Charging Question / New Spark EV Owner

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone - we bought a 2014 Spark EV with ~50,000 that was previously used as a commuter car. We get 72-82 miles on a full charge depending on if I, or the wife, drove it last. She's coming from an ICE and I'm coming from a Model S, but we both were pleasantly surprised how much we like the car. We picked it up for $7,800 - the exact amount the previous owner had left on the loan. From what I can tell, this is a great deal.

My problem is as follows: We live in San Diego and have time of use electric rates (TOU5). I pay at the lowest $0.09/kwh from 12am-6am and as much as $0.68kwh at the peak from 4pm-9pm in Summer time. I programmed the car to know when peak and off peak is, made sure the clock is accurate, and set it to only charge during Off Peak. I also made sure its on the "Rate and Departure Time" mode. We use a 16amp 240v after market J1772 charger on the car, not the 120v charger it came with.

My problem is no matter how I change the settings, it starts charging immediately when plugged in. It never waits, no matter what I do. This means at certain times I'm paying over 7x more for power than I could be. We're not paying for OnStar so my understanding is there's no app we can use with the car. My charger is "dumb" so its always on.

I have screenshots of the car computer screen but it appears this forum doesn't have image hosting.

Edit: I have the "Charge to 40%" first feature disabled.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Hi Everyone - we bought a 2014 Spark EV with ~50,000 that was previously used as a commuter car. We get 72-82 miles on a full charge depending on if I, or the wife, drove it last. She's coming from an ICE and I'm coming from a Model S, but we both were pleasantly surprised how much we like the car. We picked it up for $7,800 - the exact amount the previous owner had left on the loan. From what I can tell, this is a great deal.

My problem is as follows: We live in San Diego and have time of use electric rates (TOU5). I pay at the lowest $0.09/kwh from 12am-6am and as much as $0.68kwh at the peak from 4pm-9pm in Summer time. I programmed the car to know when peak and off peak is, made sure the clock is accurate, and set it to only charge during Off Peak. I also made sure its on the "Rate and Departure Time" mode. We use a 16amp 240v after market J1772 charger on the car, not the 120v charger it came with.

My problem is no matter how I change the settings, it starts charging immediately when plugged in. It never waits, no matter what I do. This means at certain times I'm paying over 7x more for power than I could be. We're not paying for OnStar so my understanding is there's no app we can use with the car. My charger is "dumb" so its always on.

I have screenshots of the car computer screen but it appears this forum doesn't have image hosting.

Try using only the departure time setting and set it to 6 am. The car will determine when to start charging based on how much the battery is discharged. If your battery is heavily discharged, the charging start time could begin before midnight in order to have charging completed by 6 am. Charging will end at 6 am and the car will be fully charged. You can specify the departure time for each day of the week so you can make departure time changes to accommodate weekend rates too.

The L2 EVSE you are using is about 85% efficient and will put about 2.8 kWh per hour back into your battery until 80% SoC is reached. Then the charging rate will start to taper off.
Edit: My calculation was wrong. You said you are using 240 VAC so you would get about 3.25 kw per hour into the battery.

 

[Anonymous]

Try using only the departure time setting and set it to 6 am. The car will determine when to start charging based on how much the battery is discharged. If your battery is heavily discharged, the charging start time could begin before midnight in order to have charging completed by 6 am. Charging will end at 6 am and the car will be fully charged. You can specify the departure time for each day of the week so you can make departure time changes to accommodate weekend rates too.

The L2 EVSE you are using is about 85% efficient and will put about 2.8 kWh per hour back into your battery until 80% SoC is reached. Then the charging rate will start to taper off.

Thanks for the tip. It is currently set to Rate and Departure Time, with Departure time already set to 6am.

When I switch it to Departure time only, it still starts charging immediately. It even shows on the screen the Start time of charging as the current time, and the stop time a few hours later, ignoring the 6am.

 

[SparkE]

Suggestion: plug it in only after the high-rate time ends (9 pm?).

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Try using only the departure time setting and set it to 6 am. The car will determine when to start charging based on how much the battery is discharged. If your battery is heavily discharged, the charging start time could begin before midnight in order to have charging completed by 6 am. Charging will end at 6 am and the car will be fully charged. You can specify the departure time for each day of the week so you can make departure time changes to accommodate weekend rates too.

