After driving hundreds of new cars over the years, I’m convinced that the most expensive car in the world usually isn’t the best car, just like the cheapest car isn’t necessarily the worst. It’s all relative. I finally got to try out the poverty-spec, bare bones, 1LT Chevy Equinox EV to see what you lose by going with the cheapest trim. The answer? Nothing important. For under $35,000 new and, more importantly, under $28,000 after a tax credit, the cheapest electric car you can get that goes over 315 miles on a charge is pretty darn good.
Even more impressively, I took one to a Tesla Supercharger and managed to top it off quickly and with ease, therefore negating one of the big qualms people have with buying a non-Tesla vehicle. The Equinox EV in its most limited form is an attractive, functional, and completely usable vehicle. Is it the best electric car? Of course not. But if the magic number for range is “300 miles,” and you think you need a crossover, it’s another capable vehicle from General Motors that doesn’t feel built to a price.
Between this and the Chevy Trax, Chevy now offers two entry-level choices for buyers who want something new and don’t want to feel like they’re being punished for buying a car that isn’t $50,000.
The Basics
Price: Starts at $33,600 (Tested 1LT trim $34,995 with $1,395 destination charge)
Powertrain: FWD single-motor 213 hp, 236 lb-ft of torque
Battery Size: 85 kWh lithium-ion
Range: 319 miles (EPA)
Body Style: Five-door crossover.
Why Does It Exist?
While I don’t think anyone, including GM, wishes that Chevrolet ever ended production of the Bolt, it was clear that the company wouldn’t be able to compete without something more Model Y-sized and crossover-like. The Equinox EV was the simplest answer, as the gas-powered Equinox is a popular vehicle. When product planning for the Equinox EV began, the Model Y was something like $59,000 new. GM targeted a starting price of under $35,000 for its cheapest version, a 1LT trim capable of going more than 300 miles on a single charge.
Teslas have gotten cheaper in the time in between the Equinox EV being envisioned and someone handing me the keys, but they’ve never been as cheap as an Equinox EV. For all the heat that GM has taken over the years as an organization, it’s remarkable that the company has hit its goal of building a sub-$30k (after tax credits) car with 300 miles of range.
How Does It Look?
Aerodynamics are usually the key determining factor when trying to make an electric car go far on a reasonably sized battery, which is one reason why the first long-range electric cars were slippery fastback sedans. Carmakers who want to extend the range of their gas-powered cars can spend a few cents expanding a plastic gas tank, but electric carmakers lack that luxury. Batteries are expensive.
The Equinox EV may be a “crossover” in that it’s slightly tall and has a rear cargo door, but it’s essentially a tall hatchback. This is the most basic of trims, so you can upgrade to a white-roof, but it’ll cost you. I love that this is a zero-option car and the Riptide Blue Metallic color looks good so I don’t think it’s worth the money unless you really want two-tone. The standard 19-inch wheels are also attractive and come wrapped in thick 245/55R19 tires that’ll help keep you from scuffing the wheels.
When it debuted, the Model Y carried forward the Tesla’s look in a slightly taller form. It was attractive and somewhat futuristic. Now it just looks old, even with the refresh. I think the Equinox EV looks better and I like the thick plastic cladding, which is likely to resist dings and bumps.
How About The Inside?
In a few key ways, the 1LT Equinox EV reminds me of our beloved Pontiac Aztek. This isn’t a knock. The seats on the Aztek are super comfortable and recliner-like and the seats here are equally as Milford-cushy. The plastics aren’t too hard, nothing feels half-assed, and everything works. It’s simple, but simple isn’t bad.
Also, this is the “Poverty-spec” version, and it comes with a 17.7-inch infotainment screen and 11-inch digital gauge, both of which look as good as anything else in any class anywhere close to the price. It has a starter-button, remote-start, Google Assistant built-in, and a bunch of safety features including forward collision alert, rear cross traffic braking, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, and a bunch of stuff that used to be optional but is now becoming standard.
