Range--No problem!

[jsca72]

Yesterday was one of those days that should test an EV. My little Spark EV came through like a champ.
Morning: A meeting 25 miles south from my home plus errands while I was there, at least 60 miles total
Afternoon: Visited my mom, 20 more miles
Evening: A party in the country 25 miles from home, about 50 miles total
Change in my estimates: Evening was more like 34 miles total. I had 60 miles left of range when I got home.
In between trips, I charged on my Bosch Power Max Level 2 charger. When I hooked the Spark up at the end of the evening, I let it charge at 8 amps for a nice, slow, cool charge. It was ready to go again this morning at 8:15, fully charged.

I have had this car since July 25th. I have yet come close to running out of charge.

 

[Sparki]

Like you, I am impressed by the Spark after two months and around 1,000 miles. It delivers the promised range and more. The car is so much fun to drive that my mi/kwh are only in the low 4's - clearly have some work to do to drive more sedately. My question today is why the estimated median battery range on the display when fully charged just went from a consistent 85 to 87 miles over the past month to around 77 miles the past few days? Is this a sign of battery degradation already? If I go by the average 3.8 mi/kwh over my last driving cycle of 120 miles a full charge should compute to 81 miles. Possibly the internal brain is just averaging our spirited fun driving and deciding to pull our miles estimate steadily down. This really is a great little car and we hardly ever take our monster Land Rover out of the garage any more!

 

[jayfay]

Very likely a estimation based on historical driving patterns and not degradation of the battery given the age of the battery. I believe there can be some shifts in range due to battery changes/events but not significant this early on. It is recommended that the car stay plugged in even while full charged as the battery goes through "conditioning" cycles. The conditioning cycle is likely a cell balancing routine that can only be performed while the battery is fully charged. Following these conditioning cycles I would imagine a possibility for shift in range in either direction but not significant shifts.

 

[jayfay]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery#Prolonging_life_in_multiple_cells_through_cell_balancing

 

[drchocotaco]

When I hooked the Spark up at the end of the evening, I let it charge at 8 amps for a nice, slow, cool charge. It was ready to go again this morning at 8:15, fully charged.

Does this really make a difference? I've been charging it with the 220V since I got it installed (maybe 1 month ago), is there any evidence that a slow charge will improve battery life or performance or is it based on other similar battery technologies?

 

[Sparkler]

When I hooked the Spark up at the end of the evening, I let it charge at 8 amps for a nice, slow, cool charge. It was ready to go again this morning at 8:15, fully charged.

Does this really make a difference? I've been charging it with the 220V since I got it installed (maybe 1 month ago), is there any evidence that a slow charge will improve battery life or performance or is it based on other similar battery technologies?

Unlikely to affect much. Given that the TMS will keep the temps at optimum during any sort of charging, even DC QC, I'd say the faster charge will use less energy overall since the TMS has to run for less time.

 

[EeveeDriver]

Yesterday, I drove my Spark EV from Campbell (Hiway 17 & Camden) to Lick Observatory atop Mt Hamilton. One way mileage was 30.5 miles. I started with a full charge, and when I reached the top, the range indicator said 20 miles left. On the return trip, when reaching the bottom of Mt. Hamilton Road at Alum Rock, the mileage remaining indicator read 65 miles. I was a bit nervous about the range and the 365 turns on Mt. Hamilton Rd., but I was really impressed with the handling of the car on the mountain roads. The torque at the driving wheels is amazing, and the regenerating power coming downhill was generous. A fun drive!

- EeVeeDriver

 

[markcmann]

...the regenerating power coming downhill was generous. A fun drive!

- EeVeeDriver

During the return trip downhill did you have the car in 'D' or 'L'?

 

[gra]

...the regenerating power coming downhill was generous. A fun drive!

- EeVeeDriver

During the return trip downhill did you have the car in 'D' or 'L'?

Probably L. IIRR some of those turns are posted for 10mph, and they ain't kidding! The road on the upper part is steep and narrow.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_yqOjrOuVc

 

[EeveeDriver]

...the regenerating power coming downhill was generous. A fun drive!

- EeVeeDriver

During the return trip downhill did you have the car in 'D' or 'L'?

Left her in "L" the whole way down. When I first started driving Miss Evee, I didn't care for driving in "L", but after using it for awhile, I really like it for city driving, and for extended downhill runs. Freeway driving, I find "L" slows you down too drastically when you let off the accelerator pedal, so I leave it in "D" for non-congested traffic conditions.

- EeVee Driver

 

[Bilmat]

...the regenerating power coming downhill was generous. A fun drive!

- EeVeeDriver

During the return trip downhill did you have the car in 'D' or 'L'?

Left her in "L" the whole way down. When I first started driving Miss Evee, I didn't care for driving in "L", but after using it for awhile, I really like it for city driving, and for extended downhill runs. Freeway driving, I find "L" slows you down too drastically when you let off the accelerator pedal, so I leave it in "D" for non-congested traffic conditions.

