Chevy Blazer EV SUV coming ‘at the right time,’ GM exec says
General Motors's (GM) Chevrolet brand revealed its Blazer EV SUV at an event last night — a vehicle to take on the Tesla (TSLA) Model Y and crosstown competitor Ford’s (F) Mustang Mach-E.
The Blazer EV, a midsize SUV that will slot above the smaller Equinox SUV, will come in 1LT, 2LT, RS and SS trims. The SS trim, a high performance model, will be AWD (all-wheel drive) only and offer up 557 horsepower and 648 lb-ft of torque.
The other trim levels will be offered in front wheel drive and AWD configurations, with the RS trim level featuring the highest range of 320 miles. The base model 1LT has an estimated 247 miles of range.
The Blazer will also feature GM’s Ultium battery system that was first seen in the larger Hummer EV SUV and will eventually make it to GM’s other EV cars. This is all part of GM’s larger plan for rolling out its EV portfolio, with the automaker planning to invest $35 billion globally by 2025 for these efforts, with 30 EVs in the market by that time.
Though GM has been methodical in its approach to its EV rollout, it finds itself behind the EV leader in sales, Tesla, and even its Detroit rival, Ford, which has been selling the Mustang Mach-E SUV since last year, and the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup in dealer showroom now.
“We've been working on our [Ultium] platform here for a few years. We've rolled out a few vehicles at General Motors already with that,” says Scott Bell, Chevrolet’s global VP in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “[The Blazer] will be kind of our first mainstream, very attainable EVs in one of the largest segments in the industry. So we're feeling — we're coming in at the marketplace at the right time as we see the consumer demand continue to grow.”
GM and CEO Mary Barra claim the company’s EV gameplan will pay off in the end, despite the late timing. Barra believes GM will take Tesla’s EV sales crown by mid-decade, by selling more affordable cars than Tesla currently offers.
“To really get to 30%, 40%, 50% EVs being sold, you have to appeal to people that are in that $30,000 to $35,000 price range,” Barra said in an interview with the AP.
“We revealed the Silverado earlier this year, large pickup; we just did the Blazer here in a few short weeks probably, a month or so away we'll talk about the Equinox EV,” Bell says. “These are the largest [segments] in the industry, and to do those is critical to do the volume we aspire to do in the next year or two.”
The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV 2LT and RS go on sale in summer 2023, just after the release of the Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup, and just before the debut of the smaller Equinox EV SUV.
The 2LT and RS models will start at $47,595 and $51,995, respectively before any federal and state tax credits. The SS model follows later that year, starting at $65,995, preceded by the 1LT which will start at $44,995. Reservations are now open at the Chevrolet website.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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