA compliance's sake, not to mention various recalls regarding electrical and battery system as late as march of 2015. Some even experienced the electrical system just shuts down out of nowhere when the car is moving. True to FIAT's slogan, i don't want to have them constantly fix it again and again, and would rather play it safe. Though I'd much rather prefer the styling of the 500e over its competitors (smart fortwo, spark, fit).

With rebate incentives and tax credit, the Spark EV comes out to be less than the 500e (MSRP of 26k vs 32k for the 500e), so cost of ownership definitely favors the Spark EV. One thing i like is that the Spark EV comes ready with the DC Fast Charging plug which can charge the car up to 80% in 20-30min. The 500e can only accept level 1 and level 2 charge AFAIK.
 
I don't think saving 20 miles worth of gas per day is worth spending 26k and having to drive around in an electric version of the crappiest car on the road all week.
 
Insomniator said:
I don't think saving 20 miles worth of gas per day is worth spending 26k and having to drive around in an electric version of the crappiest car on the road all week.
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lol i agree, if it weren't for my crappy parking space at work, where it's within distance of someone pissing off from their apartment's balcony down to the spaces below.
 
michal1980 said:
elect. focus?
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cost more and comes with less range (that's pretty much my criteria, really) than the spark EV. Looks like im going to pull the trigger by the end of the month.:thumbsup:

On another note, was heading to In-N-Out the other day and saw a dark fiat 500 on the back of the flatbed. In my head im thinking "oh god, dont let it be a 500e" and as i merged over a few lanes and get side by side with the tow truck, i see the 500e emblem and felt bad for the guy sitting in the passenger seat. There are just too many electrical and propulsion system problems with the 500e and fiat/chrysler themselves aren't even sure how to solve most of them.
 
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The Spark EV has a crazy amount of torque. Definitely the hot-rod of that class of EV, and considered to be better in many respects than the gas version. Pending the Bolt, the Spark would be my pick of the sub-Tesla electrics.

Though if I was going to go with a commuter/weekend car combo, the RS5 would not be my choice of weekend car as it's too much of a luxury barge. 🙂
 
NutBucket said:
How do you know he wasn't just a moron and drained the battery?
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saw him on the phone talking and looked visibly distraught. Another sign was that the in-n-out i was heading to was on Harbor in Costa Mesa and we both took the same exit. Orange Coast Fiat is on Harbor blvd. I know people who intentionally run down their battery (circling their neighborhood) just to test the range, but i dont know too many dumb enough to run it down and get flatbed to a dealership.

thomsbrain said:
The Spark EV has a crazy amount of torque. Definitely the hot-rod of that class of EV, and considered to be better in many respects than the gas version. Pending the Bolt, the Spark would be my pick of the sub-Tesla electrics.

Though if I was going to go with a commuter/weekend car combo, the RS5 would not be my choice of weekend car as it's too much of a luxury barge. 🙂
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I think the torque was turned down a bit to 327 lb-ft (ironically still 10 more than the rs5 😀) from the 400 (?) of the previous years to extend the longevity of the battery. It is indeed a gem in its class of mini-EVs.
 
I have one. Got the lease for nearly free after state and county rebates. I get about 100 miles out of it driving in the city and about 80 on the highway. However, with my other car being a 60mpg Prius and ~$0.20/kwh energy cost at the lowest tier, it is still cheaper for me to drive the Prius.

The acceleration is great once you are past the 25mph mark. Other drivers are used to seeing the non-EV Spark and they are just dumbfounded when you blow past them. It does lose a lot of pep quickly once you start carrying passengers.
 
fr said:
I have one. Got the lease for nearly free after state and county rebates. I get about 100 miles out of it driving in the city and about 80 on the highway. However, with my other car being a 60mpg Prius and ~$0.20/kwh energy cost at the lowest tier, it is still cheaper for me to drive the Prius.

The acceleration is great once you are past the 25mph mark. Other drivers are used to seeing the non-EV Spark and they are just dumbfounded when you blow past them. It does lose a lot of pep quickly once you start carrying passengers.
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Nice. yea i see 100mi is the normal range in the city if you dont drive stupid, and considering downtown long beach is pretty tight, i wont be accelerating it as much also.

Any problems or quirks you could find with the spark?
 
core2slow said:
Nice. yea i see 100mi is the normal range in the city if you dont drive stupid, and considering downtown long beach is pretty tight, i wont be accelerating it as much also.

Any problems or quirks you could find with the spark?
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Just a few things bother me:

1. Infotainment system is a bit laggy. Bluetooth takes almost a minute to connect on startup and fails to connect 25% of the time. If I'm streaming BT audio from the phone on shutdown, it will revert back to the radio on startup every time.

On the Prius stock system, it connects in about 3 seconds and BT streaming resumes all the time.

2. The only way to use navigation is through Onstar. I have to tell the app to send the directions to the car at least two times before it does it. Maybe it just takes a few minutes, but I am not that patient. The only way to exit navigation directions without precisely reaching your destination is to use a spotty voice recognition command. No cancel or exit button anywhere.

3. It annoys me how when I shift out of park, it locks all the doors. You can't even pull the inside handles to open the doors without shifting into park or unlocking manually first. No way to disable it. I shift to park a lot in stop and go traffic lines and this puts a lot of wear on the door lock actuators.

4. The rear cup holders are small and shallow.
 
I also mainly L1 charge in my garage. I can charge it from 30% to full in about 10 hours. I got a L2 charger through this offer, but I haven't gotten it installed yet.
 
great info, thanks!!

I'm just reading through the tax credit and i guess my previous assumption is wrong. So if i dont owe the IRS anything at the time of my filing (next year) then I don't get the $7500 tax credit, correct?
 
Just because you don't owe them anything when you files doesn't mean you didn't pay tax. It means your withholdings were correct. What you need to do is look at your 1040 and look for the line towards the end that says this is your total tax, or something to that effect. If that figure is greater than $7500 you will collect the full rebate.
 
fr said:
Manufacturer says to hardwire it, but many have added a plug. It doesn't come with a plug.
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16 amp station? I noticed the Spark EV has a 3.3kw on-board charger so a 16 amp station should be plenty of juice. You should get a charging rate of about 10-12 miles/hr out of that.
 
NutBucket said:
Just because you don't owe them anything when you files doesn't mean you didn't pay tax. It means your withholdings were correct. What you need to do is look at your 1040 and look for the line towards the end that says this is your total tax, or something to that effect. If that figure is greater than $7500 you will collect the full rebate.
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ahhhh i see what you mean. Yea, my tax liability on line 63 well exceeds the $7500 credit.
 
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