The L2 EVSE you are using is about 85% efficient and will put about 2.8 kWh per hour back into your battery until 80% SoC is reached. Then the charging rate will start to taper off.

Thanks for the tip. It is currently set to Rate and Departure Time, with Departure time already set to 6am.

When I switch it to Departure time only, it still starts charging immediately. It even shows on the screen the Start time of charging as the current time, and the stop time a few hours later, ignoring the 6am.

Sounds like you have PRIORITY CHARGING turned ON. If it is on, charging will start immediately and continue until the battery SoC is 40%. Look for the SETTINGS button on the lower right corner of the screen for either DELAYED CHARGING or RATE & DEPARTURE TIME. Press the symbol to get to the screen where you can turn off PRIORITY CHARGING. Check the screens for both DELAYED CHARGING and RATE & DEPARTURE TIME and turn off PRUIORITY CHARGING on both screens.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, but it’s definitely off.

 

[Anonymous]

Suggestion: plug it in only after the high-rate time ends (9 pm?).

Thanks for the reply, but the $0.09 begins at 12:00am aka midnight. 9pm it goes from $0.68 to $0.28.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Thanks for the reply, but it’s definitely off.

WOW! You may want to call a dealer or GM. Is the car up-to-date with all software updates? I have both a 2014 Spark EV and a 2016 Spark EV and both are set to DEPARTURE TIME charging with PRIORITY CHARGING turned off. Neither car starts charging when I connect my L1 or L2 EVSE to start charging.

What type of EVSE "charger" are you using? The car tells the EVSE when to turn on and off. If possible, try a public L2 EVSE and / or someone else's L1 or L2 EVSE to see if it is EVSE related.

This is a good one and I am going to have to think about the fix. Please post the solution if you find one.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Try using only the departure time setting and set it to 6 am. The car will determine when to start charging based on how much the battery is discharged. If your battery is heavily discharged, the charging start time could begin before midnight in order to have charging completed by 6 am. Charging will end at 6 am and the car will be fully charged. You can specify the departure time for each day of the week so you can make departure time changes to accommodate weekend rates too.

The L2 EVSE you are using is about 85% efficient and will put about 2.8 kWh per hour back into your battery until 80% SoC is reached. Then the charging rate will start to taper off.

Thanks for the tip. It is currently set to Rate and Departure Time, with Departure time already set to 6am.

When I switch it to Departure time only, it still starts charging immediately. It even shows on the screen the Start time of charging as the current time, and the stop time a few hours later, ignoring the 6am.

One thing to check first. Did you set the departure time for each day of the week?

Try resetting you program to just DEPARTURE time. If you set the departure time to 6 am for each day of the week and your L2 EVSE is delivering 3.3 kWh to the battery each hour, you should have a full charge each day and charging should not start until after 9 pm in order to be fully charged at 6 am the next day. If immediate charging still occurs, there may be a problem with the charging electronics. I would pay a visit to a Chevy dealer. This should be covered under warranty. You might also have the OBDII port scanned for possible error codes.

I have been using DEPARTURE time for both of my Spark EVs. I have one car on the L2 EVSE and one on the L1 EVSE. Unfortunately, each day I have to be sure to set the car's L1 EVSE charging rate to the 12 amps. I deliberately set the departure time for each car such that I have 80-85% SoC when I actually disconnect at 8 am each day. This has been working great!

 

[Kermit]

I ended up getting the departure time setup on my charging so I can just plug in when I get home and have about 75% charge when I leave. I recently had to go on a longer trip than normal and saw in the owners manual if you plug the car in and unplug it and plug it back in it overrides everything and charges immediately. I tried this and it worked on my 2016. It made me wonder if your charger or some odd electrical issue may be doing something weird that makes your car think this is happening.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's another clue: my car honks 4x in a row when plugged in to charge instead of 1x, but the charge light goes to solid green very quickly and it begins charging immediately.

I took the advice of another poster and tested the 120v charger it came with, and that charger DOES appear to follow the schedule. However, when I plug in at ANY level 2 charger, it ALWAYS starts charging immediately. I don't have fast charging.

