[Fivedoor]

Hey guys,

Looking for a Spark EV on line, and most (All?) advertisers fail to include a picture of the charging port, so I can't see if they have CCS. I know that with a Bolt you can tell from an under hood picture if it has CCS or not, I was wondering if there is any similar indication on the Spark EV under hood pictures I can look for.

For my use case (already have a Bolt for long range, would like short range cheap commuter EV) I don't really need CCS, but I can use the lack of CCS as a price negotiation if the car I am looking at doesn't have it.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[RSC]

I don't see anything obvious, but I don't know what I would be looking for on a Bolt either. What would I see on a Bolt?

 

[Brad]

On a Bolt, there is a junction box in the middle of the engine bay with different thick orange cables running out of it. If it is dcfc there is a orange cable coming out of the front of the junction box that runs over to the driver side of the car and runs into the charge cable door. If it is non-dcvc it will have a blanking plate instead of the cable.

 

[ARob]

Keith

I did some searching for Spark EV images, and found a few with charge cords connected, with an orange flap below J1772, just like Bolt.

 

[TFPDrive]

Judging by some pictures it looks like it has the same DC cables under the hood, but it might be obscured in some pictures. Apparently Chevy was still thinking ICE and put black plastic covers over the electronics that prevent you from seeing the cables.

 

[RSC]

I looked again more carefully, and if you are directly overhead from the 12 V battery, you can see orange cabling running over toward the charge port.

Not immediately obvious from a front view, though.

 

[cwerdna]

OP, are you outside CA? Your profile implies yes.

If so, I wouldn't want to own a Spark EV outside CA or OR. They were CA only cars at first and later expanded to a state or a few e.g. OR), IIRC. I saw that because you might have trouble getting repairs done on it, if any are needed.

They were sold only in tiny quantities.

if you want a cheap used EV and are outside a state where they were sold, consider a used Leaf instead but there are many caveats: Things You REALLY Need to Know When Shopping for a Used Leaf - My Nissan Leaf Forum.

 

[cwerdna]

On a Bolt, there is a junction box in the middle of the engine bay with different thick orange cables running out of it. If it is dcfc there is a orange cable coming out of the front of the junction box that runs over to the driver side of the car and runs into the charge cable door. If it is non-dcvc it will have a blanking plate instead of the cable.

Yep: How to find out if a used Bolt has DC fast charger?.

 

[emv]

OP, are you outside CA? Your profile implies yes.

If so, I wouldn't want to own a Spark EV outside CA or OR. They were CA only cars at first and later expanded to a state or a few e.g. OR), IIRC. I saw that because you might have trouble getting repairs done on it, if any are needed.

They were sold only in tiny quantities.

if you want a cheap used EV and are outside a state where they were sold, consider a used Leaf instead but there are many caveats: Things You REALLY Need to Know When Shopping for a Used Leaf - My Nissan Leaf Forum.

They were also sold in Maryland, so the surrounding area would be good. I believe the OP is in Arkansas. They may want to speak to a Chevy dealer that sells Bolts, much of the servicing is similar.
AFAIK most Sparks (including mine) did not have the DCFC option installed - the easiest way to tell is to look for the orange flap on the charge port. The battery management technology (liquid cooled) was better than that in the Leaf (air cooled). We still enjoy ours as a second car to our Bolt.

 

[cwerdna]

MD is a CARB emission state, so it's no surprise some made it there.

Monthly Plug-In EV Sales Scorecard: Historical Charts has US sales figures. DC FC inlet wasn't available for the 1st few months of Spark EV. IIRC, was always optional after that.

+1 on the orange flap.

Indeed about lack of battery thermal management on Leaf. However, 30 kWh (along w/40 and 62 kWh) Leafs come with an 8 year/100K capacity warranty. Lose 4 capacity bars within the warranty and receive replacement.

For 24 kWh Leafs, it was only 5 years/60K miles. '16 original S and all '11 to '15 were 24 kWh.

'16 SV, '16 SL and '16 "S 30" (came near the end of the '16 cycle), and all '17 were 30 kWh. All '18+ are 40 or 62 kWh w/62 kWh being the Plus version. I'd imagine that anything 40+ kWh is out of the OP's desired price range.

 

[Fivedoor]

Keith

I did some searching for Spark EV images, and found a few with charge cords connected, with an orange flap below J1772, just like Bolt.

View attachment 34697 View attachment 34698

Yup, and the majority of advertisements for them do not have a picture of the charging port. Used car dealers don't know anything about the cars and do not take pictures of the open charge port when they post an advertisement, but they often DO take pictures with the hood open. That is why I was wondering if you can tell from a picture of the open hood if the Spark EV has CCS.

Keith

 

[El Dobro]

Carvana puts it in their ads if the Spark has DC charging.

 

[Bretsuaz]

had a 16 Spark EV. Great car. Much more fun than the Bolt

 

[Brad]

had a 16 Spark EV. Great car. Much more fun than the Bolt

Yeah, it had like 400ftlbs torque, right?

 

[El Dobro]

Yeah, it had like 400ftlbs torque, right?

2015 and '16 had the torque reduced to 327 lb. ft., not that you would notice.