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Spark, 50kW max per the owner's manual.

Such announcements are a weekly if not daily matter, usually from some company/lab trolling for venture capital. Most never get commercialized. See the battery archives at Green Car Congress for endless examples: http://www.greencarcongress.com/batteries/index.html

One more thing for the OP to consider. With MB just announcing that the B-class ED has a 36 (total) kWh battery, giving it an 87 mile EPA range with a normal charge or 104 with a 'range' charge, you might want to add that to your possible options, along with the BMW i3/Rex. Both fall in...

Not in LA, in the Bay Area, and the same thing happens here. My reading of your earlier post was that you were choosing a shorter following distance specifically to draft as was often the case in the early days of MNL, not that you were unable to maintain a larger following distance owing to...

There was a lot of drafting of semis and other large vehicles reported early on at MNL, as people wanted to see the effects on their range. Fortunately, sanity has mostly prevailed since then. I expect we all learned in driver Ed. that the recommended minimum safe following distance is 2...

Update: California just added 15,000 Green HOV lane stickers to the program, so you can re-include PHEVs like the Volt, C-Max and Fusion Energis and the PiP (Ptui!) in your options. http://insideevs.com/california-ups-hov-green-sticker-program-15000-55000-total/

Yes, I know that CCS1 and CCS2 are different. OTOH, I expect that making an adapter from one to the other will be a lot simpler than going to/from CCS (either) to CHAdeMO. And as I've said, I expect that the number of people for whom this will even be an issue is miniscule, and of those almost...

Arlington, OR is apparently now live per Plugshare. And there are other CCS shown at the BMW dealers in Bellevue, Wa. and Harriman, NY. Whether these prove to be ephemeral like Berkeley and Fremont or actually exist remains to be seen, although someone did report using the one in Bellevue (at...

I've always found the latter method more effective myself. As the saying goes, good judgement is the result of experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. OTOH, I've never tried that particular approach with an SO, so either you're braver than I am, or maybe Mrs. #2 was more tolerant...

Almost certainly a coincidence. Bear sightings are common in Yosemite from cars, although mostly by night since bear-proof trashcans were installed. Unfortunately, we have yet to universally deploy bear-smart people, so you can still find them in campgrounds and cars. I did see a bear one...

Saw an article on one of the EV sites that says 2015 Spark EVs are showing up, so decision time is here if the OP is getting one.

Very nice, if somewhat nail-biting, drive. I've never been to that Kennedy Meadows, but have been to the one on Hwy 108. Never done any backpacking in that area either, just a couple of Whitney climbs via the Mountaineer's route, and a few week trips in the Palisades and Evolution region. Now...

I suspect it's that last part that will be the issue. Just adding the receptacle and cabling without the necessary ECU and any other changes related to QC won't help, and until someone manages to have a retrofit done that works, and Chevy is okay with that (i.e. not voiding the warranty), it's...

Could be, although that leaves the question of why the 'Coming soon' CCS at the Marin BMW dealer is still up, as it and Weatherford were the first two to be listed. I agree that not putting 'coming soon' stations on the map is a good idea. If Plugshare is actually weeding that's great - I know...

I'm not ruling it out, I'm saying that given what we know, every indication is that the 2014 will be more suitable for this commute than a 2015 for the necessary period of time. The 2015 may well work, but why take the chance absent better real-world evidence?

Fremont's now disappeared from Plugshare, just like Weatherford in Berkeley. Anyone know why?

On the extremely unlikely chance that anyone has any intention of shipping their Spark EV to Europe, here's some maps showing current CCS (and for info, CHAdeMO) chargers there: http://insideevs.com/ccs-charge-map-europe/

Sure, but those two are going over to FCEVs so don't care about BEVs, while VW appears to be more serious about BEVs, although as a group they seem to be going in more for PHEVs. Not surprising given that many of their brands are upscale, and need to be able to cruise on the autobahn at speed...

The Sparks' range algorithm adjusts to your recent driving, but does a much better job of smoothing out the highs and lows than every other company's. That being said, hot air is lower density air, so there's less air drag in hot weather and your energy usage will go down under the same...

It may be this is just the part to replace the current QC receptacle after damage, but by all means please do find out. Even if it's more than the $750 factory-installed version, all the owners who were misinformed by clueless/lying salespeople could certainly benefit if they could retrofit it...