DETROIT—At the Detroit Auto Show here, Chevrolet company talked up three battery-powered cars that are set to arrive in the next two years: the Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox.
“We have customers that are ready, we have dealers that are ready, we have a supply chain that is ready to bring these products to the market,” said Chevrolet Marketing Director Steve Majoros.
The brand has seen some success with the Chevy Bolt, which started at $31,500 for the 2022 model. The new Chevrolet Equinox EV will start at $30,000 with a 300-mile range. Look for it in fall 2023, starting with a limited-edition 2RS (see the model breakdown on Chevy's website).
“Is this the tipping point for mainstream EV adoption? Absolutely, yes,” said Majoros. “We’re in this for mainstream EV adoption at volume and scale, making EVs for everyone, everywhere.”
The other two cars Chevy showed off in Detroit are slightly more expensive. The Silverado EV pickup truck, first announced in January, has a 400-mile range. A Work Truck (WT) version arrives in the spring of 2023, starting at $39,900. An RST (Rally Sport Truck) First Edition model will then debut in the fall of 2023, starting at $105,000.
The Blazer EV, which Chevy revealed in July, will be $49,295 and have a 320-mile range. It arrives in summer.
Chevrolet will continue its free home charger installation on these new models, Majoros noted. The brand already offers this service for the 2022 Bolt EV and EUV. It’s a point of differentiation, especially since the chargers are level two versus level one; the latter is an industry standard to include with all new EVs but charges at a much slower rate.
The larger General Motors brand has also invested $750 million in public charging infrastructure on its road to becoming an all-electric brand, including a partnership with Pilot J gas stations.
The Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox will use Chevy’s new Ultium battery platform. The legacy battery platform, used on the Bolt and Bolt EUV, is on its way out. Ultium batteries have been reconfigured to provide more range at lower cost. The GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyric EV, two other brands under the General Motors umbrella, will also use the Ultium battery platform.
Ultium batteries have replaceable modules that the company can swap out as technology improves, a product specialist at the Auto Show explained. This may benefit customers by continuously increasing the electric range as soon as possible, rather than waiting for an entirely new battery or needing to buy a new vehicle.
The Chevy Bolt and Bolt EUV do not have Ultium batteries. Instead of using a series of exchangeable modules, they have one large battery.