Do you ALWAYS plug in at home or only when needed ?

[ExtensionCord]

I received my new Spark EV 6 days ago with 45 miles on the odom. That night I plugged it in and the odom only went to 62 miles. I drove it down to 50miles showing, plug it in and it went to 67 miles showing. My question is why I'm I not getting a full charge. BTW the first night I had it at 12amp and the plug was very hot, now have been using the default 8amp 24 hours at a time, I only get 9 to 11 charge miles at a time. BTW I'm using the 110V setup that came with the car, thank you.

IBKING
newbe looking for answers

just to be clear, is the car reporting that it is fully charged, but is only showing an estimated range of 67 miles?

 

[ibking]

good point Mr Extension Cord. This morning I hit est. range of 85 and yes it did say fully charged, ok I'll buy that. The other days I did not read "fully charged" I will check the manual, maybe it is turning off sooner then expected. Thanks for the reply's.

IBKING

 

[IcanhasEV]

During the week, I plug in when the remaining range isn't going to be enough for the next day's driving. I have a short commute to work, so on average I plug in every 3rd day. My weekend driving needs are less predictable, so I will usually plug in whenever I get home so I have a full charge available.

I know the owner's manual says to plug in all the time, but I'm not concerned about degradation due to charging habits. After a year of charging like this (and about 8,500 miles), I still get 80+ miles of estimated range on a full charge. I live in a very mild climate, so thermal management isn't a concern either.

 

[Jedi2155]

If you live in moderate temperatures (as in < 90 F or > 45 F), its probably better for your battery to not plug it in regularly. Batteries don't like being fully charged as it wears them out faster that way. Alternately, they don't like heat either so if you are in a really hot climate, plugging it in is better to keep the battery water cooled. In cold environments, batteries don't work as well and heating it up allows more capacity/power to be available but it is actually beneficial for their life to be cold it just might not be able to start up your car.

I personally only plug my car in at work and in public charging. I have a L2 charger at home, but I've only plugged it in 3 times in the past 1000 miles. Its better for the battery and my wallet =D.

 

[sparkyps]

I'm at over 10,000 miles and I plug it in every time, everywhere that has a charger including my garage. GM has the expertise to do the right trade-offs between battery life and long term wear. I suspect that they already don't "fully" charge the battery just like a battery that shows 0 miles of range isn't fully depleted. They do so in a way that make them confident the battery will still be going strong in 10 years or 100,000 miles so my concern over my 3 year lease is in maximizing my available range at all times

Now if I was the only driver and had a pretty fixed or flexible schedule and wanted to save $20-40/mo by only using free chargers I could probably manage that by never plugging in at home. But I'm not the only driver so I don't bother and just plug in as soon as I get home.

 

[StevesWeb]

I plug mine in if it has been driven more than a few miles. Our car has only ever been charged at home since we bought it 18 months ago.

I received my new Spark EV 6 days ago with 45 miles on the odom. That night I plugged it in and the odom only went to 62 miles. I drove it down to 50miles showing, plug it in and it went to 67 miles showing.

This is all normal and expected behavior. Before you bought the car it no doubt had been driven hard during test drives. The range estimate your Spark EV displays is not based only on the state of charge in the battery. It is also greatly influenced by recent driving style, so the harder it is driven the less range it expects to achieve. The range estimate is sometimes called a Guess-O-Meter, because it does not know if you will be driving fast or slow, uphill or downhill.

Think of the range estimate as a guess at remaining power multiplied by recent driving efficiency as a percentage, where hypermiling approaches 100% while hard driving moves the value toward 0%. It seems to me the car uses the last 3 days on a sliding scale, which is consistent with your experience.

No worries, no CO2

 

[NORTON]

....No worries, no CO2

If you live off grid and generate all your electricity form clean sources, True!
If you are using grid power, or even if your solar is grid tied,,,,,,,,,,, well........

 

[SparkevBlogspot]

....No worries, no CO2

I wish SparkEV folks would downplay the CO2 aspect and emphasize the performance aspect: quicker than any car under 20K. Then there's minimal maintenance and convenience and low cost and so on and so forth.

http://sparkev.blogspot.com/2015/05/vs-gas-car.html

Some of us, maybe even most car owners, don't really care about CO2. We do care about gas fumes and "rotten egg" CO smell, which all new cars have minimal with emission control. Whenever I discuss SparkEV, first thing they assume is that it's putt-putt golf cart, and they think I'm eco-nut, which is frustrating.

