For the past few years now, the magic number when it comes to electric cars’ range has been 300 miles, but many of the models that have been able to hit that target have been either too compromised, too niche or most importantly too expensive. With the average price of a new car having reached higher than $48,000, now more than ever people need affordable EVs if we want an electric transition to really happen in the U.S., without the penalty of bad range that typically comes with a cheaper price.
At $43,295 including destination, not only is the new 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV one of the cheapest ways to get into an electric car with at least 300 miles of range (or the cheapest if you include the federal tax credit), it’s a genuinely fantastic car, full stop. With the right mix of performance, style, features and overall packaging, I think the Equinox EV is the perfect electric car for America right now. It has what it takes to be a smash hit — as long as GM nails the launch.
Full disclosure: Chevrolet flew me out to Detroit to drive the Silverado EV and Equinox EV on the roads around eastern Michigan. We stayed at the Shinola hotel, which was lovely, and I was fed some great vegetarian tacos.
The Equinox EV makes an immediately good first impression from a design standpoint. It’s not a shock to the system like a Hyundai Ioniq 5, but it’s a really attractive lil’ SUV that has some cool design details. At 190.6 inches long and 64.8 inches tall it’s 7.4 inches longer and 0.8 inch lower than the next-generation gas Equinox, and the EV’s 116.3-inch-long wheelbase is 8.8 inches greater than the ICE model’s. That size combined with strong haunches and a nicely shaped greenhouse mean the Equinox looks more like a tall wagon than an actual SUV, and it doesn’t suffer from the battery-pack bloat that plagues a lot of EVs. I love the design of the front light bar, with the actual headlights being tiny units in the black surround that wraps around the body color “grille” in the front bumper. The pop-out door handles aren’t too fussy to use, and they should be no problem in cold weather.
Going for RS trim adds black fender flares and a black grille insert, plus some sportier-looking exterior trim elements, and some models get really slick clear taillights. There are a few awesome colors on offer too, like the pearlescent lilac-y Galaxy Gray and the bright Radiant Red and Riptide Blue, the latter of which can be paired with a white roof on LT models that looks quite charming. (RS models can have a black roof for $495, but that’s not as interesting.) The base 19-inch wheels look fine, but I’m really into the 21s that you get with the 3LT or RS trim levels.
Again, while not being groundbreaking in any way, the Equinox’s cabin is a big step up from other offerings, and it feels more special than the price point suggests. The air vent surrounds, door panels, passenger dashboard and center console all are made from plastic with a painted finish that has either bright blue or red fading into black; it looks really chic, the blue especially, and some of the pieces are backlit with configurable ambient lighting. The Evotex leatherette doesn’t feel cheap or plasticky, and depending on trim you get woven seat inserts with contrasting stitching and accents. Some of the materials, like what’s on the armrests, have a diamond pattern that’s much more interesting to look at than the typical faux leather grain texture. The two climate control knobs are rubberized and have nice action, and there’s a handful of other physical switches for frequently used controls.
You don’t get a lot of storage space beneath the center armrest, but I like the placement of the USB-C ports next to the cupholders and there’s a useful storage pad underneath the center screen. The driving position and view out are both great, though the dashboard does reflect quite a bit onto the windshield in harsh sunlight. The back seat is wonderfully spacious and has no pesky center tunnel, and even with the optional $1,500 dual-pane panoramic sunroof there’s plenty of headroom thanks to a scooped-out section of the rear headliner. There’s a good amount of cargo space too, with 26.4 cubic feet of room behind the second row and 57.2 cubic feet with the rear seats folded down (pretty much matching the Ioniq 5), and a large cubby underneath the load floor.
The Equinox has an 85-kWh lithium-ion battery pack of which 100 percent is usable, a refreshing size compared to huge Ultium vehicles like the Silverado EV that has a 200-plus-kWh battery. Official EPA range is 319 miles, just a tick below a RWD Blazer EV and better than what you get from single-motor versions of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Tesla Model 3 and Volkswagen ID 4, to name a few. The estimated range seems easy to match if not exceed in the real world; in one Equinox I hop into, a 70-percent charge shows a range of nearly 250 miles. Sadly the Equinox can only fast-charge at up to 150 kW, though that’s much improved from the Bolt’s 50-kW max and is enough to give the Equinox 77 miles back after just 10 minutes of being plugged in. Chevy doesn’t quote a 10-to-80-percent fast-charge time, annoyingly, but it does say using the standard 11.5-kW Level 2 AC charger the Equinox can gain 34 miles of range per hour of charging.
Unlike a lot of other entry-level EVs that use a rear-wheel-drive configuration, the single-motor Equinox EV is front-wheel drive. Under the hood (where there are lots of electronics and no frunk cargo space) is an electric motor putting out 213 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, a modest amount that’s better than what you get in the gas Equinox (175 hp and 184 lb-ft). Chevy says the Equinox EV will hit 60 mph in 8 seconds, and it’s quick enough to keep up with Detroit’s maniacal drivers both on the highway and around town. The Equinox has two levels of regenerative braking, the higher of which provides strong and linear one-pedal driving.
