- General Motors is bringing back the electric Chevrolet Spark.
- Called the Chevrolet Spark EUV, the four-door city crossover debuted in Brazil.
- It has a rear-mounted electric motor and an LFP battery pack.
The ill-fated Chevrolet Spark EV was General Motors’ first proper battery-powered car from this century. Despite it being little more than a compliance car and selling fewer than 8,000 units in the United States, it was a decent urban EV.
It was discontinued stateside in 2016 and its successor, the Chevrolet Bolt EV, fared much better in every respect. But now that the Bolt is no longer being offered (a new generation is on the way, though), the Spark EV is making a comeback.
That said, the story is a little more complicated than it seems at first glance. The car you see in the photos below is indeed called the Chevrolet Spark EUV, and it’s a small electric crossover, as opposed to the five-door hatchback of the 2014 model. This should help GM attract buyers who are attracted to crossover-shaped vehicles, and that’s a good thing if the end goal is to put as many zero-emissions cars on the road as possible.
But the name is just a remnant of the past because the new Spark EUV is pretending to be a Chevrolet. That’s because the battery-powered urban crossover is just a badge-engineering job. Under the shiny bowtie badges, the EV is the same Chinese-made Baojun Yep Plus, a four-door, rear-wheel drive urban crossover built by the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture.
It debuted in China last year with a 75-kilowatt (101-horsepower) rear electric motor and a 41.9-kilowatt-hour lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery that enables a CLTC-rated range of 249 miles (401 kilometers).
It’s not available with four-wheel drive or underbody protection, and one reviewer in China who drove the two-door version said that it’s “uncomfortable, cramped, but fun.” That said, the Baojun Yep Plus has a big selling point in its home market, and that’s the price. It starts at the equivalent of roughly $12,000, which is used car money in the U.S.
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For this kind of cash, customers get two 10.25-inch screens for the digital instrument cluster and infotainment system. In China, the Yep Plus comes with an advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) developed by drone maker DJI that includes automated parking and a 360-degree camera system, among other things. The car measures 157 inches (3.9 meters) long, 69 in (1.7 m) wide, and has a 100-in (2.5-m) wheelbase.
It’s a cheap, barebones EV that can carry four adults for relatively short trips. As for the Chevrolet Spark EUV, it’s doubtful it will ever make it to the United States–tariffs and all. Instead, its first market will be Brazil, where General Motors unveiled it as part of Chevrolet’s 100th anniversary in the South American country. The Spark EUV made a surprise appearance on stage, but GM didn’t say a word about specs, price or availability. The only thing we know is that it will be among the 10 new cars launched in Brazil this year, but that’s not saying much.
