Love my Spark EV! Been driving mine for about a year now and gets me all over town and some longer trips. Your range test sounds about right at highway speeds. GM or someone needs to bring back a similarly sized car with ~100 miles of range. Perfect commuter car. Love that blue color, just a bit jealous. Great video, keep them coming!
I have the exact same car, I love it. I have no trouble DC fast charging at electrify America. At the start of the session pull up and hold the connector until it locks . Thanks for the cool videos.
I have the same car. 2015 1LT trim bought it used with 57k miles on the odometer. Currently have about 61k miles. I get about 66-70 miles on a good warm day. As far as the EA chargers are concerned, I learned from a guy in TH-cam showing how to successfully charge at EA using CCS combo. In the video he showed that lifting the handle up a little bit while initializing and only let go once the car beeps its horn signaling that the car is charging. Long story short, I charge at EA with no problem.
I have the same car. There was a TSB which essentially required removing a small amount of plastic somewhere on the charge port. This, I think, allowed the plug to enter the socket a little more and improved the reliability of the connection during the negotiation phase. I've never gotten anywhere near 70 hwy. More like 50 :(
I had the same problem. The issue is the manufacture of the charge port for the Spark EV didn't follow the schematic correctly and two plastic corners need to be filed down a milometer. Google the article titled "SOLUTION: SparkEV's problem with DC fast charge". I did the modification myself in 15 minutes and was able to connect and charge at an EA charger I had tried many times before. I had tried all the tricks of pulling up on the handle and other things with no success. After the modification I have no problem there. Some models of charges at EA and EVGO only charge at 14 KW. They are all made by the same manufacturer and about the same age. I been told it is a software issue on the chargers end not the car's.
I agree, if they still made the spark ev I bet the base trim would be 150 miles on a single charge and costed 20k, I would buy that in a heartbeat. You would probably get more range on the higher trims
best I ever got in spark ev was 115 miles climbing very steep hills 10mph climb & max regen on the way down in low gear. sebastopol to cazadero to ft ross to jenner to sebastopol. best car ever, better made than bolt.
My 2014 with 61k miles will do about 75 miles if I drop down to 60 MPH, which frankly, I'm okay with. At 70 MPH I get about the same as they got in this test.
I have a 2015. 9500 mi. On it. Im buzzing around town. Amazon fresh store has fast DC charging free. So i am driving free now. Cant beat that. Gas is almost 6 dollars a gallon in California now
The brought out the Bolt EV which is better in every meaningful way, and made that available nationwide. Spark EV was their test car. Also, don’t look up crash fatality ratings for the Spark. It’s a primary reason I traded mine in.
Old video... but in a car that only weights 2860 lbs, adding weight matters. I imagine Kyle probably weighs around 200 lbs, so that's 7% more weight. It doesn't add much energy use at constant speeds, maybe a bit more rolling resistance, but I imagine it uses a quite a bit more energy during acceleration. Depending on regen power, it may not be sufficient to recoup that extra energy when stopping. But yeah, over 90 degrees with the sun beating down with two passengers in a small cabin likely means that A/C was working even if the fan speed wasn't on high. I imagine it was quite a bit more than 2-3 miles. A Spark gets 4-5 miles per kWh, and I can't imagine that the car used less than 2 kWh for an hour of driving in that heat to cool the cabin. That would be 8-10 miles of lost range. What Kyle didn't mention is that the liquid active cooling system on the battery was likely working on overdrive as a result of the hot air and hot pavement. The closer to the pavement, the hotter the air is and I imagine the pavement was well over 120 degrees. The air used to cool the battery will be hotter as well, requiring more air for cooling. I'm kind of curious what happens to range at sub freezing temps. I think a lot of people could have used these for their second household car for one person to commute to work in. Throw in workplace charging, and the effective range of the car could potentially double, opening it up for daily commutes AND errands / family visits. ;) It's too bad they cancelled this car, we need to come to grips with overusing materials. This is a perfectly competent commuter car that's super efficient and only uses 21 kWh of battery capacity.
