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Comment by jonpurdy | Hacker News Reader

I’m actually the opposite but thought I’d reply to your comment since they’re opposing ends of needs.

I have a Spark EV that did 130 miles new, now ~100 highway miles after 6 years.

The warranty on the battery lasts another two years and they don’t make that battery anymore anyway. Replacement car would be a $27K Chevy Bolt, which is much longer range and way more expensive than I need.

I’d love to see a standard battery back that was around 100 miles range that cars would use 1-4 of them to achieve whatever range is desired.

Not to mention a standard form factor that would be available for 2-3 decades to prevent a car like my Spark EV with just 50K km from becoming landfill in a few years.

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Your spark is "headed for the landfill" because it was a compliance car that was wildly unpopular, selling in very low numbers, and was plagued with problems. Even still, GM went to the effort to completely re-engineer the battery from using A123 cells to LG cells...and only just this year announced they were discontinuing availability for replacement batteries.

Someone will provide aftermarket battery servicing, if the market is big enough (it isn't, most likely. Protip: don't buy compliance cars for long term ownership...)

Nothing stops you from buying a used Bolt (or used EV from Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, VW, etc).

GM extended the battery warranties on Bolts that were recalled by something like 8-10 years.

And given GM probably sells more Bolts in a month than the entire production run of Sparks and has for years now, there's almost certainly going to be a large aftermarket scene for battery repair, just as there is for Priuses.)

That's really too bad. I loved my spark, and was hoping to get a used one as an around-town car for my kid. It was the smallest 4-door car on the market, could fit into any parking space, and really was a wonderful car for neighborhood and nearby-neighborhood driving. I still miss mine.

I never had any problems with it, and returned it at the end of it's lease because I had started a family, and needed a bigger car. I still get letters from lemon-law firms asking if I need help with a car I haven't had for years.

What is a “compliance car?”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_car

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