GM Debuts Electric Car: Chevy Spark

General Motors debuted it’s Spark Electric minicar, its first electric vehicle (EV) since the popular EV1, 13 years ago.

It will be an electric version of the gasoline-powered subcompact Spark, which is only sold in China, India and Korea – and goes on sale in the US next year.

The electric Spark will first be sold in select US and other markets in 2013, when GM hopes it will give the Nissan Leaf some competition.

GM hasn’t announced the range or price of the Spark EV, but demonstration fleets in China, India and Korea get about 80 miles. A123 (Nasdaq: AONE) is supplying the lithium battery.

Nissan’s Leaf has about a 73 mile range. GM will also have to compete with a bunch of new EVs and plug-ins entering the 2012 market including Honda’s electric Fit, Prius plug-in, Mitsubishi 1, electric Scion and Ford Focus EV.

In its first year, about 27,500 Leafs have been sold through September, not exactly flying off the dealer lots. But they’re not available everywhere and that’s expected to change with rising gas prices and expanded charging infrastructure. By comparison, only about 4000 GM Chevy Volts have sold so far, also in its first year.

But automakers have another reason for making EVs and plug-ins: they need to meet the average fleet requirements of 35 mpg by 2016 and 54.2 mpg by 2025, set by the Obama Administration. 

Let’s hope this new car has a better fate than the EV1, documented in the movie, Who Killed the Electric Car?, which  chronicles GM’s unpopular insistence that all the cars be returned and crushed.