Yesterday, I and a friend drove a used 2016 Spark EV for sale at a dealership. Nice little car overall. We loved the drivetrain and the regen, but had trouble figuring out the climate control system. When we found out that it only had 80 potential miles of range, we thought a used Bolt seemed far better.
I think the AC killed it. With only the fan running at speed 2, usually, I can get over 5 mi/kWh at 65-70 mph. Though I am admittedly in Colorado, so with the lower air density, the car probably feels like it’s going a bit slower. I love my Spark, but have the MINI SE coming in the next couple weeks. Can’t wait to see how the efficiency compares with the Spark. I’ve not tried an EA station, but have only ever had an issue with one CCS station and had to jiggle the handle to get it to communicate successfully. On a daily basis even with regular all-season tires, I pretty easily see 4.7+ mi/kWh up and down hills round trip, living at 6200 ft and going down to near 5000 ft often.
Congrats on the MINI. Just a heads up: the InsideEVs Forum has a great MINI Cooper SE section - insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?forums/mini-cooper-se.81/
It would be interesting to see the range with heater running in cold. I'm on my third gas Spark all manuals which are tough to find. I'd be up for an ev model if range gets to double that and charging stations as plentiful as gas stations on every corner. Love Sparks and hope they are available in gas-manual for years to come.
Bummer that you guys didn't show the energy pie chart because it shows how much energy went to driving, how much for AC/heating, and for battery conditioning. (Press the leaf icon button repeatedly until it shows the pie chart.) I have the 2016 model, bought last year with 23k miles. It's my little speed racer! I get below 4 mi/kWh if I'm a leadfoot, about 4.3 kWh if I drive 70-75 mph, or about 5 to 6 mi/kWh if I follow a truck and drive 60 mph.
How about find a Ford focus EV and test that, I really liked seeing these EV's from the recent past. I've also seen one of these Chevy sparks at an autocross event. It did really well
I'm looking into geting a spark ev thanks for sharing your experience. I hope to get one soon any advice what I should look for when buying one. I live in las vegas i was looking at a leaf but the battery degradation was really bad that's why I'm going to get a spark ev.
I have a 2016 Chevy Spark EV. I would make sure that you get the fast charging option. Local Chevrolet dealer has a fast charger outside and I use that. Only runs at 22 kw but it's free.
I had the same problem at some EA charger. The issue is the manufacture of the charge port for the Spark EV didn't follow the schematic correctly and two plastic corners need to be filed down a milometer. Google the article titled "SOLUTION: SparkEV's problem with DC fast charge". I did the modification myself in 15 minutes and was able to connect and charge at an EA charger I had tried many times before with no success. I had tried all the tricks of pulling up on the handle and other things with no success. After the modification I have no problem there. Some models of charges at EA and EVGO only charge at 14 KW. They are all made by the same manufacturer and about the same age. I been told it is a software issue on the chargers end not the car's. 4.1 miles per kWh seems a little low. At 65 mph I usually get 4.6 miles per kWh. Though I am alone and not running the AC. Having a second person in the car and running the AC if they had any changes in speed because of traffic slowdowns or if their tires were not inflated properly I guess 4.1 is not bad.
I've been in the gas version of this car which is literally the exact same thing as the electric one except for a few differences. I'm 6' 2 around 320 lbs and it was alright. I'd definitely try one out at a dealer or something to find out if it's comfortable for you though.
I have a 2015 2LT bought new. I've put about 40k miles on it and it's been a great car. Depending on time of year and weather, I get 4.5 to 5.8 miles/kwh and have never dipped below 4.2. When it was new, I'd get 100 miles on a charge. Now it's 80 or so. Before the pandemic, I'd fast charge at EVGo about 2x a month - never had an issue. I must say, I'm a little disappointed with this review. It seems the driver didn't spend time learning some basics about the Spark EV in order to be better prepared for the video. Also, I'm not familiar with oputting the car into 'L' in order to get battery Regen. Can anyone explain that?