It’s not perfect. Instead of a frunk you get this^, but the rear storage is decent and there’s even a little storage cubby underneath the rear cargo area.
There’s only about 57-cubic feet of volume with the seats down in the Equinox EV, which isn’t as good as the Model Y with the frunk included, but it’s also a more typical car shape. Sam did a thorough review of a higher trim model and gets into this in more detail.
How’s It Drive?
People love to talk about how electric cars have instantaneous torque and are blisteringly fast. For most Teslas, this is an experience you can expect. Not with the front-wheel-drive Equinox. It is, as the British like to say, sufficient. Though in this case I mean it. It gets to 60 mph fast enough to merge into traffic, but not fast enough to impress your passengers. What’s that mean? High nines.
There’s a steering wheel attached to the tires and most of the time you can tell this is the case, with decent feedback. As for ride, the Equinox EV is quite Aztek-like in how it absorbs bumps and, thanks to a lower center of gravity, very un-Aztek-like in how it handles turns, which is to say with minimal body roll. Since this is an EV, it weighs almost 5,000 pounds once you start adding humans to the interior. Again, this is basic transportation, so it doesn’t bother me that it’s not fast.
If you’re an EV driver like me, the best thing about the way the Equinox EV drives is that it has honest-to-goodness one-pedal driving. In “normal” mode the Chevy will go from 40 mph to zero faster than you can say “I swear he wasn’t like this when I bought it.” If you turn on the “high” mode you’ll barely be able to say “I swea..” This is awesome if you’re me. For passengers who were unaware, they found the vertebrae-snapping deceleration a little less comfortable and more disorienting.
The regenerative braking definitely helps make the car even more efficient and, in driving it around town, I had a hard time taking enough charge off the battery to make a video where I used a fast-charger.
How Annoying Is The Lack Of CarPlay?
Yeah, sorry. I tried. I really tried to go a week without using CarPlay and instead using the system that GM developed. I didn’t like it. The GM system, which uses Google Assistant, looks good and works fairly well at your usual tasks of switching between songs and using navigation. However, basic tasks like text messaging barely worked. Instead, you have to hope your phone buzzes loudly and then ask Siri to read you a message (there’s supposed to be a ping, but I never got it to ping).
It was distracting and, as you can see in the video from Jill Ciminillo above, simple things like choosing a podcast are just unnecessarily difficult. GM says it doesn’t want to hand over control to Apple, but it’s still handing it over to Google. This isn’t a dealbreaker, since it has a nice Google Maps integration, but it seems like an own-goal situation.
Will It Tesla Supercharge?
Hell yeah it’ll Tesla Supercharge. In fact, when I got to the Tesla Supercharger station I saw another Equinox EV and a Honda Prologue, which is also built by GM and has the same basic battery and chassis design. It was entertaining to watch a Tesla owner wait for a spot while one of two Rivians and a BZ4X charged up. I even approached one Model Y owner to see if he was bothered by this. He wasn’t. In fact, he and his buddies were excited to see all the new EVs on the road.
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I was able to use the MyChevrolet app, which also acts like a key, to book the charger I wanted. All I had to do was attach the NACS adapter to the Tesla charger, plug it in, and walk away. Since this station was at a Wegman’s, I went and got some Cheerios. In about 30 minutes, the battery in the Equinox went from 48% charge to 82% charge.
Three Things To Know About The 2025 Chevy Equinox EV 1LT:
- It is a modern electric car that does modern electric car things.
- You’ll still probably want to lease it as the lease deals are good right now.
- As with many hybrids and EVs, it’s a little slow to warm the cabin on cold days, but you can use the MyChevrolet app to pre-heat the car.
Does It Fulfill Its Purpose?
Indeed. It’s cheap, but it doesn’t make you feel cheap for buying (or leasing) it. This is a sub-$35k car, delivered, that has range that matches the competition at an untouchable price.
What’s The Punctum Of The Equinox EV 1LT?
That image above is so beautiful. The zero-option press car. A price that meets the target after the destination charge. Obviously, if you qualify for the $7,500 tax credit (and it still exists) then you’re talking about something that’s under $30,000.
