NEW Owner spark ev 2015 lt2

[LiLspark]

Hey guys somewhat of a lurker here. I bought a spark back in late November of 2018. Went from a 2nd Gen volt to a spark ev. Let me say this thing is amazing. More room than the volt!!! I was worried maybe this car isnt going to be all that but once i test drove it I was comfortable in taking the pure ev plunge. So being a volt owner I automatically knew about range and yada yada so on level1 charging im more than confident in getting the car charged.

Only caveats is the stock front tires suckkkkk the ecopias everyone complains about is true. rear tires look new. I admit i miss the led dome lights from the volt but i plan on doing some upgrades. all in all the led headlights i got are awesome!. love this car and hope more people post tips and tricks.

Oh I did want to point out this thing does in fact get extremely good range i got the car when it had 9k miles on it and now its got 14,000 .

 

[wiseguyz23]

Welcome from one new EV owner to another. I'm curious, what's your range?

I'm in the foothills of California, east of Sacramento a ways. I average almost 5 miles/kwh so far. But, I've only had the car a little over a week now and I'm just finding the limits and whats not. It's also getting warmer and I hear that the range definitely is better during the warmer months.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Welcome from one new EV owner to another. I'm curious, what's your range?

I'm in the foothills of California, east of Sacramento a ways. I average almost 5 miles/kwh so far. But, I've only had the car a little over a week now and I'm just finding the limits and whats not. It's also getting warmer and I hear that the range definitely is better during the warmer months.

Try driving in L for some fun - especially if most of your driving is around town. Yes, you can expect your mi/kWh to drop as winter approaches and increase in warmer weather. I found I experienced a 25 mile drop in range ( from 95 to 65 miles) during the cold winter months. The GOM range went back up as summer approached. I live not far from your location so I would expect you will see about the same changes.

During warmer months, I had a freeway efficiency of about 5.3 mi / kWh at 60 mph as I drove my 2015 Spark EV to Oakland and back. My 2016 Spark is giving me about the same performance.

Over that last 9 months, the HV batteries in both my 2014 Spark EV and my 2016 Spark EV are experiencing a 1.2 kWh/ yr rate of degradation in HV battery capacity. One theory I have is the degradation may be due to charging the battery to 100% each time I charge at home which is most of the time. I have and use both L1 and L2 EVSE equipment in my garage. My 2016 Spark EV has DCFC and I only charge to 90-95% at DCFC locations. To check my theory, I am now charging both cars to 80-85% SoC when charging at home. I use the departure charging function in the car to make this work. It will take a few months to see if this works or not. Regardless, right now I am again starting to see 100% full charge GOM ranges between 85 to 95 miles as the weather warms up.

 

[wiseguyz23]

Welcome from one new EV owner to another. I'm curious, what's your range?

I'm in the foothills of California, east of Sacramento a ways. I average almost 5 miles/kwh so far. But, I've only had the car a little over a week now and I'm just finding the limits and whats not. It's also getting warmer and I hear that the range definitely is better during the warmer months.

Try driving in L for some fun - especially if most of your driving is around town. Yes, you can expect your mi/kWh to drop as winter approaches and increase in warmer weather. I found I experienced a 25 mile drop in range ( from 95 to 65 miles) during the cold winter months. The GOM range went back up as summer approached. I live not far from your location so I would expect you will see about the same changes.

During warmer months, I had a freeway efficiency of about 5.3 mi / kWh at 60 mph as I drove my 2015 Spark EV to Oakland and back. My 2016 Spark is giving me about the same performance.

Over that last 9 months, the HV batteries in both my 2014 Spark EV and my 2016 Spark EV are experiencing a 1.2 kWh/ yr rate of degradation in HV battery capacity. One theory I have is the degradation may be due to charging the battery to 100% each time I charge at home which is most of the time. I have and use both L1 and L2 EVSE equipment in my garage. My 2016 Spark EV has DCFC and I only charge to 90-95% at DCFC locations. To check my theory, I am now charging both cars to 80-85% SoC when charging at home. I use the departure charging function in the car to make this work. It will take a few months to see if this works or not. Regardless, right now I am again starting to see 100% full charge GOM ranges between 85 to 95 miles as the weather warms up.

Yeah, I'm using the departure time as well. I also set it to start charging at 11pm during "off peak" hours. Question, which Level 2 charger did you get and was it worth it? So far, I've found I haven't really had a need for it? But, I'm starting to wonder if I should because of the charging efficiency.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Welcome from one new EV owner to another. I'm curious, what's your range?