Low is meant to be closer to "one-pedal driving ". When you let off the accelerator the electric motor gives more resistance and slows you down and in turn charges the battery more. It's nice in town but I am always afraid of it making passengers sick as it is more abrupt than stepping on the brake which also provides regen. If you're not in a busy area you'll get better range not using low because coasting is more efficient than regen. In fact I would guess that low is never more efficient since braking is most always regen rather than brakes and you want to coast as much as possible.
L (low) just gives more regen than in D, it's in the owner's manual as well. Michael Smith, you can still coast while in L, you have to keep the accelerator depressed slightly and you can control how much regen it will trigger. Think of L as having max regen (50kW) available while D will only regen
@@sksman71 Yea it's funny that people get obsessed with regenerating the battery at the expense of forward momentum. There are more losses when you regen compared to coasting.
I'll take one when it gets as much miles to the gallon is my spark does. Which is 310 mi to the tank. Now when you get a spark it's electric and get 310 mi to the battery. Now then I would be interested. But not even seventy miles it's like 300 mi to the Mackinac bridge . Time is precious when you only have a couple days of vacation. You don't want to waste most of it sitting there waiting for your car to charge up.
Funny you like the Spark EV better than the Bolt, when the Bolt is pretty much just better in every way than the Spark EV. And looks pretty much like a larger Spark. (Previous Spark EV owner).
Bolt at 70 MPH is about 3.4 mi/kWh without AC while SparkEV with AC and 2 people in this video gets 4.1 mi/kWh. I tested without AC and just me, and it got 4.4 mi/kWh at 70 MPH. In terms of efficiency, SparkEV is better. Also it's smaller by almost 2 ft. making it easier to park.
@@jaredhuang2225 See this blog post about SparkEV efficiency over MPH. 2014 model curve seem to apply as AC being 2kW average would result in 4.1 mi/kWh vs no AC resulting in 4.4 mi/kWh at 70 MPH. Scroll to "miles per kWh with extra power use" in sparkev.blogspot.com/2016/03/range-polynomial.html
Love my Spark EV! Been driving mine for about a year now and gets me all over town and some longer trips. Your range test sounds about right at highway speeds. GM or someone needs to bring back a similarly sized car with ~100 miles of range. Perfect commuter car. Love that blue color, just a bit jealous. Great video, keep them coming!
I have the exact same car, I love it. I have no trouble DC fast charging at electrify America. At the start of the session pull up and hold the connector until it locks . Thanks for the cool videos.
I have the same car. 2015 1LT trim bought it used with 57k miles on the odometer. Currently have about 61k miles. I get about 66-70 miles on a good warm day. As far as the EA chargers are concerned, I learned from a guy in TH-cam showing how to successfully charge at EA using CCS combo. In the video he showed that lifting the handle up a little bit while initializing and only let go once the car beeps its horn signaling that the car is charging. Long story short, I charge at EA with no problem.
I tried this but couldn't get it to work for me. Will try again.
I have the same car. There was a TSB which essentially required removing a small amount of plastic somewhere on the charge port. This, I think, allowed the plug to enter the socket a little more and improved the reliability of the connection during the negotiation phase. I've never gotten anywhere near 70 hwy. More like 50 :(
Yeah you have to lift up on the handle until you hear the charge cord lock pin engage.
I had the same problem. The issue is the manufacture of the charge port for the Spark EV didn't follow the schematic correctly and two plastic corners need to be filed down a milometer. Google the article titled "SOLUTION: SparkEV's problem with DC fast charge". I did the modification myself in 15 minutes and was able to connect and charge at an EA charger I had tried many times before. I had tried all the tricks of pulling up on the handle and other things with no success. After the modification I have no problem there. Some models of charges at EA and EVGO only charge at 14 KW. They are all made by the same manufacturer and about the same age. I been told it is a software issue on the chargers end not the car's.
Finally the kind of test I was interested in. good job!
My 2015 Spark EV gets 5 m/kWh on the highway, but I'm that old guy going 55 mph with the trucks in the right lane.