A Model Y is an interesting point of comparison because it’s basically a luxury car, and therefore a more expensive one. I found a comparable Model Y in Tesla’s inventory, which is a demo model with a big price adjustment and a shorter range. Guess what? It’s still more expensive. And that’s a demo model! The cheapest Mustang Mach-E only has 250 miles of range and costs more before incentives. Hyundai has an Ioniq 6 with 342 miles of range if you want a lot of distance for not that much money, but that’s still $45,000 before incentives.
If you’re going to buy an EV and don’t want to spend that much money, you can’t go wrong with the cheapest Equinox you can find.
Re CarPlay/Android Auto – I’ve had my Polestar 2 for just over 2 years, and I don’t really miss it. The integration of Google Maps with Android Automotive (*not* Android Auto – Automotive is what’s in Polestar/Volvo cars and also what GM are now using) is just fantastic, and Spotify works great.
I do see how podcasts can be tricky though for iPhone users who don’t want to switch away from the default iOS Podcasts app. I personally use Pocketcasts, which has a decent Android Automotive client.
I’m on Android, and Polestar recently added Android Auto to my car via software update. I’ve used it once, out of interest more than anything else, and not used it since.
I do think that it should be a choice of the end user what they want to use, but having used Android Auto very heavily for the 6 years before I got my Polestar, I can’t say I’m missing it.
30 minutes for less than a half refill of go juice? Color me unimpressed, uninspired, and unwilling to purchase this or any EV due to this albatross.
Happy to hear these are as good as they look. I saw one at my local Chevy dealer a few months back and did a double-take. It really does strike me as more of a hatchback than a crossover. Which may or may not be good for its sales prospects, but it’s a plus in my book. It drives me nuts when we put super efficient drivetrains in crossovers with a frontal area that’s 20% larger than it needs to be.
That said, I don’t know about the lack of Android Auto. I’m actually not a huge fan of it, but given that the GM system requires a data plan to be usable (even hotspotted to my phone it was nagging me about needing data) I’m not sure I could handle that being the only interface.
That said, if I were in the market for a full EV (I’m not) this would be on the short list for sure.
“ GM says it doesn’t want to hand over control to Apple, but it’s still handing it over to Google.”
It is not. It negotiated a deal with Google that allow GM to control the data because there is no way GM would have done it any other way. With AirPlay and Android Auto…. The data goes to your phone and GM never sees it.
This is the future.
Only for Gm, apparently, because other carmakers seem to have reaffirmed their commitment to CarPlay and Android Auto.
Thank goodness, because GM is really just trying to milk you for what you otherwise get for free with those services. I’m surprised this isn’t more of a “BMW heated seat subscription” moment.
I don’t buy it. I think other car companies are going to come around to GMs thinking.
Hopefully not, with the relative backlash that GM has gotten. There have been some people even choose the Prologue over the Blazer EV partially because of AA/CP.
GM gets paid either way. The checks they get from Honda still cash.
True!
Here’s the big question. Does it ride better than a Model Y/3?
Yeah, I’m an Android user and a system that is kind of similar but not really Android Auto isn’t good enough for me. Especially if I’m expected to pay more for an independent data plan for a phone when I’m carrying my phone with me already.
No CarPlay, no sale
It looks better than the Trax, but it simultaneously looks sort of jacked up in the air yet it also looks like there isn’t a great deal of ground clearance.
Not specific to this car, but why is there all that stuff between the seats? Does the ghost of the transmission live there? Is it an option package? It’s not like you are sitting so close to the ground that the mechanical bits need a place to live.
For “poverty spec” it seems awfully cluttered. The big honking Schweizerfahne looks pretty cheap though.
That is where the batteries go. I think that is why this form factor will be so common.
It uses the GM BEV3 skateboard. Batteries are under the floor.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/gm-platforms/bev3/
They could do a nice flat floor design, but instead they stuff the interior full of picnic coolers.
How is the Model Y a “luxury” car? There’s absolutely nothing luxury about them.