So my follow-up question is: is it normal for public level 2 chargers to start charging immediately and ignore the schedule? If yes, then maybe my car thinks my home 240v charger is a public charger - does that make sense?

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Here's another clue: my car honks 4x in a row when plugged in to charge instead of 1x, but the charge light goes to solid green very quickly and it begins charging immediately.

I took the advice of another poster and tested the 120v charger it came with, and that charger DOES appear to follow the schedule. However, when I plug in at ANY level 2 charger, it ALWAYS starts charging immediately. I don't have fast charging.

So my follow-up question is: is it normal for public level 2 chargers to start charging immediately and ignore the schedule? If yes, then maybe my car thinks my home 240v charger is a public charger - does that make sense?

On page 9-38 of the 2014 Spark EV Owner Manual it states "Solid Green or Slow Flashing Green, four horn chirps, Action:Reason - Insufficient time to fully charge by departure time".

The fact that you experienced a solid green light, four horn chirps and charging starting immediately suggests the car thinks a full charge cannot be achieved by the completion time you have programmed. If you disconnected and reconnected, it may be possible the car reset the charging start time and then calculated there was not enough time to fully charge the battery by the departure time you had programmed. Try setting the charge completion time at least 8 hours beyond the time you plug back in and see what happens.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's another clue: my car honks 4x in a row when plugged in to charge instead of 1x, but the charge light goes to solid green very quickly and it begins charging immediately.

I took the advice of another poster and tested the 120v charger it came with, and that charger DOES appear to follow the schedule. However, when I plug in at ANY level 2 charger, it ALWAYS starts charging immediately. I don't have fast charging.

So my follow-up question is: is it normal for public level 2 chargers to start charging immediately and ignore the schedule? If yes, then maybe my car thinks my home 240v charger is a public charger - does that make sense?

On page 9-38 of the 2014 Spark EV Owner Manual it states "Solid Green or Slow Flashing Green, four horn chirps, Action:Reason - Insufficient time to fully charge by departure time".

The fact that you experienced a solid green light, four horn chirps and charging starting immediately suggests the car thinks a full charge cannot be achieved by the completion time you have programmed. If you disconnected and reconnected, it may be possible the car reset the charging start time and then calculated there was not enough time to fully charge the battery by the departure time you had programmed. Try setting the charge completion time at least 8 hours beyond the time you plug back in and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply. I think you're asking me if I'm disconnecting and reconnecting the charge cable...every time I plug it in?

I can confirm the charge completion time is set for 12 hours from the current time the car is plugged in. I have more clues though!

1) While the car honks 4 times when plugged in in Rate/Departure Time mode (departure time being set for 12 hours later), it only honks 1x when in immediate charge mode

2) Certain L2 chargers, after being plugged in, are completely unrecognized. and nothing will happen. "Waiting for vehicle" displays on the charger and the charge light on the Spark remains off.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Here's another clue: my car honks 4x in a row when plugged in to charge instead of 1x, but the charge light goes to solid green very quickly and it begins charging immediately.

I took the advice of another poster and tested the 120v charger it came with, and that charger DOES appear to follow the schedule. However, when I plug in at ANY level 2 charger, it ALWAYS starts charging immediately. I don't have fast charging.

So my follow-up question is: is it normal for public level 2 chargers to start charging immediately and ignore the schedule? If yes, then maybe my car thinks my home 240v charger is a public charger - does that make sense?

On page 9-38 of the 2014 Spark EV Owner Manual it states "Solid Green or Slow Flashing Green, four horn chirps, Action:Reason - Insufficient time to fully charge by departure time".

The fact that you experienced a solid green light, four horn chirps and charging starting immediately suggests the car thinks a full charge cannot be achieved by the completion time you have programmed. If you disconnected and reconnected, it may be possible the car reset the charging start time and then calculated there was not enough time to fully charge the battery by the departure time you had programmed. Try setting the charge completion time at least 8 hours beyond the time you plug back in and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply. I think you're asking me if I'm disconnecting and reconnecting the charge cable...every time I plug it in?

I can confirm the charge completion time is set for 12 hours from the current time the car is plugged in. I have more clues though!

