Chevrolet introduces an EV volks-wagen - 2024 Chevy Equinox EV

08 September 2022

The argument that Volkswagen has completely abandoned its roots has been raging for a while now and with the advent of electric cars, it only got louder and stronger. It borders on misleading, for a company to be called “people’s car” and then charge $50,000 for a medium-sized family car. Well, Chevrolet is here to fix this.

Say hello to the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV - an affordable electric family car, according to the official press release. Chevrolet is on the roll, it was late to the EV race, but now it is quickly catching up to the competition.

Chevrolet tiptoed slowly around the subject of EVs with its Bolt since 2016. But it didn’t waste that time either and now it's on a roll - first we had the Chevrolet Silverado that was shortly followed by the Blazer EV, with both the cars coming to a street near you next year.

After the pickup truck and the medium size SUV, Chevrolet is now launching a car with much broader appeal. An affordable electric SUV that can democratize EVs.

Mary Barra is keeping her promise from last year that the Equinox EV will start at $30,000 - that's how much it will cost when it officially lands next year. If it really does, it will be cheaper than the cheapest Hyundai Ioniq 5, it will be $13,000 cheaper than the cheapest Ford Mustang Mach-E. It will be a whopping $35,000 cheaper than the Tesla Model Y. And it will qualify for the EV tax credit which will technically make it a $22,500 electric car. Hallelujah!

So, what is it? Equinox EV is a compact SUV based on the now ubiquitous Ultium platform that will power a whole bunch of electric cars from the GM group. The $30,000 entry trim will be the LT1 - a front-wheel-drive version with a 250-mile EPA range. There will be a 300-mile option as well as the eAWD twin motor version, but pricing for those wasn't confirmed.

2LT and 3LT trims bump up the range to 300 miles in FWD versions with the eAWD lowering it down to 280 miles EPA. Two more versions, the 2RS and 3RS have exactly the same range because they have the same power output and the same battery pack.

There are only two powertrains available, at least for now. The FWD version in each trim will come with a single 210hp (328Nm) motor and the eAWD version will have two motors pushing 290hp and 469 Nm of torque. Acceleration figures haven’t been released yet, but expect a punchy drive, especially from the AWD models.

Different trims will offer different AC charging capabilities, the LT and 2RS models will charge at 11.5 kW and it will add 34 miles of range in one hour of charging. The 3RS AWD version will charge at 19.2 kW when using AC which will add 51 miles per hour of charging. All models regardless of trim will support 150kW DC charging speed, this will add 70 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

On the inside there is enough room for five people, the 11-inch instrument cluster is accompanied by 11-inch center screen in 1LT and 2LT trims which gets bumped up to 17.7-inch screen in all other versions.

The Equinox EV, although it shares the name with its gas sibling, isn’t actually related to it. It is designed around the Ultium architecture and its wheelbase is around 9 inches longer than the ICE model’s, according to the press release.

If Chevrolet really can pull this off and when the Equinox EV reaches its first customers next year with a price tag of $30,000, it will be a momentous day. But next year is a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then. So let's stay cautiously optimistic, shall we.

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