I think what he likely means is that the Y and 3 absolutely laid waste to the luxury car market. Whether someone thinks it’s luxury or not really doesn’t matter when those two vehicles single handedly cratered the sales of german mid size sedans.
The price puts it in the luxury segment
Another contributing factor to cratering sales of german midsized sedans: The crossover version of that sedan
Good job GM. I still couldn’t make an EV work for me, but I’m overall pleased with what GM has been coming up with.
Cant wait for the next Bolt EUV with this powertrain but smaller size. Under 30K before tax credit = similar pricing with Trax after tax credit.
I am really curious to see if they get the range over 300.
Don’t quote me but I think they’re aiming for 250 miles on the new Bolt. It will be running LFP batteries so range is tougher to come by with the lower energy density
Its ultium platform but the Bolt will run LFP batteries so technically a different power train. Range will be lower as a result but the batteries will last long and can charge to 100% instead of 80% so it’s a trade off
I hope they test those batteries good, I haven’t seen LFP batteries from GM on Ultium. I think they are safer but you never know with GM lol
They’ll be BYD batteries which have a pretty good safety profile. GM isn’t producing the batteries themselves
I keep seeing these so someone’s buying them. Honestly they look really nice. They’re not as overstyled as the Blazer EV but they have enough neat little touches that they still stand out and look distinctive. I think they’re nice little cars if you just need an urban runabout.
Bolt and Costco incentives total approx $4000 at this time.
“ Bolt … incentives”.
What do you mean by this?
I think there’s a loyalty rebate.
“It gets to 60 mph fast enough to merge into traffic, but not fast enough to impress your passengers. What’s that mean? High nines.”
English is not my native language, so forgive me for asking, but shouldn’t it be “What that means?” Do I miss some street slang?
It’s short for “What does that mean?”
Thank you all for clarifying.
The contraction “what’s” in this case is from “what does”.
“What’s” can also be from “what is” or “what has”.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a mess linguistically.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen “what’s” written down to mean “what does”. I’ve certainly heard it–and have used it–vocally. But never written down.
Im not certain if his use is correct, but “what’s that mean” is for sure how someone from the Midwest would say that phrase. It’s shortened from “what does that mean”.
It is an acceptable contraction.
Honestly, I really like this. Once I move somewhere with space for more than my current two vehicles, and the ability to install a charger, I’m planning to get an electric for around town stuff, and the Bolt was high on my list as an option. Something simple, no frills, just to do the 10 or so miles to work and back, plus driving between sites during the day, some of which have charging stations.
However, it will not be considered at all without Android Auto.
*womp womp*
That’s a non-negotiable.
It is, as the British like to say, sufficient. Though in this case I mean it. It gets to 60 mph fast enough to merge into traffic, but not fast enough to impress your passengers. What’s that mean? High nines.
You’re right, that is perfectly fine for day to day use.
However
Is there any good reason with EVs to NOT make it a rocket? With ICE it makes sense since you need more cylinders, cooling, braking which adds weight, cost, etc but I don’t think a more powerful electric motor adds THAT much weight or cost and it also acts as a more powerful brake. After all we are living in a world where a similarly priced Camry smokes former supercars.
Adding more power makes many parts heavier to handle the torque. Axles, wheel bearings and brakes to name a few. Even with regenerative braking, you still need bigger regular brakes for those high speed oh shit moments.
Plus, have you seen how most of the morons on the road drive? Do you really want to give them more power?
“Adding more power makes many parts heavier to handle the torque. Axles, wheel bearings and brakes to name a few. Even with regenerative braking, you still need bigger regular brakes for those high speed oh shit moments”
Sure and all those parts are already in the extensive GM parts bin or (I would think) could be adapted from those designs easier than designing new ones from scratch.
“Plus, have you seen how most of the morons on the road drive? Do you really want to give them more power?”
Oh the horse left the barn on THAT one decades ago! Besides its the mass and frontal profile that really matters which again happened decades ago.
.
