We’re Driving the Cheapest Chevy Equinox EV: What Do You Want to Know?

We’ve got the 319-mile, $34,995 Equinox for the week. Is this good enough to convince people out of their gas-powered cars?

Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1

By: Chris Perkins

Dec 4, 2024 at 3:00pm ET

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Chevrolet hopes the new Equinox EV gets American buyers off the fence. It addresses their two biggest concerns over EVs, cost and range, with a base price of $34,995 before tax credits and a 319-mile reach. Those figures alone make this an extremely compelling car.

The Equinox EV went on sale earlier this year as a 2024 model year, but this cheapest version is new for 2025. And this one here is a true base model—no options, $34,995 MSRP. It rides on GM’s Ultium EV platform, shared with everything from this Equinox to the enormous GMC Hummer EV, and it has a single 223-horsepower motor driving the front wheels. Going all-wheel drive adds $5,200 to the base price.

As much as this is a competitor to lower priced EVs like the Hyundai Kona Electric, this Equinox competes with gas and hybrid crossovers like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and yes, Chevy’s own internal-combustion Equinox. The long range and affordable base price are meant to tempt buyers away from gasoline and into electric power.

What do you think?

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We’ve got this Riptide Blue Metallic tester in for a week. I’m very curious to see if it’s a good enough alternative to gas crossovers.

What’s Good So Far

It doesn’t feel like a base model. Yes, the seats are non-power-adjustable and trimmed in cloth, and the steering wheel is covered in vinyl, but the Equinox feels solid and high quality throughout. What helps is that all Equinox EVs get a standard and quite large digital gauge cluster and infotainment screen—no huge bezels to be found here.
It seems very efficient. I only picked up the car yesterday, but on a 30-plus mile drive from the New Jersey suburbs to New York City where I averaged around 30 mph—traffic!—I averaged 3.7 mi/kWh. Not bad at all given the frigid temperatures in the Northeast right now.
It’s a lot of car for the money. Look, a $35,000 crossover is cheap by modern standards, whether an EV or not. And if you can get one while we still have the $7,500 federal tax credit in place, the Equinox EV is a bargain.

What's Not So Good

No heated seats. Typically, complaining about a lack of luxuries in a base-model car is foolish, but there is some logic here. It takes a lot less energy to heat up a person via touch points, like heated seats and steering wheel, than it does by using climate control to get the cabin to a certain temperature. (Ironically, the person who told me that is a GM engineer.) Heated seats would be a nice nod towards saving energy here.
Bad visibility. The low hood, forward seating position, and huge A-pillars make this car difficult to place on the road. It’s definitely disorienting at first.
Lackluster ride. The Equinox EV definitely isn’t bad, and generally, it’s pretty comfortable, but the ride is often busy. You have to remind yourself that this thing is a lot heavier than your average gas-powered crossover of similar size.

It’s early days. I’ve only put around 40 miles on the Equinox, so there’s still a lot to learn about it. But I’m excited. If Americans want EVs, this might be one of the best options yet. Affordable, with road-trip range, and in the crossover form factor everyone loves.