1) While the car honks 4 times when plugged in in Rate/Departure Time mode (departure time being set for 12 hours later), it only honks 1x when in immediate charge mode

2) Certain L2 chargers, after being plugged in, are completely unrecognized. and nothing will happen. "Waiting for vehicle" displays on the charger and the charge light on the Spark remains off.

a. 1 horn chirp is normal in the Charge Immediate mode.

b. I have my 2014 Spark EV set to Departure Time charging with the departure time set to 11:15 am every day of the week. I am using my L1 EVSE and I manually set the charging rate in the car to 12 amps. I did not plug into my L1 EVSE last night and I measured my SOC this morning. It was 76.9% or 12.45 kWh (76.9% x 16.2 kWh (current battery capacity). I just plugged in and I expected to hear four horn beeps since there was not enough time to fully charge by 11:15 am. But, I only heard one horn beep, charging started and my completion time on the drivers display is now 1pm which is just about when I expected to have a full charge.

I am soooooo confused! :?: I guess it is possible that some of the software updates have changed what happens during charging. My 2014 Spark EV is current with all software updates for which I received notifications from GM.

 

[Anonymous]

I am soooooo confused! :?: I guess it is possible that some of the software updates have changed what happens during charging. My 2014 Spark EV is current with all software updates for which I received notifications from GM.

Yea I'm in the same boat. My horn chirps and charging behavior does not match what is defined in the owners manual.

 

[NORTON]

Yea I'm in the same boat. My horn chirps and charging behavior does not match what is defined in the owners manual.

Are you digging deep into the menus for these functions?

 

[Anonymous]

Are you digging deep into the menus for these functions?

Honestly the menus don’t let you go deep enough. You can’t set a charging start time directly. You can only do it indirectly by setting peak/off peak times or a setting a stop time and doing the math.
You can’t set the charge percentage you want it to stop at.

So to answer your questions yes I am very familiar with all the menus and their effect on charging and unfortunately no dice

 

[NORTON]

... I am very familiar with all the menus and their effect on charging and unfortunately no dice

But can't you turn off the horn alerts?
I don't know. I never used charge times, but I did turn off all the honking.

 

[SparkE]

a. 1 horn chirp is normal in the Charge Immediate mode.

b. I have my 2014 Spark EV set to Departure Time charging with the departure time set to 11:15 am every day of the week. I am using my L1 EVSE and I manually set the charging rate in the car to 12 amps. I did not plug into my L1 EVSE last night and I measured my SOC this morning. It was 76.9% or 12.45 kWh (76.9% x 16.2 kWh (current battery capacity). I just plugged in and I expected to hear four horn beeps since there was not enough time to fully charge by 11:15 am. But, I only heard one horn beep, charging started and my completion time on the drivers display is now 1pm which is just about when I expected to have a full charge.

I am soooooo confused! :?: I guess it is possible that some of the software updates have changed what happens during charging. My 2014 Spark EV is current with all software updates for which I received notifications from GM.

I am WAY late, and not really on-topic - sorry. I definitely do (b), to have 75-85% charge on my Spark's battery every morning, charging only during the wee hours, when demand is low and it costs less. It starts charging in the middle of the night, and I have 80 miles range in the morning. I have been missing DrMorgan on this forum for a few years (shout out!), I think that he bought a Bolt. I actually have also been thinking about buying a used Bolt, since I see prices for them under $13K for vehicles under 25K miles. BUT, I (personally) would only need the extra range MAYBE 2-3 times a year. My Spark is almost 10 years old (just a few months away) but still has a range of about 95 miles, in city driving. Because I only charge to 75-85% and don't leave it sitting at "full charge" for long times. Perfect for my needs. And I can park it almost ANYWHERE because it is so small. And it is fast . I really like my "sparky".

 

[SmokeyPete]

I found this to be too much of a hassle and baught an OpenEVSE instead where I can easily press its single button to dial in time in 15, 30 and 1 hour increments and walk away. True that a power disruption means I will be charged to 100% SOC but that has been rare. Also, the OpenEVSE has user replaceable parts and can be dialed down to 6A 240v if you really want to baby your battery or use a cheaper thinner cable in your build. Since the car only can draw 16A, I don't see a huge risk. I don't know who sells 16A 240v EVSEs that support an easy to use timed charge.