Spark EV Charger Compatibly

[TomK]

Blink DC Fast Chargers around Minneapolis Metro area seem to not work with my 2015 Spark.

I took my spark to MSP airport on Nov 1st with temps in the 30s in the early morning. It was a 45 mile trip so i figured i might have to charge on the way since that would have been close to max range for me. I planned ahead and figured i would top off about 13 miles from the Airport and gave myself an extra 2 hours just in case. There were several Blink DC Fast chargers on-route and i already used their slow chargers before without issues.

First one i tried was at Eden Prairie Ford, i wasted a lot of time trying to get it to work and kept getting stuck on "Initialization" and eventually it would just shut off. I put it on the slow charger next to it and walked to the gas station for a quick break from the cold. I charged for about 15 minutes and then drove off to the next charging location about 8 miles down the road. Same story, could not get the DC Fast charger to connect. I spend 30 minutes on the slow charger getting me back up to 37% SOC. I was down to 25% when finally getting into the parking ramp and luckily had a open spot with free charging so no worries about getting back home.

I did notice that i had a check engine light come on after the last failed charging attempt U18A4. I figured maybe something is wrong with the DC Charging module of my car but i just checked at a Chargepoint Charger this morning and had no issues connecting and charging.

 

[Randy960]

This is consistent with my attempts to use blink chargers in my area. I had filed reports with them but never heard anything back. I looked on Plugshare, and the charger you're talking about looks like the same Tellus Power model I tried. The day I tried two of them in a row I actually got an error code as well, but I didn't note what the code was.
Out of curiosity, do you know what model Chargepoint charger you successfully used?

 

[zoom314]

How many I wonder have been told that there must be something wrong with the cars charging system, only to find they charge just fine elsewhere?

EA has written off Spark 2LT EV owners in my mind since there are less than 7700 of us who could fast charge, those who don't have the Fast Charge ability it's just a cable since otherwise all Spark EV's are able to do DCFC, EA's older chargers worked with the Spark in Barstow CA @ Walmart, look for the green around the edge of the upper part of the DC charger, there is one left from the older batch which is cause it supports ChaDemo...

 

[Randy960]

How many I wonder have been told that there must be something wrong with the cars charging system, only to find they charge just fine elsewhere?

EA has written off Spark 2LT EV owners in my mind since there are less than 7700 of us who could fast charge, those who don't have the Fast Charge ability it's just a cable since otherwise all Spark EV's are able to do DCFC, EA's older chargers worked with the Spark in Barstow CA @ Walmart, look for the green around the edge of the upper part of the DC charger, there is one left from the older batch which is cause it supports ChaDemo...

Yeah, GM is trying its hardest to forget the Spark EV, and we'll never be a big enough market to get any charger manufacturers to work with us ever again.

If I had to guess, what we need is an update to the CCS controller with modern handshake protocols. But that might have to be an enthusiast project, because I don't see anyone else doing it.

I've heard that e-Golfs are having issues at a lot of newer charging stations as well, and the descriptions I've come across sound similar to the Spark's issues. They also had problems at some EA stations 4+ years ago in a way that sounds very familiar. I still can't find anyone with a more detailed explanation though.

 

[Randy960]

This is one thread I found discussing charging issues on the e-Golf

https://www.myvwegolf.com/threads/evgo-chargers-connection-error.16120/

 

[SmokeyPete]

I canceled my Equinox EV order due to Chevrolet's attitude. On a refreshing note, the brand new FLO unit is working great. Unfortunately Autel seems to be gaining major traction here in Massachusetts and has not worked the few times I tried.

 

[Randy960]

I canceled my Equinox EV order due to Chevrolet's attitude. On a refreshing note, the brand new FLO unit is working great. Unfortunately Autel seems to be gaining major traction here in Massachusetts and has not worked the few times I tried.

Between this, and the complete inability to get replacement battery module, I'm getting pretty mad at GM. Which is a shame because they've been doing good work developing EVs, but if they end up as disposable goods, they might as well be tesla.

 

[Randy960]

I haven't had much opportunity to test any other chargers lately, but I had to stop and see my friend Atom (Power Electronics charger at a Ford dealer), so I took the opportunity to try to initiate a charge while the car is on. The car sets the parking brake, says it's Initializing, and then the charger says it failed. Then with the car off, it charges fine.
So I'm going to have to try the same thing on different chargers. I have to do a little more research on this too, because it seems like most EVs will initiate a charge while still on.

 

[zoom314]

Ok I finally had the chance to get some pics from the Walmart EA DCFC in Barstow CA using my phone, I used only the 4032 x 3024 pics, I always discard the smaller ones. Hopefully these will be what a poster here wanted to see.

 

[Randy960]

Has anyone had a chance to try an Alpitronic charger? Ionna is going to be opening a bunch of locations with those chargers, so it would be nice if they were compatible.

 

[h71]

Has anyone had a chance to try an Alpitronic charger? Ionna is going to be opening a bunch of locations with those chargers, so it would be nice if they were compatible.

Sheetz is getting set to open a Ionna branded charge setup with alpitronics chargers within about 10 miles of me within a month or so. If they work, which I doubt, it would be a huge benefit as my halfway charge point on a certain trip recently stopped wanting to talk to the spark, ending it's run as an occassional freeway car.

 

[Randy960]

Sheetz is getting set to open a Ionna branded charge setup with alpitronics chargers within about 10 miles of me within a month or so. If they work, which I doubt, it would be a huge benefit as my halfway charge point on a certain trip recently stopped wanting to talk to the spark, ending it's run as an occassional freeway car.

With Ionna just starting up, maybe they can be convinced to care about compatibility with the Spark. So definitely try it and report any issues. I don't know how soon I'll get an Ionna location near me.

 

[h71]

With Ionna just starting up, maybe they can be convinced to care about compatibility with the Spark. So definitely try it and report any issues. I don't know how soon I'll get an Ionna location near me.

I will, I'm not getting my hopes up but there will be one within 10 miles of home and another about 30 miles away from that both on the same route, if they work I would have access to two additional charge points and could easily cover a certain freeway drive again. As of now, only EA chargers will work with the spark in my area, the only other charger that ever worked with it was beta technologies branded charger at a small airport, which stopped communicating with the spark in July after 3 years of occassionally using it.