Wow I wish Chevy still made the spark ev awesome video
I agree, if they still made the spark ev I bet the base trim would be 150 miles on a single charge and costed 20k, I would buy that in a heartbeat. You would probably get more range on the higher trims
When I see the battery flashing i start to panic LOL
best I ever got in spark ev was 115 miles climbing very steep hills 10mph climb & max regen on the way down in low gear. sebastopol to cazadero to ft ross to jenner to sebastopol. best car ever, better made than bolt.
My 2014 with 61k miles will do about 75 miles if I drop down to 60 MPH, which frankly, I'm okay with. At 70 MPH I get about the same as they got in this test.
My 2014 has 42k and I get 65 miles with a mix of city and freeway.
Would love to see you charge at a Harley Davidson dealership.
I have a 2015. 9500 mi. On it.
Im buzzing around town. Amazon fresh store has fast DC charging free. So i am driving free now. Cant beat that. Gas is almost 6 dollars a gallon in California now
They could have sold huge numbers of these, with the right production numbers and the right low price.. Even if it WAS a cynical move by GM.
The brought out the Bolt EV which is better in every meaningful way, and made that available nationwide. Spark EV was their test car. Also, don’t look up crash fatality ratings for the Spark. It’s a primary reason I traded mine in.
The older EA chargers dont work, the newer ones do. Also it fast charges in like 12 minutes so thats awesome.
Old video... but in a car that only weights 2860 lbs, adding weight matters. I imagine Kyle probably weighs around 200 lbs, so that's 7% more weight. It doesn't add much energy use at constant speeds, maybe a bit more rolling resistance, but I imagine it uses a quite a bit more energy during acceleration. Depending on regen power, it may not be sufficient to recoup that extra energy when stopping.
But yeah, over 90 degrees with the sun beating down with two passengers in a small cabin likely means that A/C was working even if the fan speed wasn't on high. I imagine it was quite a bit more than 2-3 miles. A Spark gets 4-5 miles per kWh, and I can't imagine that the car used less than 2 kWh for an hour of driving in that heat to cool the cabin. That would be 8-10 miles of lost range.
What Kyle didn't mention is that the liquid active cooling system on the battery was likely working on overdrive as a result of the hot air and hot pavement. The closer to the pavement, the hotter the air is and I imagine the pavement was well over 120 degrees. The air used to cool the battery will be hotter as well, requiring more air for cooling.
I'm kind of curious what happens to range at sub freezing temps. I think a lot of people could have used these for their second household car for one person to commute to work in. Throw in workplace charging, and the effective range of the car could potentially double, opening it up for daily commutes AND errands / family visits. ;) It's too bad they cancelled this car, we need to come to grips with overusing materials. This is a perfectly competent commuter car that's super efficient and only uses 21 kWh of battery capacity.
Sparks don’t get even close to that miles per kWh. It’s rarely out of the 2’s
Yesterday, I and a friend drove a used 2016 Spark EV for sale at a dealership. Nice little car overall. We loved the drivetrain and the regen, but had trouble figuring out the climate control system. When we found out that it only had 80 potential miles of range, we thought a used Bolt seemed far better.
I think the AC killed it. With only the fan running at speed 2, usually, I can get over 5 mi/kWh at 65-70 mph. Though I am admittedly in Colorado, so with the lower air density, the car probably feels like it’s going a bit slower. I love my Spark, but have the MINI SE coming in the next couple weeks. Can’t wait to see how the efficiency compares with the Spark. I’ve not tried an EA station, but have only ever had an issue with one CCS station and had to jiggle the handle to get it to communicate successfully. On a daily basis even with regular all-season tires, I pretty easily see 4.7+ mi/kWh up and down hills round trip, living at 6200 ft and going down to near 5000 ft often.
Similar experience driving my spark EV around Seattle on a dry warm day. Wonder if Florida high humidity was a factor too?
Congrats on the MINI. Just a heads up: the InsideEVs Forum has a great MINI Cooper SE section - insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?forums/mini-cooper-se.81/
I really want to be my first car when I’m 16
It would be interesting to see the range with heater running in cold.