I'm in the foothills of California, east of Sacramento a ways. I average almost 5 miles/kwh so far. But, I've only had the car a little over a week now and I'm just finding the limits and whats not. It's also getting warmer and I hear that the range definitely is better during the warmer months.

Try driving in L for some fun - especially if most of your driving is around town. Yes, you can expect your mi/kWh to drop as winter approaches and increase in warmer weather. I found I experienced a 25 mile drop in range ( from 95 to 65 miles) during the cold winter months. The GOM range went back up as summer approached. I live not far from your location so I would expect you will see about the same changes.

During warmer months, I had a freeway efficiency of about 5.3 mi / kWh at 60 mph as I drove my 2015 Spark EV to Oakland and back. My 2016 Spark is giving me about the same performance.

Over that last 9 months, the HV batteries in both my 2014 Spark EV and my 2016 Spark EV are experiencing a 1.2 kWh/ yr rate of degradation in HV battery capacity. One theory I have is the degradation may be due to charging the battery to 100% each time I charge at home which is most of the time. I have and use both L1 and L2 EVSE equipment in my garage. My 2016 Spark EV has DCFC and I only charge to 90-95% at DCFC locations. To check my theory, I am now charging both cars to 80-85% SoC when charging at home. I use the departure charging function in the car to make this work. It will take a few months to see if this works or not. Regardless, right now I am again starting to see 100% full charge GOM ranges between 85 to 95 miles as the weather warms up.

Yeah, I'm using the departure time as well. I also set it to start charging at 11pm during "off peak" hours. Question, which Level 2 charger did you get and was it worth it? So far, I've found I haven't really had a need for it? But, I'm starting to wonder if I should because of the charging efficiency.

My first Spark EV was a new 2015 2LT with DCFC which I leased as a result of a special deal Chevrolet was running at the time. There was also an offer for a free Bosch PowerMax L2 EVSE available which I took advantage of. My home had an unused single phase, 240 VAC 30 amp circuit in the laundry room so I purchased an electric dryer power cord, ran it through the wall into the garage and connected it to my Bosch EVSE. It has work flawlessly since I first turns it on.

I had to turn in my leased 2015 Spark EV last May but, before I did, I had already purchased a very low mileage 2014 Spark EV 2LT w/o DCFC and a very low mileage 2016 Spark EV 2LT with DCFC. I charge the 2014 using the L1 EVSE and the 2016 using the L2 EVSE. Having the L2 EVSE is nice but an L1 EVSE in conjunction with the 12 amp setting in the car has worked well too. The L2 EVSE is really nice if I need to charge more quickly than the L1 EVSE is capable of providing. A friend of mine also had a leased 2015 SparkEV 2LT and he charged daily and only used the L1 EVSE that came with the car.

Data I have taken using TorquePro shows my wall-to-wheels L1 EVSE is about 75% efficient and my L2 EVSE is about 85% efficient. Which EVSE is best is really dependent on how many kWhs you need and when. An L1 EVSE with the car set to a 12 amp charging rate will deliver to the battery about 1 kWh / hour of charging. The L2 EVSE will deliver to the battery about 3 kWh / hour of charging.

 

[wiseguyz23]

Try driving in L for some fun - especially if most of your driving is around town. Yes, you can expect your mi/kWh to drop as winter approaches and increase in warmer weather. I found I experienced a 25 mile drop in range ( from 95 to 65 miles) during the cold winter months. The GOM range went back up as summer approached. I live not far from your location so I would expect you will see about the same changes.

During warmer months, I had a freeway efficiency of about 5.3 mi / kWh at 60 mph as I drove my 2015 Spark EV to Oakland and back. My 2016 Spark is giving me about the same performance.

Over that last 9 months, the HV batteries in both my 2014 Spark EV and my 2016 Spark EV are experiencing a 1.2 kWh/ yr rate of degradation in HV battery capacity. One theory I have is the degradation may be due to charging the battery to 100% each time I charge at home which is most of the time. I have and use both L1 and L2 EVSE equipment in my garage. My 2016 Spark EV has DCFC and I only charge to 90-95% at DCFC locations. To check my theory, I am now charging both cars to 80-85% SoC when charging at home. I use the departure charging function in the car to make this work. It will take a few months to see if this works or not. Regardless, right now I am again starting to see 100% full charge GOM ranges between 85 to 95 miles as the weather warms up.

Yeah, I'm using the departure time as well. I also set it to start charging at 11pm during "off peak" hours. Question, which Level 2 charger did you get and was it worth it? So far, I've found I haven't really had a need for it? But, I'm starting to wonder if I should because of the charging efficiency.

