Canada Getting 2016 Chevy Spark EV
Originally published on EV Obsession.
Those Canadians who have a soft spot for the Chevy Spark are in luck — the 2016 Spark electric vehicle (EV) will be sold in Canada (3 different provinces, to be exact), according to a recent press release.
This news marks the first time that the Chevrolet Spark EV will be offered to retail buyers in the US’s northern neighbor (fleet buyers had purchase options already).
As far as which 3 Canadian provinces, unsurprisingly, it’ll be the 3 most populous ones — Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. These are also the 3 provinces that offer notable incentives for EV buyers (or any at all).
Given that the EV ‘only’ has a single-charge range of 81 miles (~130 kilometers), the model is probably best suited towards urbanized areas — and, in particular, dense cities. So the decision to only offer it the above mentioned provinces makes a fair amount of sense. (Though, the assumption that EVs are best for large urban areas may be an incorrect one.)
In the recent press release, Chevrolet notes that the model is built on the R&D programs that supported the development of the Volt — serving as a bit of a reminder of the company’s other offerings for those looking for something with a bit more range — the sort of thing that someone living somewhere like Manitoba might prefer.
For Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver, though, why not go with the Spark EV? It’ll be interesting to see what the sales are like after a few months of availability.
It’s not exactly clear yet when the Spark EV will go on offer in Canada, or what the pricing will be like — so speculation on possible sales figures isn’t likely to be all that accurate until we get more information.
I wonder if the recent decision has anything to do with British Columbia’s recent reinstatement of its EV incentives? Or Quebec’s recent moves towards encouraging EV adoption?
Image Credit: Chevrolet
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So it will be offered someday for some price, maybe somewhere.
I am soooo excited. /sarc
I wonder if it will be as available as the Focus Electric which has been “on sale” for some time in theory, but in practice doesn’t seem to exist.
Well . . . the Focus electric is pretty “meh”. It looks nice but it has a pretty short range. But then again, they have finally worked out the bugs and they’ve cut the price a bit so it is decent EV now.
Congrats, Canada. It is not a looker but it is a very inexpensive EV with great specs.
FYI; GM has come out and said Australia will not get the new 2016 Volt (they did get the first version). Shame in a way since it is probably a very sensible car with a claimed 50 mile all electric range plus an ICE so no one need feel nervous about taking a trip when the all electric range may or may not be sufficient. In a pure electric you need to be a fair bit more cautious which is why Volts tends to utilise their limited batteries to the full while pure EVs cannot afford to. Sensible or not I’ll go with my heart and stick to pure EVs. Australia has a small population of 23 million mostly clinging to the eastern seaboard and the road network is dominated by Route 1 that links most main population centres. So for Tesla installing a SuperCharger network will be expensive but never the less they have committed to do just that at least for the eastern seaboard by the end of 2016. Towns tend to be further apart than can be reached with a Leaf. If you are a one car EV family your car travel would be limited to within your home town but the new Volt would work (if we could get it) for road trips. Charge points for EVs are few and far between and non-existant between population centres so it’s Tesla and the yet to be implemented SuperChargers (currently there are 2, both in Sydney) or a hybrid for road trips.
I don’t think anyone is going to work hard to sell plug-ins in Australia until Australia throws out that idiot Tony Abbott and creates at least some EV incentives.
Tony Abbott:
Repealed the carbon tax.
Supporter of the fossil fuel industry.
Does not believe in climate change.
Knows that man made or man assisted global warming is a hoax.
Doing his best to stamp out the proliferation of roof top solar.
Backs Hyundai’s efforts to bring fuel cell powered SUVs to Australa.
What’s not to like ? /s
It’s depressing to think that there are foreign politicians who are as stupid as Republican pols in America, like James “only god controls the climate” Inhofe.
So, a year later and it’s 2016. I’ve just done a search of all the Chevy dealers in the Lower Mainland, and it appears the Spark EV is not available at any of them.