my first cold snowy colorado driving experience

[colordosparkev]

well, this morning was my first experience with my new (to me) 2014 spark ev in winter driving conditions. 11F this morning, 6" snow last night at 9000 ft here in the colorado foothills. I was plugged into 120v with a full charge over night in the driveway, and took the kids to school this morning. Icy roads and snow pack on my steep side streets mean no front wheel drive cars can usually make it up these hills. But had to see what the spark could do. I did get Michelin snow tires this month, so i was ready to give it a go. Well, i can say i was impressed! The snow tires combined with the perfect traction control meant i could slowly climb our steep hills in ice and snow much better than any other front wheel drive car i've had in the past. i think the no tire spin from the traction control was the difference. I've always carried tire chains in the past for these type of emergencies, but i don't think i need to anymore. Only issue that surprised me was how aggressive the ABS was when i tried to stop at a icy spot- it felt like i was accelerating when the abs limited the breaks...will have to get used to that.

 

[Taxman]

What did the snow do to your range?

I'm somewhat worried about a 40 mile one way commute when there's fresh snow, or even hardpack, on the roads.

 

[NORTON]

>11F this morning,
>>6" snow last night
>>>at 9000 ft here in the colorado foothills.

>This is a big effect on range if you like a comfortable cabin.
>>This, along with fresh modern winter tires has to effect range.
>>> This has absolutely no effect on an EV! In fact, it would be less aero-drag and no loss of power due to altitude, unlike a gasser!

How can you separate heater usage, snow consistency/depth, non-LRR tires?

 

[d15b7]

i drove my spark quite a bit last winter. snow kills the range. there is a TON of drag on the tires pushing it through snow (i'd say that my range dropped about 35% when it was snowing). normally I only use the seat heaters during winter, but in the snow I had to have the front defroster on, plus the rear defrost, plus seat heat, plus wipers, plus headlights. that combined with the increased drag of the snow (and I was running stock tires) made for ranges of 60-65 miles max.

I think if it snows a lot, you will need to plug in at work and top off the battery to make it home

EDIT -- typically we get wet heavy snow here in MD. it is slushy and often 1-3" deep on the roadway. my typical range for the similar commute in the summertime is 90-95 miles on the GOM

 

[colordosparkev]

60 miles range in snow sounds right. have to run that front defrost pretty high to keep snow from building up. i was expecting this - so my 25 mile commute to work to plug in is within my acceptable range anxiety. A minus -20F morning - not sure about that...I was most impressed with the traction on the snowy hills.

 

[SciroccoTDI]

60 miles range in snow sounds right. have to run that front defrost pretty high to keep snow from building up. i was expecting this - so my 25 mile commute to work to plug in is within my acceptable range anxiety. A minus -20F morning - not sure about that...I was most impressed with the traction on the snowy hills.

This gives me a lot of hope - note I have followed your posts closely and just pulled the "CarMax import for the Colorado used EV deal" myself. I found my 2013 Volt's traction control to be terrible - so if the Sparks is that much better - I will be a happy camper.

My 2014 2LT I picked up today -

 

[Taxman]

If full range in snow is 60 miles, then 40 miles and plug into public level 2, or in an emergency, 8A level 1 on a long cord, should work fine for me.
In the city where I work in the winter, there is one level 2 cord, but it's only 1 block from my office and I've never seen anybody use it. If it's in use, I can run a 100' 12ga cord to the office.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

If full range in snow is 60 miles, then 40 miles and plug into public level 2, or in an emergency, 8A level 1 on a long cord, should work fine for me.
In the city where I work in the winter, there is one level 2 cord, but it's only 1 block from my office and I've never seen anybody use it. If it's in use, I can run a 100' 12ga cord to the office.

My experience using a 12 ga 25 ft extension cord for the L1 EVSE was not good. The EVSE did not like to work with the extension cord [maybe it was the hot weather]. I removed the extension cord and plugged the EVSE directly into the wall socket and it worked fine. The EVSE instructions say not to use an extension cord. Perhaps the voltage drop across the extension cord causes the voltage at the EVSE to be too low to work properly.

 

[Taxman]

My experience using a 12 ga 25 ft extension cord for the L1 EVSE was not good.

Makes me wonder if there is something wrong with your cord. You sure it's 12ga and not 16ga, and the connectors are good?

I went to calculators.net, input 100' distance with 12ga single conductors at 8 amps and got:

Voltage drop: 2.54
Voltage drop percentage: 2.12%
Voltage at the end: 117.46

 

[colordosparkev]

made it in to work today - about 2°F this morning. takes a little while for the heater to warm up during preheat- and the electric power steering was a bit stiff - but hot coffee felt much better! -10 to -15 tonight - but if it snows a bunch, will work from home...

 

[colordosparkev]

well, only got down to -9F this morning...no real difference than 20F in range or comfort (for me or my battery heater). Its always a good thing when you can be impressed by good engineering.

 

[CCIE]

well, only got down to -9F this morning...no real difference than 20F in range or comfort (for me or my battery heater). Its always a good thing when you can be impressed by good engineering.

What range are you showing on the GOM at that temperature?

 

[colordosparkev]

62 miles fully charged on a L1.(vs 90-100 miles fully charged in the summer).

 

[NORTON]

How about 58 miles on the ol' GOM! The worst I've ever seen....

But I drive fast, 80-85 sometimes, with my buds in the left lane with it comfy in the car. 25 mile commute, mostly on Interstates. It was 15° the other morning.

Also, I 'Precondition' on L2 at home and the green light is still solid when I walk out to leave for work. Which means the battery is topping up after a timed-out Precondition.
At work I use a public L2 in the AM and move it at noon. Then Precondition just on battery power after the car has sat for ~4-5 hrs not plugged in.
TMS probably runs while Preconditioning, but it never displays usage. (I have seen TMS usage in the summer months on my commute home, for cooling the pack after sitting half the day.)

This must effect the GOM.

I should probably leave it plugged in all day this time of year, just for the TMS function.
It's me and a Volt there daily and we both do the same AM charging. Never saw any other EV's at these stations...

Winter....

 

[colordosparkev]

well, its been a while- perhaps an update.

half way through my second winter in my 2014 chevy spark ev. Still love my spark, especially the torque up 7% highway mountain grades! Could use a better windshield defroster, as the windshield won't completely clear in wet snowy commutes (better defrost vent distribution perhaps?). In my second year of my Michelin x ice snow tires - ran them all summer too- another year still left i think...I have ~42,000 miles (~12,000 miles/year up and down commute from Golden to 9000ft in the foothills). Still 60 miles of winter range and 85 miles of summer range. I've learned to use the denver light rail well, and to use uber some for airport runs. The 8 year 100,000 mile battery factory warranty is assuring, but hoping range lasts that long before my 12 year old gets the car.

My key fob remote start and the app remote start functionality stopped working last year - everything else works (app lock, etc). maybe will ask dealership to look at it sometime soon...