The 2024 Chevy Blazer EV is totally different.
That’s as a result of in comparison with the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID.4, and different crossover EVs, the Blazer EV is primarily a U.S.-bound product, conceived particularly with the U.S. in thoughts.
After spending just a few hours with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV final week, I left with the sensation that whereas it doesn’t blaze a brand new path for EVs, it’s tuned into the trials of American driving, and it has most of the parts that ought to enchantment to People.
Most notably, these parts are a superb real-world vary, an interface that’s prepared to assist drivers discover charging stations, and a format that feels acquainted…but totally different.
It’s that latter level that had me initially questioning the Blazer EV. GM might have gone with an instrument-panel format that felt like an evolution of the one within the Bolt EV (or Volt). Or it might have embraced the tech and gone minimalist.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
As a substitute it embraced a format that feels over-the-top Camaro-influenced and cluttered with clouded metallic bezels at first look. For this mass-market mannequin—an anti-Tesla in some methods—the extra you go searching, the extra you understand that issues are very totally different.
As an illustration, turning the automobile off, putting it in accent mode, toggling one-pedal driving, or turning the lights on are all completed with screen-based digital buttons beneath the quantity knob and within the leftmost portion of the infotainment display screen—in a spot that, for me, is obscured by the shift stalk and steering-wheel rim.
But some issues are refreshing in regards to the Blazer EV, like its regular door handles. You don’t need to study a brand new interface for strolling as much as the automobile; simply get in.
The Blazer EV’s packaging is spectacular, but it surely doesn’t benefit from all of the nooks and crannies {that a} skateboard platform permits. The rear seats fold ahead practically flat—and basically flat if you put some weight on them. The liftgate opening is big, the liftover top is low, and there’s somewhat additional stow area below the cargo ground. However pop the hood and there’s no frunk. It’s additionally unclear, inside, what’s below the forward-most portion of the middle console.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
Chevy Blazer EV appears to be like past the legacy badge
Give it somewhat of time and it will get higher. The instrument panel may be toggled between a number of layouts, together with one through which the navigation map makes up the vast majority of the area. The accessible head-up show can exchange display screen time if you would like. And there are many bodily switches, buttons, and redundancies.
The RS fashions GM had me check actually put my garish sensibilities to the check, too. My check vehicles, each with a Radiant Pink tintcoat exterior and a black/Adrenaline Pink inside, felt extra like the mixture you would possibly order for a weekend plaything.
A whole lot of Camaro could also be baked into the inside of the Blazer EV, but it surely simply appears to be like like a greater Blazer on the skin. It one-ups its ICE namesake with extra voluptuous surfacing, a stronger stance, and a extra interesting silhouette. RS fashions even have a lightbar that prompts on strategy and exit, possibly channeling KITT from “Knight Rider.”
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
Chevy Blazer EV lineup: An excessive amount of for its personal good?
Bear in mind when GM stated that it was all-in on EVs, revealed its giant Ultium pouch cells as the important thing to that shift, detailed its modern wi-fi battery administration and new EV motor suite?
Time with the Blazer EV served as a reminder that GM is heading in the right direction, and these merchandise can and shall be excellent.
However first, it appears, there’s an unlimited array of variations to navigate. GM plans to supply the Blazer EV in front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive layouts, with 85-kwh and 102-kwh battery packs, expressed in LT, RS, and SS trims.
To whittle this lineup down somewhat bit: The SS, which received’t be out till round subsequent summer season, will provide a peak 557 hp and 648 lb-ft of torque when enabling its Huge Open Watts efficiency mode—sufficient to offer 0-60 mph acceleration in below 4 seconds. With out the $45k base mannequin within the lineup, the Blazer EV it now begins with the front-wheel-drive Blazer EV 2LT, which hasn’t but been priced.
The all-wheel-drive Blazer EV 2LT has been priced, at $56,715, and so has the RS AWD, at $60,215, whereas the RS rear-wheel drive, at $61,790, prices greater than the AWD. That’s as a result of the RS AWD and SS are the 2 variations within the lineup to get the bigger 102-kwh battery pack, whereas others within the lineup get the 85-kwh pack.
I briefly drove the RS RWD, carrying an EPA vary score of 324 miles, then I spent a morning with the RS AWD, providing 279 miles of EPA vary. In different phrases, I drove a single-motor with the bigger pack and a dual-motor with the smaller pack, however with related wheels, tires, and gear. Whereas we’re nonetheless ready for trim-by-trim specs, each fashions ought to land at a curb weight beneath 5,500 kilos.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
I noticed shut to three.0 miles per kwh in a spread of driving situations in each variations of the Blazer EV, all in heat 70-degree San Diego climate. Whereas driving, I paid no heed to effectivity and as a substitute aimed to grasp its dynamics.
