Leased a Spark EV with the SAE Combo charging port on 6 Jan

[kenn]

Now it can no longer be said the SAE Combo charge is a concept without a car!

Hope there will be low powered(10KW) home charge and high power(~50KW) commercial charge[both 480 VDC] to follow shortly to aide in saying goodbye to range anxiety in EV's. http://www.mychevysparkev.com/forum/posting.php?mode=post&f=9#

 

[Electricbowtie]

Did you find any quick chargers near you to try it out?

 

[cwerdna]

Now it can no longer be said the SAE Combo charge is a concept without a car!

Hope there will be low powered(10KW) home charge and high power(~50KW) commercial charge[both 480 VDC] to follow shortly to aide in saying goodbye to range anxiety in EV's.

10 kW L2 AC EVSEs at home or in public will do the Spark EV little good. The car has a 3.3 kW on-board charger for L1 and L2 AC charging. That' s the bottleneck.

As for home J1772 CCS, ha! Good luck with that. The 2 other standards don't offer home fast DC charging and the cheapest DC FC I know if is the $15.5K Nissan CHAdeMO unit at http://nissanqc.com/.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Now it can no longer be said the SAE Combo charge is a concept without a car!

Hope there will be low powered(10KW) home charge and high power(~50KW) commercial charge[both 480 VDC] to follow shortly to aide in saying goodbye to range anxiety in EV's.

Congratulations. You're un-officially the first privately owned Frankenplug car in the USA !!!

I hope they build all those chargers for you, but you knew it was a gamble when "the other guys" already have hundreds and hundreds of DC charging stations for their cars, right?


CHAdeMO and Tesla Superchargers December 2013:

 

[kenn]

Now it can no longer be said the SAE Combo charge is a concept without a car!

Hope there will be low powered(10KW) home charge and high power(~50KW) commercial charge[both 480 VDC] to follow shortly to aide in saying goodbye to range anxiety in EV's.

10 kW L2 AC EVSEs at home or in public will do the Spark EV little good. The car has a 3.3 kW on-board charger for L1 and L2 AC charging. That' s the bottleneck.

As for home J1772 CCS, ha! Good luck with that. The 2 other standards don't offer home fast DC charging and the cheapest DC FC I know if is the $15.5K Nissan CHAdeMO unit at http://nissanqc.com/.

As stated, we are talking dc Level III. Its no deal to make a dc charger. It will take time for realism to penetrate this mysterious cloud that has been built on this subject.

 

[psykokid]

Not sure where you are located, but other than the SAE quick charger in San Diego at fashion valley there is one other that i have found:

Quail Creek shopping center in Irvine - here's the link on plugshare : http://www.plugshare.com/?location=20757 $5 dollars per session on QC.

 

[cwerdna]

Now it can no longer be said the SAE Combo charge is a concept without a car!

Hope there will be low powered(10KW) home charge and high power(~50KW) commercial charge[both 480 VDC] to follow shortly to aide in saying goodbye to range anxiety in EV's.

10 kW L2 AC EVSEs at home or in public will do the Spark EV little good. The car has a 3.3 kW on-board charger for L1 and L2 AC charging. That' s the bottleneck.

As for home J1772 CCS, ha! Good luck with that. The 2 other standards don't offer home fast DC charging and the cheapest DC FC I know if is the $15.5K Nissan CHAdeMO unit at http://nissanqc.com/.

As I side, note the Rav4 EV and Model S have 10 kW on-board chargers. You can pair them w/240 volt 40 amp EVSEs (e.g. http://shop.teslamotors.com/collections/model-s-charging-adapters/products/model-s-mobile-connector-bundle or http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=58375&minisite=10251) and the proper circuit, to take advantage.

Tony's even adapted the Model S UMC to charge the Rav4 EV and other EVs at higher rates: http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10705#p10705.

If you order a Model S (by checking High Power Home Charging), you get a 2nd on-board charger and a HPWC, which supplies up to 80 amps @ 240 volts (see installation guide at bottom of http://www.teslamotors.com/charging#/installation), which is almost 20 kW.

OP, you prepared to install a 100 amp circuit at your house? Can your load center support that? Mine couldn't even support a 30 amp EVSE (40 amp circuit needed). :/

 

[xylhim]

Just out of curiosity, what was your monthly lease for this option Kenn?

 

[TonyWilliams]

As stated, we are talking dc Level III. Its no deal to make a dc charger. It will take time for realism to penetrate this mysterious cloud that has been built on this subject.

Now that's a mysterious comment! Presumably, since it's so easy to do, there must some other reason that the folks at GM (and BMW) have not blanketed the world with their DC level 3 "Frankenplug" chargers? Enlighten us with your great wisdom, please.

Building DC chargers and installing them at willing host locations is something that obviously can be done, as Tesla and Nissan are proving. Sorry, but here's no mystery how they actually get it done.

GM, eh, maybe mystery is the right word. I like "smoke and mirrors". Or, electric power by press release.