- EeVee Driver[/

If this question has been asked and answered elsewhere in this forum I missed it. Has anyone had someone follow them to determine if the brake lights are activated when the gear selector is in L and the car is decelerating? Not knowing the answer to that question is why I don't drive in L if I'm on a crowded freeway, especially if there is an idiot behind me who is only a couple of car lengths off my rear bumper.

 

[SanDiego]

Has anyone had someone follow them to determine if the brake lights are activated when the gear selector is in L and the car is decelerating? Not knowing the answer to that question is why I don't drive in L if I'm on a crowded freeway, especially if there is an idiot behind me who is only a couple of car lengths off my rear bumper.

Some weeks ago I saw a post stating that the brake lights come on whenever you lift all the way off the go pedal while in L. Since then I've wondered what people must think of us Spark EV drivers if they see our brake lights on all the time, for long stretches of deceleration.

Last week I had a bike rack strapped on the back of the Spark, with two bikes on, and that meant I could clearly see the reflection of my brake lights in the rear view mirrors. Well, I can report that the brake lights do NOT come on if you get off the go pedal and L gently decelerates the car (low speeds, gentle slopes, etc. In those cases the brake lights only came on when I hit the brake pedal. However, if I suddenly got off the go pedal while traveling fast down a long steep hill, or at high freeway speeds, so that the deceleration force was quite strong, the brake lights DID come on.

My conclusion: there's some kind of decelerometer installed and connected to the brake light switch, and after my few hours of testing with the bikes providing reflection I think it's nicely done!

 

[rmollett03]

I just leased a new spark ev. Right now it has only 220 miles on the odometer. I have fully charged it twice now and it says that I only have 63 miles of range each time with a max of 74 miles. It has been charging on my 110v charger each time. Why am I not seeing the range that everyone else is?

 

[kevin]

I just leased a new spark ev. Right now it has only 220 miles on the odometer. I have fully charged it twice now and it says that I only have 63 miles of range each time with a max of 74 miles. It has been charging on my 110v charger each time. Why am I not seeing the range that everyone else is?

The Spark will take a few hundred miles to determine your driving style before it will register correctly for you. It bases the range estimate on past history of driving.

I expect that during those 220 miles it was used for short test drives with prospective buyers trying out high accelerations,

Mine originally gave about 70 miles of range at full charge, now after 1700 miles it usually indicates ~110miles.

kevin

 

[rmollett03]

So were you only actually getting 70 miles on those initial charges and now you get 110 miles? Or have you always gotten more than 70 miles? Right now I am getting what it says and I have been trying not to drive aggressively. I hope that makes sense

 

[rmollett03]

My commute consists of 15 freeway miles (60mph)and 5 side streets miles (35mph). This is each way.

 

[kevin]

So were you only actually getting 70 miles on those initial charges and now you get 110 miles? Or have you always gotten more than 70 miles? Right now I am getting what it says and I have been trying not to drive aggressively. I hope that makes sense

The range I can achieve has always been the same, it is just the range estimate that adapts to your driving style.

The furthest I have been on a charge was 79 miles with 15 miles estimated remaining but that was mainly fairly high-speed driving over hwy17 to Santa Cruz and back from Los Gatos.

I find a better estimate of range is to keep track of the mi/kWHr and the percentage of battery used.

I normally get about 5.6mi/kWHr which is consistent with the battery being abut 20kWHr. (5.6*20 = 112miles) .

I Reset the trip odometer every charge so this figure is always available.

kevin

 

[Oberon]

I normally get about 5.6mi/kWHr

How do you do that? I'm pretty good at getting good mileage with our Fit, or a Civic hybrid I sometimes drive, but in the Spark EV I tend to get 4.2 to 4.5 mi per km. 5.6 would be well out of reach on a sustained basis. Any tips or trip descriptions?

 

[kevin]

I normally get about 5.6mi/kWHr

How do you do that? I'm pretty good at getting good mileage with our Fit, or a Civic hybrid I sometimes drive, but in the Spark EV I tend to get 4.2 to 4.5 mi per km. 5.6 would be well out of reach on a sustained basis. Any tips or trip descriptions?

A lot depends on the route you use. My commute is surface streets only with a maximum speed of about 45mph. In the south SF bay I find it is faster with less distance to go surface streets rather than the freeway. My commute usually results in a consumption the region of 6mi/kWH.

At other times when I do use the freeway I rarely go over 60mph. The consumption then is in the 4.8-5.2mi/kWH.

I rarely have to use heating or cooling, that helps reduce consumption.

I usually use L mode when in traffic and try to anticipate lights and stoppages. I don't think use of L mode affects consumption significantly, it's up to you.

Also make sure we are comparing the same things - the values displayed on the dashboard of the Spark EV are values at the output of the battery, I also record the AC input from the Chargepoint web site, where I usually charge. My average over 1700miles is 4.7mi/kWH AC input and 5.6mi/kWH at battery output. The difference between the two is the charger and battery efficiency. That works out to 84%.

kevin

 

[Electricbowtie]

I also see 4.6 to 5kW for my trips around town. I'd love to see how many miles you guys drive. Sign up for http://www.voltstats.net/SparkEV