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All oil changes aren't equivalent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAkdqLwxCVg Phil

My wife and I used to car-pool because (worked at the same place) so the 1st Spark EV cut our gas consumption massively. However, shortly thereafter I ended up working elsewhere and we commuted in opposite directions and thus one of us was force to resort to using the other car (a gas-guzzling...

I 'm doing my bit to help disperse them since I and my wife have now introduced two Spark EVs to CT. Bought the second one (a new Salsa Red 2016 LT2 with DCFC with only 55 miles on it) at the very end of 2017.

I'm at 16.5 k miles and still have some tread left on the original tires but most of my driving is a 72 mile daily work commute.

The power train is very much simpler than a typical modern gas engine/transaxle. There's a nice little youtube video illustrating it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgVyeRWvzTo

Also in CT bought it online got it shipped from TX. I've never seen another around here... at least yet.

Today I got a letter from GM concerning a recall for my 2015 Spark EV. The recall concerns erratic behavior of the state of charge indicator. Apparently due to high voltage battery state estimation errors the car can display an overly long remaining range to the driver... then on subsequent...

Did you have to open it up and change the board (and the input power plug) or just change the input power plug?

At close to full charge the LG battery pack is capable of delivering (~240 kW) about twice the maximum power that is ever drawn from it during use in the vehicle (see last graph in this link) https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/fsev/batterySpark4878.pdf so the controller is definitely...

I’m sure with a different controller or just a change in the current controller’s set parameters the Spark EV motor could be made to produce considerably more low rpm talk than it currently does. I think Spark EVs have been made with 3 peak motor torque levels, 450 lb-ft (for a SEMA show...

I was under the impression that the motor controller/motor function as a 'buck converter' which uses the motor windings themselves as the required inductor. That is they function as a power converter which steps down voltage (while stepping up current) from its battery input to its output the...

According to multiple discussions from the experts on the DIY electric car forum over the years. Motor current and battery current are not the same, the motor current can be many fold higher than the battery current. This is courtesy of efficient sophisticated modern controllers. At very low...

What I think you could be experiencing is reduced regenerative breaking which can occur under very special circumstances (when the battery is essentially completely full and is of no safety concern in my opinion). Under these circumstances a little more brake pedal travel is required to get the...

I have seen a big increase in range (my highest reading on the GOM late this spring has been 98 miles whilst in mid-winter 60s were the norm) this increase is mainly due to an increase in mi/kwh, however the number of kwh stored in the battery has only gone up slightly with temperature and this...

It looks like Tesla actually down rates the rate of fast charging to ~1C if you use a very high rate (120KW) fast charger too often to preserve the battery packs life...

I agree the Tesla cells have a much easier life in all regards, they also likely have a much lower average discharge rate in typical use, as well as the mentioned fewer cycles and slower relative charging rates. I also feel that due to range concerns SparkEV owners are likely to try and keep...

The degradation of the Tesla lithium cells seems to follow a different curve, in this case there seems to be a relatively fast small loss (5%) in capacity followed by a plateau/slow decline. https://electrek.co/2016/11/01/tesla-battery-degradation/

If your primary concern is environmentalist you will want to compare your EV to gasoline in terms of relative CO2 production. When you burn one gallon of pure gasoline you get 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) (from E10, gas containing 10% ethanol, you get 18.95 pounds of CO2). If you go...

There are three main ways to calculate mpge (1) based on economy (how far you could go based on how much electricity you could buy for the price of a local gallon of gasoline) (2) based on pollution equivalence (how far you could go with the net emission of the same quantity of CO2 produced by...

I have a 2015 Spark EV bought new as a super-leftover at the end of Nov 2016. I live in CT and thus the car has yet to be driven under anything like ideal conditions for maximum range. I have only seen 62-74 miles of range on the GOM (except during one short winter reprieve when it read 78). I...