Equinox EV

[CaminoRacer]

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a60926272/2024-chevrolet-equinox-ev-test/

Tested: 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV Averages Out
Class-leading range and screen size balance out lazy acceleration and small cargo space.

• 285-319 miles of range
• 213-288 HP
• 150 KW fast charging
• Around 5,000 lbs
• 2LT FWD starts at $43k

[CaminoRacer]

It sounds like a 2LT AWD with 19 inch wheels is the sweet spot for range, acceleration, & price.

I'm tempted to trade in our Bolt for one, but I'd rather not buy the first model year. I'm hoping the Equinox doesn't have software issues like the Blazer. Seems like they've ironed those out for the most part.

[GoCougs]

Oh, jeez. Yet another decent EV that nobody will buy, esp. that it's from GM.

[AutobahnSHO]

Oh, jeez. Yet another decent EV that nobody will buy, esp. that it's from GM.

Nah, people are buying up Equinoxes left and right.

"Weird" people bought Priuses- and lots of other people made fun of them. All the standard fare who don't understand cars just want something that looks "normal". IF the price is decent- this should sell great.

[veeman]

Oh, jeez. Yet another decent EV that nobody will buy, esp. that it's from GM.

I agree. It's styled fine but it's way too slow for an EV and people spending more than 35 grand on an SUV who live where it snows want AWD. Getting the AWD variant adds $3300 and makes it faster but still.  A long range AWD Tesla Model Y would be very similar priced and much faster. If they had Apple CarPlay that would be another selling point over Tesla but they similarly don't allow it. This will be a sales failure.

[r0tor]

what makes this standout over the other ubiquitous Cuvs?

[CaminoRacer]

I agree. It's styled fine but it's way too slow for an EV and people spending more than 35 grand on an SUV who live where it snows want AWD. Getting the AWD variant adds $3300 and makes it faster but still.  A long range AWD Tesla Model Y would be very similar priced and much faster. If they had Apple CarPlay that would be another selling point over Tesla but they similarly don't allow it. This will be a sales failure.

But the frame won't crack in half like a gigacasted Tesla

The Bolt did well and this is better than the Bolt

[giant_mtb]

FWD starting at $43k?  Geez.  The beauty of the Equinox is that it is a relatively inexpensive (~$30k), useful vehicle with AWD.  I've never even seen a FWD Equinox in real life.

[CaminoRacer]

FWD starting at $43k?  Geez.  The beauty of the Equinox is that it is a relatively inexpensive (~$30k), useful vehicle with AWD.  I've never even seen a FWD Equinox in real life.

Subtract $7500 thanks to the tax credit, the fun of EV pricing

[giant_mtb]

Subtract $7500 thanks to the tax credit, the fun of EV pricing

Fair enough.  So roughly $40k for an AWD Equinox EV...not bad. 

[veeman]

I think the EV tax credit will go away if Trump becomes elected again.

[veeman]

But the frame won't crack in half like a gigacasted Tesla

The Bolt did well and this is better than the Bolt

Bolt doesn't compete in price with Tesla though. 

[SJ_GTI]

Bolts big selling point and niche was its price. This Equinox is in no way a replacement for the Bolt. Its slightly larger than the Model Y, Mach-E, ID.4, and similarly priced EV CUV's and in some cases it will be a little cheaper when they are apples to apples in battery size and AWD.

I suspect this will either be a sales dud or will need significant discounting to make it sell in even OK volumes.

If it had been smaller (<185 inches long) and cheaper (under 40k with AWD and nicely equipped) I'd have considered it. When it was announced as a "Bolt Replacement that will offer AWD" that is what I had expected. They way overshot on price IMHO and it is only slightly (~2 inches) shorter than the Chevy Blazer EV.

[CaminoRacer]

The base 1LT is launching later this year for like $35k, which is $28k after tax credit. Will they actually be available to buy in any sort of volume? Who knows.

I think the Blazer is the one that won't sell well, due to the size similarity and its higher price.

[AutobahnSHO]

I've never even seen a FWD Equinox in real life.

Lots of them where it doesn't ever snow...

[Morris Minor]

GM is in a tough spot. It makes a lot of money selling trucks and SUVs in the US, but it's largely retreated from other markets and isn't doing well with compelling EVs. I think Ford will be okay because of Farley's leadership: example: he made an imaginative move in separating Ford into three divisions. I'm not sure what Mary Barra should do. In the EV market, Tesla, China, and "The Rest" are the players. Of "The Rest," I think the luxury makers have a good chance because they have good engineering, good margins, and good quantities of cash. 

[veeman]

GM is in a tough spot. It makes a lot of money selling trucks and SUVs in the US, but it's largely retreated from other markets and isn't doing well with compelling EVs. I think Ford will be okay because of Farley's leadership: example: he made an imaginative move in separating Ford into three divisions. I'm not sure what Mary Barra should do. In the EV market, Tesla, China, and "The Rest" are the players. Of "The Rest," I think the luxury makers have a good chance because they have good engineering, good margins, and good quantities of cash.

For GM to release the Blazer EV without testing it adequately to verify it doesn't become a brick after fast charging at a public charging station is a very high level of incompetence. Something has to change internally within GM for them to have a fighting chance going forward in the EV realm. Fortunately for them EV hasn't taken off and ICE will remain the dominant mode of personal transportation for the immediate and not so immediate future. 

[Morris Minor]

For GM to release the Blazer EV without testing it adequately to verify it doesn't become a brick after fast charging at a public charging station is a very high level of incompetence. Something has to change internally within GM for them to have a fighting chance going forward in the EV realm. Fortunately for them EV hasn't taken off and ICE will remain the dominant mode of personal transportation for the immediate and not so immediate future.

