With all the news about electric cars circling the internet these days, there seems to be one battery-powered vehicle people have forgotten about: The Chevrolet Spark EV. It was GM's first all-electric car since the EV-1 of the 1990s, packing a front-wheel drive power unit making 140 horsepower and—get this—400 lb.-ft. of torque. That is an absurd amount of torque for a car as small as a Spark! Now, they can easily be bought for less than $10,000. I think it's the sleeper hot hatch you should be buying.

The Spark EV made its first appearance at the 2012 Los Angeles Motor Show as a 2014 model year car, produced until 2016. In the place of the normal Spark's 85-horsepower 1.2-liter inline-four sits a 336-cell lithium-ion battery pack that has an EPA-estimated range of 82 miles. It remains the quickest factory Spark ever built, with a 0-60 MPH time of 7.9 seconds. It was also the heaviest, with a manufacturer-claimed curb weight of 2967 pounds. This video is a good demonstrator of what all of that torque looks like in the Spark:

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Even if all that torque dies off once you get moving, it still looks incredibly fun behind the wheel. Chevrolet was quick to point out during the car's debut that it had more torque than a Ferrari 458 Italia, which is true—even the high-strung 458 Speciale has only 398 lb.-ft. We can only imagine how hilarious it would be to blast from stoplight to stoplight with one of these things in the city.

GM

Because electric cars seems to go out of style as fast as smartphones (one look at used BMW i3 and i8 prices will tell you that), used Spark EVs can be had for pennies on the dollar. This white 2015 model on eBay has 29,800 miles on the odometer, and it's listed for just $8200. Here's a pretty blue example with just 21,158 miles on it for $9644. Want something with a little less mileage? This red one on Cars.com is virtually new, sporting 219 miles on the clock. It's yours for just $12,997. Best of all, all Spark EVs came with an eight year, 100,000-mile warranty. So as long as the Spark you pick isn't modified, it should still be covered under the factory's warranty.

Sure, you could go for a used Fiesta ST or Volkswagen GTI, but really, if you want to blast through city streets with more grunt than pretty much anything else on the road, without anyone giving you a second glance, the Spark EV is the car to do it in.

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