Chevrolet to show Spark EV at LA Auto Show: first pure electric for GM - San Francisco Luxury News

Chevrolet has announced they will unveil the plug-in pure battery-electric version of their Spark mini car at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month.

This addition to the GM line of electrified vehicles is yet another milestone in their commitment to electrification that they forecast will approach sales of a half million vehicles annually by 2017 according to a statement from GM on Oct. 14.

Details on the new 2013 Spark EV are, prior to the debut, sketchy at best except that it is based on the current Spark mini car. It can be assumed that design, features and functionality of the Spark EV will closely match that of the gasoline version for 2013.

The one area that will undoubtedly be different will be in the interior configuration of seating and cargo capacity as a substantial battery pack will have to be accommodated in this very small vehicle.

The pack is likely to be double or more the size of the current battery pack in the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt uses a range extending gasoline engine to both run the vehicle and provide charging of the battery pack while in operation allowing a smaller battery pack for the Volt.

The Spark EV, as an all electric, will need a substantially larger battery pack in order to be competitive in range mileage with other manufacturer’s BEV offerings. TheDetroitBureau.com reports they have learned that the battery will be lithium-ion but with a new chemical formulation to enable more energy to be stored and delivered from the battery pack unit as compared to competitors. This will probably allow a bit smaller battery that will still get the Spark into the 100 miles per charge range of its competition.

The 2013 Spark EV will be the first General Motors pure battery-electric vehicle (BEV) since the previous GM EV1 that was introduced to selected markets on a limited basis and then pulled back in 1999. It will be very interesting to see the consumer response to this BEV given the prior consumer experience with the EV1 that left many of the early adopter enthusiasts with bad feelings about how the program termination was handled.

With the introduction of the Spark EV as a BEV, GM will now offer on three types of electrification pf power trains in vehicles across the various GM brands. Chevy, of course, already offers the Volt, GM’s first extended range plug-in hybrid, introduced in 2010, which has had mixed results in the market place. GM also offers non plug-in eAssist light electrification vehicles such as the Chevy Malibu and Buick Lacrosse and Regal models.

With this addition, General Motors is committed to electric vehicles and will have up to 500,000 vehicles on the road with some form of electrification by 2017 with a focus on plug-in technology, the company’s top product development executive said Wednesday, Oct. 14.

“The plug-in offers a unique opportunity to change the way people commute,” Mary Barra, senior vice president of Global Product Development told media attending the GM Electrification Experience in San Francisco. “Plug-based solutions will play a significant role in our technology portfolio going forward.”

The plug-in Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, introduced in 2010, has become more than a statement for GM in the electric vehicle space according to Barra.

“What started out as a technology proof point… has turned into a real-world starting point to push EV technology further and faster than we thought possible five years ago,” she said. “The unique propulsion technology pioneered in the Volt â€" the same technology that will be featured in the new Cadillac ELR â€" will be a core piece of our electrification strategy going forward.”

Learning from the Volt is being liberally applied to the Chevrolet Spark EV according to Barra.

GM is on track to sell more than 50,000 vehicles this year with some form of electrification â€" between the Volt and eAssist light electrification technology on the Buick Lacrosse, Regal and Chevrolet Malibu. Next year, the new 2014 Chevrolet Impala also will offer an eAssist model.

“Our commitment to eAssist is unwavering,” Barra said. “In fact, our future portfolio calls for eAssist to be on hundreds of thousands of GM vehicles annually by 2017.”

The future for BEV (beyond Spark EV) has not been identified by GM officials at this time. That future will undoubtedly depend on initial acceptance and then the ongoing performance and reliability of the Spark EV to determine what other BEV vehicles GM may develop and bring to market.

The 2013 Spark EV will be available in Spring 2013. Pricing for the new Spark is not yet available.

As more details come available, we will report them to you.