I should have added Hyundai/Kia: their EVs are definitely compelling.

(There's a correlation between makers of shitty EVs and those with PR departments feeding the line that there's no demand for EVs.)

[veeman]

I should have added Hyundai/Kia: their EVs are definitely compelling.

(There's a correlation between makers of shitty EVs and those with PR departments feeding the line that there's no demand for EVs.)

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act requiring assembly in the U.S. overnight crushed the short term outlook for Hyundai and Kia EVs. They're great cars but it's a really hard sell when one can get Uncle Sam provided up to $7.5 grand off of a competitor EV.  There's a leasing loophole but most people won't bother and just look elsewhere (namely Tesla). 

[CaminoRacer]

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act requiring assembly in the U.S. overnight crushed the short term outlook for Hyundai and Kia EVs. They're great cars but it's a really hard sell when one can get Uncle Sam provided up to $7.5 grand off of a competitor EV.  There's a leasing loophole but most people won't bother and just look elsewhere (namely Tesla). 

Their sales have been strong the past couple of months, though. Ever since the cheap lease deal hit the news at the end of March

[SJ_GTI]

I saw a headline that last night GM told shareholders that May 2024 was their best month ever for EV's. Maybe I was wrong and they will be able to fill in for the Bolt. It seems a tall order since I think the Bolt was the best selling non-Tesla EV on the market (only the 3 and Y were above it, the S and X were less).

[ChrisV]

Ok, so, this happened:



That's my wife in our new Equinox EV RS FWD last Saturday. Having the Bolt allowed us to take an additional $3000 off the cost of the Equinox, and then we added the $1000 Costco bonus AND since this was the third EV we've bought from the dealership, we also got a Friends and Family discount that allowed us to lease the car for $210/month for 36 months. AND the insurance is cheaper than the Bolt.









Actually sold the Bolt to Carvana yesterday, and put $10k cash in our pockets (the offers had been rising over the last few months, so we pulled the trigger).

Don't miss CarPlay at all. Unless you absolutely needed to use Apple Maps, the Google UI is simply better and has everything we used anyhow: Google Maps, Waze, Spotify, Tidal, etc. And with Google Maps integrated, much like a Tesla, the car uses the current battery SOC to determine where the closest or most effective chargers are and will navigate you to them.

Yes, it's a tad less quick than the Bolt, but it's much more comfortable for longer distances (we drove it home from the dealership, which is 3 hours from home now), and definitely has more space in it than the Bolt, perfect for carrying the dogs or going antiquing... lol! And the rated range is 319 miles, but after the drive home, and then all around here for an hour, it now shows 339 miles after charging back up.

And one thing I didn't know, and it's not advertised... Apparently the Equinox EV and Blazer EV are capable of V2L (Vehicle to Load) or the ability to be a battery backup for the house and run quite a bit of it. I have an appointment with GM Energy this morning to go over how to set it up here (now that I have Solar on the house, too).

[veeman]

Congratulations!  The all black looks really good. Mind if I ask how much did you put down to get $210/month for 36 months and I'm assuming that's with 10 thousand miles a year limit before extra charges kick in. 

[Morris Minor]

Congratulations!  .

Lots of people talk here about whole house generators - and now there's more than a few saying - "Yeah I've got a battery bank on the garage wall and V2L to back it up."

[ChrisV]

Congratulations!  The all black looks really good. Mind if I ask how much did you put down to get $210/month for 36 months and I'm assuming that's with 10 thousand miles a year limit before extra charges kick in. 

I used the extra equity from the Bolt to put down $3k, instead of the usual $2500, while keeping a large chunk of change in my pocket. The dealership had a $3k discount already, plus the $3k GM EV loyalty, plus $1k Costco and another $1k friends and family. So basically $11k off the price...

[AutobahnSHO]

Congrats!!

[veeman]

I used the extra equity from the Bolt to put down $3k, instead of the usual $2500, while keeping a large chunk of change in my pocket. The dealership had a $3k discount already, plus the $3k GM EV loyalty, plus $1k Costco and another $1k friends and family. So basically $11k off the price...

So $3000 down then. So if you had put 0 down, your price instead of $210/month would be $293/month for a 36 month lease.  That's a great deal!

[ChrisV]

only $500 more than the usual $2500 down, so not really a big deal.

[ChrisV]

Oh, and a side note, this is interesting. I had put the Equinox on my insurance at the dealer's Saturday, using my Progressive app (I have the home/auto/RV bundle). It had said the policy changes were pending, but that's kind of normal. So long as you get the application in, you're generally covered on your existing policy. Checked Tuesday when returning the Bolt's plates to the MVA to see how much it increased by before taking the Bolt off insurance, and the Equinox wasn't on there. Que? Called Progressive and the agent said "looks like it was flagged. Let's check." He came back saying it had "extra characters" in the name that I had input on Saturday. So we went to re-input everything. VIN was right. Ok, 2024 Equinox. "is that a 4 cyl or 6 cyl?" Umm, it's all electric. Equinox EV. "Not a hybrid?" No. So the extra characters were "EV" in the name when I put it in.

Turns out, they didn't even have a dropdown in the database form for the Equinox EV. After an hour with them, putting in a tech support request for the database, and checking on trim level pricing, we finally got it covered. For $12 LESS per month than the Bolt... Yay! So now I'm paying $104/month for both the MINI and the Equinox. So much for people saying you can't insure an EV...

[AutobahnSHO]

As far as leasing, I'm negatively biased because I used to buy cars for less than the 'standard' lease down payments.... LOL.