I'm on my third gas Spark all manuals which are tough to find. I'd be up for an ev model if range gets to double that and charging stations as plentiful as gas stations on every corner.
Love Sparks and hope they are available in gas-manual for years to come.
Why the third one? I'm working on getting a newer vehicle in a year or so; my 2007 Elantra is a 5 Speed (yes, they exist).
25 miles max with heat on
Bummer that you guys didn't show the energy pie chart because it shows how much energy went to driving, how much for AC/heating, and for battery conditioning. (Press the leaf icon button repeatedly until it shows the pie chart.) I have the 2016 model, bought last year with 23k miles. It's my little speed racer! I get below 4 mi/kWh if I'm a leadfoot, about 4.3 kWh if I drive 70-75 mph, or about 5 to 6 mi/kWh if I follow a truck and drive 60 mph.
I don't remember the exact figure, but yes, the pie chart showed a good amount of energy going to AC.
Best car I ever had, better than the Bolt.
If you had a Bolt, WHY was the Spark EV better? From specs and driving reviews, it would seem the Bolt was the better car.
I been thinking of getting one but not sure yet🤔
How about find a Ford focus EV and test that, I really liked seeing these EV's from the recent past.
I've also seen one of these Chevy sparks at an autocross event.
It did really well
Focus EV was the best driving EV ever.
I have one. We use it for all our trips around town. Averaging 3.7 kWh mixed highway and city. Great car!
I'm looking into geting a spark ev thanks for sharing your experience. I hope to get one soon any advice what I should look for when buying one. I live in las vegas i was looking at a leaf but the battery degradation was really bad that's why I'm going to get a spark ev.
Sparks are better for warm weather as they have better thermal management than Leaf!
I have a 2016 Chevy Spark EV. I would make sure that you get the fast charging option. Local Chevrolet dealer has a fast charger outside and I use that. Only runs at 22 kw but it's free.
@@bresina63 free free? Lol
@@PieShiido Yes. Free, free. It only charges at 22 kw but it doesn't take that long.
@@bresina63 oh wow thank you so much !! I just found one down the street from my house , how long does it take you to charge up?
With a small car like that, how much does passenger weight affect the range?
It surprisingly doesn't affect range negatively at all! Where it takes more power to get up hills, it can regen more down the other side
How have i never seen this?!
Mines reading 51 miles full charge should I be worried?
I had the same problem at some EA charger. The issue is the manufacture of the charge port for the Spark EV didn't follow the schematic correctly and two plastic corners need to be filed down a milometer. Google the article titled "SOLUTION: SparkEV's problem with DC fast charge". I did the modification myself in 15 minutes and was able to connect and charge at an EA charger I had tried many times before with no success. I had tried all the tricks of pulling up on the handle and other things with no success. After the modification I have no problem there. Some models of charges at EA and EVGO only charge at 14 KW. They are all made by the same manufacturer and about the same age. I been told it is a software issue on the chargers end not the car's. 4.1 miles per kWh seems a little low. At 65 mph I usually get 4.6 miles per kWh. Though I am alone and not running the AC. Having a second person in the car and running the AC if they had any changes in speed because of traffic slowdowns or if their tires were not inflated properly I guess 4.1 is not bad.
10:13 he thought you were coming in for a handshake...
Please do a 2017 Fiat 500e, thanks!
Do a Fiat 500e next! :-)
How longe does it take to charge at one of those charger stations
Question! Would a 325lb man, at 6" tall fit into this car? Comfortably?
I've been in the gas version of this car which is literally the exact same thing as the electric one except for a few differences. I'm 6' 2 around 320 lbs and it was alright. I'd definitely try one out at a dealer or something to find out if it's comfortable for you though.
I have a 2015 2LT bought new. I've put about 40k miles on it and it's been a great car. Depending on time of year and weather, I get 4.5 to 5.8 miles/kwh and have never dipped below 4.2. When it was new, I'd get 100 miles on a charge. Now it's 80 or so.