For $3,300 you can get all-wheel drive on any trim, adding an electric motor at the rear axle and bringing total output to 288 hp and 333 lb-ft while lowering the EPA range figure to 285 miles, which is still respectable. The increase in power is definitely noticeable at city speeds — the 0-to-60 time drops to around 6 seconds — but unless you really need all-wheel drive, I don’t think it’s a necessary upgrade. Regardless of drivetrain, the Equinox EV can tow up to 1,500 pounds. You can toggle on synthetic driving noises, but they don’t really sound like much of anything, only getting louder in Sport instead of getting any more exciting.
In both Normal and Sport modes the steering is nicely weighted and direct, verging on being fun to whip around town or on a nice back road, and the front-wheel-drive Equinox doesn’t struggle to find traction or understeer too badly even if I floor it through a corner. Chevy says the FWD Equinox EV weighs 4,895 pounds in 2RS trim while the AWD model is 5,050 pounds, but it doesn’t feel that hefty from behind the wheel. Ride quality in the 2LT is fantastic, better than some EVs costing five figures more, and the optional 21s only make the ride slightly choppier. It’s so much nicer to drive than nearly all other internal-combustion crossovers of this class, and even those of many in classes above, not to mention some of the other EV competition.
One of the most controversial aspects of the Equinox EV is its infotainment system that’s shared with other Ultium products, consisting of a 17.7-inch central touchscreen and an 11-inch digital gauge cluster. Specifically, the controversy surrounds the fact that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto aren’t available at all, but as an iPhone user who already mainly uses Google Maps and Spotify, I don’t miss CarPlay in the Equinox. Google Maps is the built-in navigation system, with excellent visual integration across both screens, especially for showing directions in the gauge cluster, and routing for electric range and charging. You can download different media services and other apps through the Google Play store, including Waze for navigation, and a 5G wi-fi hotspot is standard. There are enough shortcuts and configurable buttons to make the system easy to navigate, and it has smooth operation and some cool animations and graphics.
There are some annoyances with the system. A grouping of buttons in the area just below the physical volume knob changes depending on whether the car is parked or driving and they’re mostly blocked from my view by the steering wheel. In order to change the additional info page that displays in the gauge cluster, like if you want to show energy usage instead of tire pressure, you have to make multiple taps through menus in the center screen instead of just being able to scroll through the options like on most other cars. And I wish there was a way to have the nav map take up only part of the center screen so other things can be displayed.
Surely, you’re thinking, in order to meet that pricepoint Chevy nickel-and-dimed the Equinox so the (for now) entry-level 2LT trim doesn’t come with any good features. That’s thankfully not the case. The 2LT gets you features like heated front seats, an 8-way power-adjustable driver seat with lumbar, a heated steering wheel that tilts and telescopes, a hands-free power liftgate and auto-down windows. Adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking with forward collision warning, automatic high beams, blind-spot monitoring with steering assist, lane-keeping assist, lane-departure warning, rear cross-traffic braking and a 360-degree camera system are all included as well. For $2,000 more you can jump up to the 3LT, which adds a power-adjustable front passenger seat, driver’s seat memory, dual-zone climate control, ventilated front seats, heated outboard rear seats, heated windshield wipers and the 21-inch wheels. The 2RS and 3RS trim levels mainly add cosmetic items, each costing $1,500 more than their LT counterparts.
What could be the Equinox EV’s killer feature is the availability of Super Cruise on every trim level, bundled together with automatic parking assist for $2,700. Super Cruise is the best hands-free Level 2 system currently on sale, and it works on more than 400,000 miles of road throughout the U.S. and Canada. There’s no subscription fee that you have to pay and no trial period that will run out; just opt for that package, and your Equinox can go hands-free.
Oh, and the best part of the Equinox EV’s class-leading price? That $43,295 pricetag is before any government incentives, and every version of the Equinox EV is eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit. With that factored in, the Equinox EV 2LT costs just $35,795, less than almost every other EV on sale. And coming later this year will be the 1LT base model, which will have the same infotainment setup and 319-mile powertrain but fewer features for an even cheaper starting point of $34,995.
Perhaps the most confusing thing about the Equinox EV is why Chevy is also coming out with a next-generation version of the gas-powered Equinox that’s still using the same name. (The internal combustion Equinox will be a 2025 model-year car, while the EV is a 2024 model year.) The two new Equinoxes are on unrelated platforms, have different design languages, and are seemingly aimed at different buyers. I’m sure the Equinox name has good recognition with consumers, and I understand why GM isn’t ready to go EV-only yet and needs to keep offering the gas model, but selling two different SUVs with the same name that are not just gas and EV versions of the same car doesn’t make sense to me.
The Equinox EV does make sense, though. One in every four cars sold in the U.S. is a compact SUV, and the electric Equinox is really good at being an appealing compact SUV. Chevy says it’s targeting a breadth of different types of buyers with the Equinox EV, ranging from brand conquests to existing GM customers and long-time EV owners to people who are going electric for the first time. I think the Chevy Equinox EV will be the right SUV for a lot of people, and it could be just what the U.S. needs to find the path to mass EV adoption.
