jsca72
Well-known member
I had to use my windshield wipers for the first time since I got the car in July to actually keep the glass clear of precipitation falling from the sky! Yay! BTW, the wipers worked fine.
How far did you go past 0 range?GeorgeChevy said:I actually managed to run out of electricity driving home last Friday night... This was basically a worst case scenario that I could have avoided but basically I wanted to see if I could make it home. I was about 2 min (I had about a mile of surface streets after the freeway exit) from home.
There's a few more reasons. Colder air is denser, so drag increases. And wet roads boosts rolling resistance. Oh, and at lower temps tire rolling resistance is a bit higher as well.Nashco said:Low temperatures reduce range for two reasons...increased energy use for climate control and reduced battery efficiency. Even if you don't use the heater at all, the battery will perform slightly less efficiently when cold. If it's below 35ish, the battery will use energy to power the battery heater as well.
Bryce
jay5729 said:I've had my Spark for a few weeks now and can tell you that wind is by far the factor in bad weather that makes a difference. ( aside from sub freezing temps, which we haven't gotten yet). My regular commute is 75 miles one way from Tracy to Sacramento. There is a pretty steady wind from the south that blows up hwy 99 and it consistently reduces my range south bound compared to northbound. I've started checking wind speeds through Lodi and Stockton and have found that with a 5 mph wind from the south, I get about 90 miles of range heading north at 65 mph and 80 heading south at 62 mph. With the recent storms there were winds of upwards of 10 mph from the south. Heading north I was getting ranges of just over 100 miles (about 104) at 65 to 67 mph, but heading south my range was reduced to 76 miles at 55 to 57 mph. ( I barely made it home). The math makes sense as heading north at 65 with a 10 mph tail wind, the car "feels" it's going 55 mph, but heading south with a 10 mph headwind at 60 mph it "feels" like it's going 70. Really, once you get over 35 or 45 mph, a lot of the energy is used to "push" air out of the way, so any additional wind at freeway speed will eat up range.
lucky for me, there are several free L2 charging stations in Lodi, with wifi nearby. On stormy nights, I just hang out for an hour to get that extra 10 to 12 miles and watch some netflix on my tablet.
Love this car!
MysteriousJ said:Is there any reason why you take 99 instead of 5 besides everyone blowing past you at 80mph? I frequently commute from Manteca to Sacramento and the round trip distance is just outside of my comfort zone since there is no fast way to charge up. I really wish there would be a DC Fast Charger set up in Lodi or Manteca, that would be perfect for the few days a month that I need to make this trip. Also, Lodi is pretty great for free L2 charging, there's also a movie theater a block or two away from one of the stations so you could just pop in and watch a movie while it charges up.
I can't believe you have the guts to do this every day. You have my admiration for being able to manage range that well. You can't afford to have any drop in charge capacity over time either. You must be saving a ridiculous amount of money on gas though. Have you considered that you may be putting miles on Spark EV faster than any other owner? If you average 25 miles a day on the weekends, you will put on almost 42,000 miles a year on your EV. GM should buy your Spark back from you just so they can test it. Not unprecedented either.jay5729 said:I've had my Spark for a few weeks now and can tell you that wind is by far the factor in bad weather that makes a difference. ( aside from sub freezing temps, which we haven't gotten yet). My regular commute is 75 miles one way from Tracy to Sacramento. There is a pretty steady wind from the south that blows up hwy 99 and it consistently reduces my range south bound compared to northbound. I've started checking wind speeds through Lodi and Stockton and have found that with a 5 mph wind from the south, I get about 90 miles of range heading north at 65 mph and 80 heading south at 62 mph. With the recent storms there were winds of upwards of 10 mph from the south. Heading north I was getting ranges of just over 100 miles (about 104) at 65 to 67 mph, but heading south my range was reduced to 76 miles at 55 to 57 mph. ( I barely made it home). The math makes sense as heading north at 65 with a 10 mph tail wind, the car "feels" it's going 55 mph, but heading south with a 10 mph headwind at 60 mph it "feels" like it's going 70. Really, once you get over 35 or 45 mph, a lot of the energy is used to "push" air out of the way, so any additional wind at freeway speed will eat up range.
lucky for me, there are several free L2 charging stations in Lodi, with wifi nearby. On stormy nights, I just hang out for an hour to get that extra 10 to 12 miles and watch some netflix on my tablet.
Love this car!