GM announces Chevy Spark EV

Those headlights are ginormous! They remind me of this guy:

 

But, what about the Chevy CrossVolt MPV?

 

Those headlights are probably normal size, as headlights go. It is the rest of the Spark that is tiny.

 

+1
It's in the size class with the iQ and Smart fortwo.

 

Plans for a new EV? Good. The more the merrier.

J5A. The headlights are big, and the black plastic panels on the tops of the headlights only serve to make them appear larger. It looks fine in person, though.

Trollbait. The Spark is in the A-segment with Toyota Augo and Fiat 500. iQ and Smart are in the tiny city-segment. (Btw. wasn't it you who called the iQ a box on wheels, only to be countered with its real good coefficient of drag?)

 

this is a "re-announce" same thing was mentioned here in Jan.

 

Will they sell them? Or will it be lease only.



Sorry - I couldn't resist. I was hoping my memory would be worse now that I'm older.

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If your talking about what was going to be the Chevy Orlando (similar to Mazda 5), they decieded not to sell it in the USA

 

ooops that was jan 2009!! and all the links to articles have expired except one which requires a paid subscription to view.

oh well as far the product, its nothing more than satisfying a handful of states who have implemented additional emission requirements. its nothing a token offering to "toe the line"

 

Dave, ofcourse this is to satsify the CARB ZEV regulations and not because GM wants to build them. The RAV4 EV, Focus EV, that hyundai EV are not big bets for BEV technologies by the companies. Only NIssan and Tesla seem all in for BEVs. GM, Ford, Toyota, HYundai are betting on PHEVs and traditional HV and ICEs for now. I have no idea what honda is doing after betting on FCEV.

 

I've compared the iQ to the xB in terms of styling, but have never seen its drag coefficient.

We don't use the letter class system for marketing and EPA regulations here. The smallest EPA size class listed on fueleconomy.gov is minicompact. It includes the Mini, iQ, Fiat 500, and Porsche 911. By market class, all the compacts, subcompacts, and minicompacts get lumped together under small cars. The Smart is listed under two seaters for EPA class, but I couldn't find it in the small car list.

Chevy just introduced a new subcompact, the Sonic. The Spark is smaller than it, and I expect it will fall in the minicompact class. The public here is going to lump anything is or seems smaller than a subcompact together. I drive past a Fiat dealer everyday, and the 500 doesn't look much bigger than a Smart to me.

Was the Spark always an EV?

 

Spark gets normal petrol engines here in Europe where it has been on sale for a while. It is one of the larger A-segment cars, just like the Aveo/Sonic is one of the larger B-segment cars. I think it's actually regarded as C-segment if you go purely by definition.

Aerodynamics is the black art of design. You can't judge by simply aesthetics or body style. A sedan should have better aerodynamics than a box-car, but yet we see the small Nissan Versa sedan (cw 0.31) fairing worse than iQ (0.29)!

And the next Rav4 should be just as good even though it is an SUV!

 

I wonder if it will come to Europe? the Leaf is a bit bigger than needed, and the Spark is better built/looks nicer than the i-Miev. I'd be happy with one

 

Well, that "Sucks": GM Embarrassed at Spark Launch after Derogatory Remarks for Rivals Appear on Computers,

GM Gets Pranked at Chevy Event - WSJ.com

 

No, it's a rebadged Daewoo city car. They're going to turn it into an EV. The good news is that as an EV, it doesn't matter whether the Spark sucks.

 

This also makes it quite equal to the MiEV. Both cars are based on existing bodies made for petrol engines (You can see the disadvantage in the crash test of MiEV). MiEV is an old car, but being a Daewoo isn't exactly an advantage either. A great advantage is that you don't have to invest as much in development because you are simply making a conversion.

In contrast we have the Leaf which is made from start as an electric car, which is great for efficiency and packaging, but developing this car has been expensive!

 

Doesn't it also make it equivelant to the iQ EV?

 

I'm have more mixed feelings about that. Sure the iQ has been released with IC engines before any EV version, but EV concepts were put out pretty early compared to the Spark and MiEV.

The iQ might suffer from more severe weight issues, though. A lot of iron went into that thing in order to have good crash safety.