My first Spark EV was a new 2015 2LT with DCFC which I leased as a result of a special deal Chevrolet was running at the time. There was also an offer for a free Bosch PowerMax L2 EVSE available which I took advantage of. My home had an unused single phase, 240 VAC 30 amp circuit in the laundry room so I purchased an electric dryer power cord, ran it through the wall into the garage and connected it to my Bosch EVSE. It has work flawlessly since I first turns it on.

I had to turn in my leased 2015 Spark EV last May but, before I did, I had already purchased a very low mileage 2014 Spark EV 2LT w/o DCFC and a very low mileage 2016 Spark EV 2LT with DCFC. I charge the 2014 using the L1 EVSE and the 2016 using the L2 EVSE. Having the L2 EVSE is nice but an L1 EVSE in conjunction with the 12 amp setting in the car has worked well too. The L2 EVSE is really nice if I need to charge more quickly than the L1 EVSE is capable of providing. A friend of mine also had a leased 2015 SparkEV 2LT and he charged daily and only used the L1 EVSE that came with the car.

Data I have taken using TorquePro shows my wall-to-wheels L1 EVSE is about 75% efficient and my L2 EVSE is about 85% efficient. Which EVSE is best is really dependent on how many kWhs you need and when. An L1 EVSE with the car set to a 12 amp charging rate will deliver to the battery about 1 kWh / hour of charging. The L2 EVSE will deliver to the battery about 3 kWh / hour of charging.

Good info. I only drive in L because I'm already used to driving a stick. That's how I drove a stick anyway. Drop the gear, help the breaks. But, I don't have to do anything else fancy, just let my foot off the accelerator. I love it!

I was thinking of getting an L2 EVSE, but I just don't think I can justify the money spent. I don't need the miles that badly as I only charge 2 times a week at max.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Yeah, I'm using the departure time as well. I also set it to start charging at 11pm during "off peak" hours. Question, which Level 2 charger did you get and was it worth it? So far, I've found I haven't really had a need for it? But, I'm starting to wonder if I should because of the charging efficiency.

My first Spark EV was a new 2015 2LT with DCFC which I leased as a result of a special deal Chevrolet was running at the time. There was also an offer for a free Bosch PowerMax L2 EVSE available which I took advantage of. My home had an unused single phase, 240 VAC 30 amp circuit in the laundry room so I purchased an electric dryer power cord, ran it through the wall into the garage and connected it to my Bosch EVSE. It has work flawlessly since I first turns it on.

I had to turn in my leased 2015 Spark EV last May but, before I did, I had already purchased a very low mileage 2014 Spark EV 2LT w/o DCFC and a very low mileage 2016 Spark EV 2LT with DCFC. I charge the 2014 using the L1 EVSE and the 2016 using the L2 EVSE. Having the L2 EVSE is nice but an L1 EVSE in conjunction with the 12 amp setting in the car has worked well too. The L2 EVSE is really nice if I need to charge more quickly than the L1 EVSE is capable of providing. A friend of mine also had a leased 2015 SparkEV 2LT and he charged daily and only used the L1 EVSE that came with the car.

Data I have taken using TorquePro shows my wall-to-wheels L1 EVSE is about 75% efficient and my L2 EVSE is about 85% efficient. Which EVSE is best is really dependent on how many kWhs you need and when. An L1 EVSE with the car set to a 12 amp charging rate will deliver to the battery about 1 kWh / hour of charging. The L2 EVSE will deliver to the battery about 3 kWh / hour of charging.

Good info. I only drive in L because I'm already used to driving a stick. That's how I drove a stick anyway. Drop the gear, help the breaks. But, I don't have to do anything else fancy, just let my foot off the accelerator. I love it!

I was thinking of getting an L2 EVSE, but I just don't think I can justify the money spent. I don't need the miles that badly as I only charge 2 times a week at max.

One more suggestion - make sure you car is up to date with all recalls and service bulletins. A Chevy dealer can check this for you. When I first started driving my first Spark EV - a 2015 2LT - and started driving in L, I noticed there was a significant delay between when I took my foot off of the accelerator and when the brake lights came on. That did not make drivers behind me happy! I found there was a technical service bulletin that addressed this issue. My dealer updated the car's software per the bulletin and the brake lights then came on a soon as I remove my foot from the accelerator. Much, much better. You can check this by driving on a dark road and watching in your mirrors when the brake lights come on after you remove your foot from the accelerator. That is how I caught it.

 

[Kermit]

I don't tend to drive in L but I do shift into L when I need to slow down for a stop light or anytime I need to slow down quickly.