CV joints in particular go up in price very quickly as the torque rating goes up.
The Equinox can be plenty quick in AWD versions at 5.9 seconds, so you still get that option if you want it.
The reason this is $35k before incentives and not $50k is that GM picked cheaper parts. I have to applaud them for that. This is a really good response to Tesla applying downward price pressure.
Exactly. This article is focusing on the fact that this is the base model and it’s still a perfectly decent car.
Sure, you could go faster if you paid more for a higher spec model. That’s not the point being made here though.
Batteries. We think of battery cells as being interchangeable (at least for the same battery chemistry), but they are a tradeoff between capacity, discharge speed, and cycle count.
Also, cost. To enable faster acceleration you need a beefier motor controller that supports higher amperage, a beefier motor, fatter high voltage cables, and more cooling for all of the above (including the battery pack).
Perhaps but this isn’t a race car. I don’t think its a stretch to think these won’t be spending their lives 1/4 mile at a time and that the occasional sprint to 60 in 6 seconds or so won’t blow up the pack. Nobody’s asking for plaid performance, just a bit more than a used Prius.
“Also, cost. To enable faster acceleration you need a beefier motor controller that supports higher amperage, a beefier motor, fatter high voltage cables, and more cooling for all of the above (including the battery pack).”
I get that but how much actual cost would those beefier parts add? A couple hundred? The labor costs shouldn’t change much and copper is a bit over $4/lb, not THAT much in the grand scheme of things, especially if they are common with other GM vehicles.
(The conspiracy theorist in me is whispering those parts CAN support higher performance but GM throttles it.)
In an EV, acceleration is largely dependent on battery pack voltage, and they’re running a pretty low pack voltage to keep the price low since they can just dump their modules into it. So between the low voltage and a single motor, it’s not going to be super fast. They’d have to reconfigure the battery cells to increase the horsepower and, at that point, the cells are no longer modular and they lose the economies of scale
Ah. That helps explain it. Thanks.
Glad it exists I suppose, but TBH, $35K is still too much for an entry-level car (for it’s class, and one that’s not overtly performance or luxury intended). If GM could actually make a few bucks per car and manage to sell these 1LTs to buyers for no more than $26,500., THEN it’d be something to get excited about.
I wonder what will happen if/when the $7,500. federal tax credit for EVs goes away. Some folks can’t get the tax credit even now.
It’s more an entry level trim; for its intended segment, it’s pretty on the mark. Whether that segment’s price is too high is another thing, but it’s priced close to a lot of the midlevel/step-above-base trims on a CR-V, RAV4, etc. I don’t care for the tax credit or gas saving gymnastics some of the build tools like to use (well Tesla namely) but that seems like it puts it about the same or less when comparably equipped. 26.5k would be 2k under a base Kia Sportage and closer to 4k under the CR-V and others.
Agreed that I mispoke: it’s not really an entry level car per se, but rather the base trim of a car that otherwise sells in the $40-50ishK range I suppose. I don’t dislike the Equinox really, though I’ve seen some uninspiring stuff about it on Youtube (everything taken with a grain of salt of course). And yes, my curmudgeonliness (no such word I think) is responsible for thinking of anything mass-market brushing $40K (w/tax, etc…) as ‘affordable.’ I’m just easily irked these days. 🙂
(same lol) It does bode well for the future Bolt on the same architecture – barring any economic factors, I have to think that it will be capable of sliding in at or below that price you named.
That would be nice (a truly affordable 2nd gen Bolt). There are still a lot of ’em tooling around LA, and I’ve ridden in a few, and could tolerate most of its flaws, but I really didn’t dig the dorktastic looks of it (JMHO, please no one take offense). I DO prefer the Bolt EUV even though it’s the same car just bulked out a little to imitate a traditional crossover, but they are less common of course.
I really am looking forward to some $25K EVs with ‘normal acceleration’ (really, anything under 10 seconds to 60 MPH is fine w/me) and usable but not insane range (say 150-225 miles) so as to keep the battery a reasonable size. Oh, and by “$25K” I mean that’s the actual price, not counting tax credit tomfoolery, which (IMO) folks buying entry-level cars can’t usually make use of.