Back to always charge at home, it depend on where home is located. In my case, I live 2000 ft above, and it doesn't make sense to charge at home. Otherwise, battery gets overcharged on down hill. LiIon life is longest at about 50% SoC on moderate temperature, so one would do well to keep it around this point on average. But it's not for everyone. It all depends on your particular situation. Still, most people would be better off at less than 100% charge at home.

I wish SparkEV could have charging handle identification feature where home charging handle would go to X% of full where X is programmable.

http://sparkev.blogspot.com/2015/05/sparkev-suggestions.html

 

[nikwax]

I don't think it's a bad thing to be concerned about emissions. Maybe consider that a bonus to the performance aspects.


BTW, neither CO2 nor CO have any odor. You may be thinking of oxides of sulphur, which any ICE or coal burning will produce. Nasty stuff, forms sulphuric acids.

Some of us have rooftop solar and or purchase green energy. It's all good.

 

[SparkevBlogspot]

I don't think it's a bad thing to be concerned about emissions. Maybe consider that a bonus to the performance aspects.

Agree. However, most people still falsely believe SparkEV is some eco-nut golf cart, and my point is that we should try to put that to bed: not a golf cart with eco-nut being a bonus.

BTW, neither CO2 nor CO have any odor. You may be thinking of oxides of sulphur, which any ICE or coal burning will produce. Nasty stuff, forms sulphuric acids.

You're right, of course! Thanks for correction.

Some of us have rooftop solar and or purchase green energy. It's all good.

I wish poor people who cannot afford solar to be able to own SparkEV as well. Only if fed subsidy can carry over from year to year, poor people would have as much benefit as rich (or middle class) people...

 

[StevesWeb]

....No worries, no CO2

If you live off grid and generate all your electricity form clean sources, True!
If you are using grid power, or even if your solar is grid tied,,,,,,,,,,, well........

Our solar power is grid tied, and we are net producers. My car charges between midnight and 6AM when we are not producing power, so it is not literally charged by our panels. One might consider SoCalEd as a battery where we store our clean energy during the day to later retrieve it at night.

It is also a fact that EVs produce no CO2. I know the Koch brothers would say some electricity comes from coal, this is only marginally true in California where our grid is remarkably clean.

If we are going to add the carbon impact of preparing electricity before it gets to an EV, then maybe when considering ICE vehicles we should add the carbon impact of drilling for, transporting, and refining oil to the carbon burden of ordinary cars. I don't see that done usually.

 

[NORTON]

If we are going to add the carbon impact of preparing electricity before it gets to an EV, then maybe when considering ICE vehicles we should add the carbon impact of drilling for, transporting, and refining oil to the carbon burden of ordinary cars. I don't see that done usually.

This is true. It needs to be talked about in terms of 'Well to Wheel' or 'Mine to Wheel' (for coal).

The other day a friend came up to me with a printed article detailing how a Leaf really "Only gets 25 MPG" if all the mining, electricity production, line loss, battery charging inefficiencies, etc. are factored in. Another friend says his VW diesel produces less CO° per mile than my EV.
I pointed out that a gallon of gas does not magically appear at the the pump and all those same production and transporting costs need to be factored in for gas burning cars. (Like that oil tanker from Saudi).

All of these anti-EV articles make bold statements and they don't factor in what is in the recipe of your local electricity. It's a very regional subject.
Some areas are very clean. Others not. Mine is 72.8% American-made coal.

You can see your local electricity recipe here: http://oaspub.epa.gov/powpro/ept_pack.charts
I will have a grid-tied home solar system someday. This will end such discussions. Homemade electricity !!! What could be finer? Except a Nation-wide Net Metering law !!!

But, back to the thread topic:

I never plug in at home. I have owned my Spark EV for almost 2 months and I have not spent a penny on powering it. I also have not touched my old gas burning hybrid during that time. (I should probably show it some attention...)
Am I a cheap B**#$d ? Yes. Am I driving for free? Yes.
I have a 52 mile round trip to work. I only plug in at a free L2 across the street at work. On weekends I use the network of 13 free DCFC sites around town, if/when needed. Living the dream in KC ! : http://www.kcpl.com/about-kcpl/environmental-focus/clean-charge-network
I understand the need for the battery TMS. When extremely cold weather gets here I may adjust my ways. I have an L2 at home.
Another factor is: Li-ion batteries have a longer shelf life if not stored at a full charge, so I use that as an excuse for not keeping it plugged in constantly.