 

[iletric]

Yeah, how much is this "improved" Sparky costing you extra?

 

[gra]

Yeah, how much is this "improved" Sparky costing you extra?

Per the Chevy website, it's listed at $750.

 

[MysteriousJ]

Can you post what software version your SAE Combo Spark has?

 

[corwin]

Yesterday I tried to charge my Spark (with quick charge port) on a efacec (how does one pronounce that!) CCS combo charger and the process totally failed. Never got past the startup phase. So is the problem in the car or the charger? Has ANYONE been successful quick charging a Spark?
-Corwin

 

[psykokid]

Where was the charger with the combo plug that you tried located? As far as I know the only functional quick charge station is in san diego at fashion valley. The two in Irvine are not currently working on the SAE side. The mfg of the quick charge station that I used was labeled as Evpump.

 

[kenn]

Hi Corwin,
Have not tried to use the HVDC charging yet due to the fact there is no place nearer than San Diego(live in Prunedale) that has a SAE Combo charging station. I have read 'efacec' but have forgotten what it means. Hope to talk with Spark Advisory Team (1-855-477-2754) today concerning a few other matters along with this issue you bring up. Really can not understand why Chevrolet does not seem to support the SAE Combo charging when it is on their car.
kenn

"Yesterday I tried to charge my Spark (with quick charge port) on a efacec (how does one pronounce that!) CCS combo charger and the process totally failed. Never got past the startup phase. So is the problem in the car or the charger? Has ANYONE been successful quick charging a Spark?
-Corwin"

 

[corwin]

Where was the charger with the combo plug that you tried located? As far as I know the only functional quick charge station is in san diego at fashion valley. The two in Irvine are not currently working on the SAE side. The mfg of the quick charge station that I used was labeled as Evpump.

The charger is at the VW research facility in Belmont, CA. I'm not sure what goes on there, but they had one of the first CHAdeMO chargers (Blink) in the Bay Area. That Blink charger was removed and the efacec (pronounced 'eff-a-sek' as I found out when I called them) is in its place. I actually have two Sparks, both with combo sockets and neither car will charge on it. The efacec charger has both CCS combo and CHAdeMO cables on it and I have used it with my Leaf, so I know the charger is working at least on that standard.

If I had to place bets, I'd guess it is a car problem. I know this is all bleeding edge stuff, so I expect some hurdles. I did wait to pick up a Spark until the QC port was available since I can't imagine having an electric car without. I've owned my Leaf for three years and use quick charging a lot.
-Corwin

 

[kenn]

Hello All,
Here is a source(think it is sponsored by GM) for information on the Spark EV.

"If you ever have a need to contact us, you may call me at 866-790-5700 x40834 or email me at [email protected]. Our hours of operation are Monday through Friday 8am -11pm and Saturday 11am – 8 pm Eastern Time and our general line is 855-477-2754.

Best Regards,

Ashley
Chevrolet Electric Vehicle Advisor
An Associate of Morley Companies, Inc.
Direct Line: 866-790-5700 ext.40834
Spark Line: 855-477-2754
Email: [email protected]
SR#: 71-1244381594"

 

[kenn]

Hi Corwin,
Am at loss when you refer to the CCS combo. Think it is the same as the SAE Combo [Society of Automotive Engineers combined with a J1772 plug]. Correct? kenn




"The charger is at the VW research facility in Belmont, CA. I'm not sure what goes on there, but they had one of the first CHAdeMO chargers (Blink) in the Bay Area. That Blink charger was removed and the efacec (pronounced 'eff-a-sek' as I found out when I called them) is in its place. I actually have two Sparks, both with combo sockets and neither car will charge on it. The efacec charger has both CCS combo and CHAdeMO cables on it and I have used it with my Leaf, so I know the charger is working at least on that standard.

If I had to place bets, I'd guess it is a car problem. I know this is all bleeding edge stuff, so I expect some hurdles. I did wait to pick up a Spark until the QC port was available since I can't imagine having an electric car without. I've owned my Leaf for three years and use quick charging a lot.
-Corwin"

 

[psykokid]

When you spoke with the mfg of the charger with the SAE combo plug did they say for sure that it was working correctly? Its hard to say if it is a vehicle issue or a charger issue until the mfg of the device can say for sure that it works correctly, IE actually plugging a car in to the unit and charging it versus the onboard diagnostics of the charge station saying everything is kosher. Just because the CHAedMO side works correctly doesn't mean that the SAE combo side is functioning correctly as evidence by my experience with the dual plug charger in Irvine. I'm interested to see what the rep from gm who's contact info you posted has to say on the matter. Sometimes working with new technology can be a bit dodgy until everyone gets their ducks in a row.

 

[corwin]

I actually spoke with a technician at efacec and tried a charge session with him on the phone. The tech was quite knowledgeable and is convinced his charger will work with the Spark EV. But something is clearly bad. With his help I got an error code to display. So he's going to check that out and get back to me. Unfortunately, I'm on business travel until 1/30 so any input from me will have to wait until my return.
-Corwin