Dunno how soon a truly $25K EV will be available here in the states (there are a few to pick from in the UK/EU). Cheap and cheerful is what I’d like to see here too.
$35k Poverty-Spec
$35k is poverty spec now?!
When the average price of a new car is rapidly approaching $50k… Yeah, unfortunately.
People keep using stats like this without any nuance. As car prices increase, poor people stop buying cars. So it’s not like that dollar value is equally represented by people trying to buy cars. It just represents what people who buy cars, are buying.
So “poverty spec” should really be way lower than $35k, since, you know, the name implies it is something that poverty stricken people buy.
Now it is for decently sized, decent range EVs. Which is a great development, as “poverty spec” used to mean either much higher prices or settling for half the range or less. Remember that pre-incentive pricing of Nissan Leafs were often around $35k in the configurations that dealers would actually stock.
And looking at all the standard equipment and the quality of seats and materials in the Equinox cabin, “poverty spec” isn’t nearly the automotive hair shirt it used to be.
Yeah….not good for us cheap bastards
Base model = poverty spec. So yeah $35k is poverty spec now.
Just like $15.00/hr was pretty good money in 1988, now its minimum and still not enough to tread water on
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 lol. Yes the actual market rate minimum wage is likely 15 or higher.
This is how I know the automakers are cooked. If you put 4 or 5k down this is still like $600 plus a month on 60 month loan.
Poor people buy used now, and cars last longer anyway so it works out
I just went to the Chevrolet website to build one of these. The builder doesn’t have the option for a 1LT. It starts at the 2LT which is “from $43295”
Maybe this is just for my SoCal area? Do people from other areas see a 1LT option?
Looks like they removed the 1LT from the BYO for the 2024 model year Equinox EV. If you try to build a 2025 the 1LT is still there.
If I remember correctly the 1LT was not available for the 2024 model year. It only debuted in the 2025.
For some reason I’m not able to choose the 2025 model year. I only get the option for 2024. Huh
From Chevy’s homepage go to Shop > Build & Buy > select the Equinox EV. You’ll see you can choose between MY24 and MY25. If you access the BYO from the Equinox EV’s specific page it doesn’t give you the option.
It’s the least expensive, best looking, and has a normal interior. Good job.
I can understand the function of the starter button, like an on/off switch on an RC car.
I can’t really understand what “remote start” would mean though.
It would probably be more accurately labelled as “Start climate control”.
That’s the only thing I could think of too, but I wouldn’t refer to it as remote start.
I mean, in the traditional sense, remote start is just to get the fluids moving in your ICE, so the vehicle is ready to drive away once you get in. You generally can’t use it to bring your interior to a comfortable temperature, as that simply would take too long and the vehicle would shut off.
So again, I think it’s the wrong term, and I think it’s kindly of funny how easily that was overlooked.
“Cabin pre-cooling/heating” is what I feel like I see on a few manufacturer sites with different electrified vehicles, which is a more apt descriptor. I can see “remote start” sticking around as what the average person uses though, most people aren’t thinking about getting the ICE mechanicals moving, just getting the fans blowing inside.
Accuracy is often overlooked in favor of the familiar. The save icon still being a floppy disk that’s been obsolete for a couple of decades now is a pretty common example.
I’d also say that not being able to use remote start to bring the cabin to a comfortable temp isn’t really accurate either. Sure, for very cold climates it won’t do much but everywhere else it’s actually really effective.
Does it also condition the battery? So if it’s wicked cold out, it starts warming the battery?
Remote start operates the climate control, which is of particular benefit if the car is still plugged in to the wall. That way you don’t draw down the battery warming or cooling the car.
I’ve seen loads of these and
Blazers around the last couple of months. Nice looking vehicles. Not in the market right now for an EV and not going to buy anything built in the US in the foreseeable future.
Good news…. It is assembled in Mexico: Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila… I believe.
It’s still a GM,.