Simply placing the Blazer EV in Drive brings with it a slight quantity of brake regen—positively extra deceleration than your typical gasoline automobile however nothing near the ramped-up regen some EVs have baked-in. With a button on the touchscreen you may interact regular or max ranges of one-pedal driving, which rolls in far more regenerative habits from the motors. What’s lacking is one thing within the center; there’s neither a “B” mode with somewhat extra braking nor a mode that enables for true coasting.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
Chevy Blazer EV is not any light-weight
My first impression was that the Blazer feels heavy in corners and doesn’t have the sunshine really feel that another two-row crossovers this measurement have. The rear-wheel-drive RS was my dynamic favourite of the 2, because the suspension took a set rather more simply in corners. In comparison with the Mach-E, Ioniq 5, and others, the Blazer EV simply feels somewhat extra grown-up and substantial, for higher or worse.
The Blazer EV is huge, and it’s a step bigger than most different two-row SUVs. At about 192 inches lengthy, and constructed on an extended, nearly 122-inch wheelbase, it’s sized just like the Jeep Grand Cherokee or Honda Passport—or, for that matter, the gasoline model of the Blazer.
I spent much more time within the all-wheel-drive RS, which employs a permanent-magnet motor on the entrance wheels plus a lower-power induction motor on the rear wheels. This model was much less easy to drive quickly and easily didn’t really feel inspiring on the mountain-and-canyon route GM had put aside. The Blazer EV’s quick and unsupportive entrance seats and reasonably excessive seating level amplified the impression—although the RS’s 21-inch Bridgestone Alenza tires and their stiff sidewalls supplied a agency base.
Again in San Diego visitors, I once more appreciated what GM has perfected within the Blazer EV. It’s inherited from the Bolt EV (and Volt, and Spark EV) some spectacular core EV attributes, most notably the expert-level smoothness of its powertrain, and the linearity and precision to its accelerator inputs. Additional, the mixing between regenerative (motor) braking and the friction pads creates a safe, predictable pedal really feel.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
From Volt to Bolt to Blazer, what GM has mastered
When you maintain the regen paddle for greater than a second or so at a stoplight, an auto-hold mild blinks on the sprint and the Blazer EV holds agency till you press the accelerator to go.
By the infotainment display screen you may choose a spread of car modes, together with a snow/ice mode and a Sport mode, which ramps up the responsiveness of steering and accelerator inputs solely barely. Essentially the most noteworthy factor that occurs in Sport mode is audible; a low-pitched induction-whistle sound will get supplemented by way of the cabin audio system. Fortuitously, you may resolve which of every merchandise you need and provide you with a My Mode.
The infotainment system itself is an enormous deal. That is very near what GM is rolling out to its different gasoline fashions, however with EV-specific options added, and a key level of differentiation as it’s the first that does away with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.
GM has constructed the interface on the Android Automotive working system, however with “Google Constructed-in,” it partitions off Google Maps, Google Assistant, and the Google Play Retailer as native apps working within the automobile.
In response to Ryan Buffa, GM’s supervisor for digital enterprise technique, there’s all the time lag when telephones are projecting apps, and automobile settings for particulars just like the state of cost or remaining vary aren’t built-in, so Google Constructed-In presents an all-in-one interface that doesn’t require the back-and-forth.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
Chevy Blazer EV: Cost preconditioning, route planning built-in
EV route planning, primarily based on some check locations, appeared able to go within the Blazer EV, with advised cost factors alongside the best way. Buffa verified that it faucets into details about the facility degree of every station alongside the best way in its calculation.
Individually, GM has added two methods to provoke preconditioning (warming up the battery for its peak fast-charging charge): mechanically by way of route planning, or by way of a standalone button on the interface.
The Blazer EV’s route planning additionally will embrace an allowance to prioritize roads mapped for Tremendous Cruise—so you may mix that comfort with the wants for charging alongside the best way.
It can quick cost at as much as 190 kw for the bigger pack and as much as 150 kw for the smaller one. That interprets to as much as about 78 miles again in 10 minutes with the bigger pack, in keeping with the automaker. The cost port is positioned on the entrance fender, and sure, it’s a CCS as a substitute of a NACS port for now.
2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV
Blazer EV: Warmth pump, bidirectional charging, it’s all there
GM stated that each one of its Ultium EVs would have a range-boosting warmth pump system that can assist in chilly climate. It additionally promised bidirectional charging {hardware}, and it’s all right here. The corporate says {that a} GM Power system arriving subsequent yr will enable as much as 9.6 kw to circulation from the Blazer EV to house backup. It could possibly cost at as much as 11.5 kw.
The Chevy Blazer EV is nice. But it surely’s a problem to make any type of argument for the RS fashions I drove, as they’re priced instantly over the $58,590 Cadillac Lyriq, which is carefully associated and superior in on a regular basis trip and dealing with, is quieter inside, and has higher seats.
The upcoming $34,995 Chevy Equinox EV and Honda Prologue promise some inside competitors, too, and so they’ll each be made on the similar plant in Mexico because the Blazer EV.
It’s partly a scarcity of direct rivals—or that different rivals are ICE or luxurious—that implies GM might have landed in the suitable market spot with the Blazer EV. Now scaling up gross sales and availability of it or any of the associated genuinely aggressive EVs can’t come quickly sufficient.
Chevrolet paid for journey and lodging for Inexperienced Automobile Studies to deliver you this firsthand report.