2014 Chevy Spark EV Test Drive
Can an electric vehicle be powerful,
cheap, and fun to drive? The answer to all three questions is yes in the
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV.
I took a test drive of Chevy’s all-electric mini car after my tour of the newly expanded General Motors Global Battery Systems Laboratory, and let me say one thing – I was surprised by this EV.
During a quick spin around Warren,
Michigan, I set out to see exactly what the Spark EV had under the
hood. (Full disclosure – while GM sponsored my trip to Michigan, it had
no involvement in the editorial process of this post)
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| Photo Credit: Silvio Marcacci / CleanTechnica |
Chevy Spark EV By The Numbers
The Spark EV is an all-electric version of Chevy’s gas-powered Spark mini car,
and it debuted for sale in California and Oregon in summer 2013. It’s
Chevy’s first pure EV and with an EPA-estimated 82 mile driving range,
119 mile per gallon fuel economy equivalent, and 0.326 coefficient of
drag, the company claims it’s the most efficient retail EV in America.
A 21 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack powers
the Spark, and can be charged via three available levels of recharging
capability including the first application of the SAE combo charger for
DC fast charging, able to recharge 80% of the battery in 20 minutes.
While on the road, regenerative braking transfers power back from the wheels to the battery pack when traveling between 10 and 90 miles per hour (mph).
GM engineers completed more than one
million miles of testing and four million hours of validation on the
Spark EV’s battery pack technology, but it’s covered by an
eight-year/100,000-mile drive battery warranty – just in case.
Quiet But Powerful
But enough about what GM says about the Spark EV – how does it drive?
My first impression was silence. The
Spark made absolutely no noise when I got in and turned it on. In fact, I
initially wondered if I had missed something when pressing the power
button – apparently a common impression.
While the color touchscreen and dashboard heads-up display came to
life, the car felt and sounded exactly the same as when I got in.
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| Photo Credit: Silvio Marcacci / CleanTechnica |
I cautiously shifted into drive and
pressed down on the pedal, and the Spark jumped forward. There’s a lot
of power under the hood – about 440 pound-feet of instant torque, according to GM.
After cruising out of the GM grounds, it
was time to see how the Spark did in real-world driving conditions.
Roads around Detroit are largely flat, straight, and wide, so I knew I’d
be able to open it up a bit even on my short test drive.
I accelerated slowly out of my first
stoplight and merged onto a busy road. So far, so good. Spark’s quiet
interior extends to a quiet running sound, with that cool EV “whirring” noise. At my second stop light, I decided to see what happened when I accelerated fast out of the gate.
Spark would have blown my hair back if I
didn’t use too much styling product. GM claims it goes 0-60 in less
than eight seconds with a top speed of 90 mph, and while I didn’t try
for that goal, I was literally pushed back in my seat. This car is fast. I was on short local roads of no more than a mile each, so I topped out around 50 mph, but Spark got there in seconds.
Ok, I Officially Have EV Envy
In addition to being fast, Spark is
smooth. The roads in metro Detroit tend to be a little rough, with
plenty of bumps and potholes, but I barely felt them.
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| Photo Credit: Silvio Marcacci / CleanTechnica |
Meanwhile, the cool dashboard display
kept track of how efficiently I was driving, with a spinning green ball
that tilts toward use when accelerating, and recharges when braking.
It’s a nice reminder of how you’re using power, and as I drove 5.5 miles
but only used 2 miles of range, apparently it works.
The Spark EV retails for a starting price of $19,995 minus the maximum federal income tax incentive, and GM estimates it saves $9,000 in fuel costs over five years compared to the average new vehicle.
I’ll admit that I’ve got EV envy.
I would love to drive one, but live in a pretty urban area and don’t
have a driveway or garage to host a charger, so owning an EV isn’t an
option. But in a perfect world, I’d be in the EV market, and definitely
would consider the Spark EV.
Source: cleantechnica