Before the pandemic, I'd fast charge at EVGo about 2x a month - never had an issue.
I must say, I'm a little disappointed with this review. It seems the driver didn't spend time learning some basics about the Spark EV in order to be better prepared for the video.
Also, I'm not familiar with oputting the car into 'L' in order to get battery Regen. Can anyone explain that?
Low is meant to be closer to "one-pedal driving ". When you let off the accelerator the electric motor gives more resistance and slows you down and in turn charges the battery more. It's nice in town but I am always afraid of it making passengers sick as it is more abrupt than stepping on the brake which also provides regen. If you're not in a busy area you'll get better range not using low because coasting is more efficient than regen. In fact I would guess that low is never more efficient since braking is most always regen rather than brakes and you want to coast as much as possible.
L (low) just gives more regen than in D, it's in the owner's manual as well. Michael Smith, you can still coast while in L, you have to keep the accelerator depressed slightly and you can control how much regen it will trigger. Think of L as having max regen (50kW) available while D will only regen
@@msmith99ffl i agree coasting even when going down hill is better than regen.
@@jaredhuang2225 That's true but coasting means not adding power at all. Foot off the "gas"
@@sksman71 Yea it's funny that people get obsessed with regenerating the battery at the expense of forward momentum. There are more losses when you regen compared to coasting.
I'll take one when it gets as much miles to the gallon is my spark does. Which is 310 mi to the tank. Now when you get a spark it's electric and get 310 mi to the battery. Now then I would be interested. But not even seventy miles it's like 300 mi to the Mackinac bridge . Time is precious when you only have a couple days of vacation. You don't want to waste most of it sitting there waiting for your car to charge up.
is the battery Air cooled ??
The Chevy spark, as well as the Volt and the Bolt, all have liquid-cooled battery packs.
For only getting 60 miles of range on a charge is almost useless, unless you live in a city, waste of money in my opinion
Mine gets 50 miles tops at 3.1 kWh and far less than half that with climate on
🎉🎉
I've never had a problem charging my spark at electrify America. But the EA chargers are really unreliable in general
Me, like welp just bought one of these let me check out how it will work around town....
Yall: we're in Tallahassee
Me: 😳 sitting in Tallahassee
Waiting for the Leaf S+ 70 mph test. drive.google.com/file/d/1BHpljzVm1bf-U2C1OflGMpVUHPY2CD3D/view?usp=drivesdk
Funny you like the Spark EV better than the Bolt, when the Bolt is pretty much just better in every way than the Spark EV. And looks pretty much like a larger Spark. (Previous Spark EV owner).
Cypress Van Horn true, but the Spark is 2800 lbs and smaller/more nimble than the Bolt at close to 3600 lbs.
Bolt at 70 MPH is about 3.4 mi/kWh without AC while SparkEV with AC and 2 people in this video gets 4.1 mi/kWh. I tested without AC and just me, and it got 4.4 mi/kWh at 70 MPH. In terms of efficiency, SparkEV is better. Also it's smaller by almost 2 ft. making it easier to park.
@@mychevysparkevdidntcatchfi1489 Thanks for the info about mi/kWh. I have a Spark and would like a Bolt but the efficiency looks better in the Spark.
@@jaredhuang2225 See this blog post about SparkEV efficiency over MPH. 2014 model curve seem to apply as AC being 2kW average would result in 4.1 mi/kWh vs no AC resulting in 4.4 mi/kWh at 70 MPH. Scroll to "miles per kWh with extra power use" in sparkev.blogspot.com/2016/03/range-polynomial.html
Spark was better made and more fun to drive than Bolt. Only range and room was improved. The quality went down.
I like my dodge ram 1500 5.7 v8 better 😀
I like my horse and chariot better
Pppft, I like my dragon 🐉
Why L? Isn't that low range?
What was the consumption level? I would regularly get 5 - 6 miles per kWh.
Car showed 4.1 at the end there.
Ewww. I've done trips from Portland to Seattle and back with my 2014 Spark EV and have done about 5.0-5.1 miles per kWh.