Chevy launches Equinox EV at $49K, $35K 320-mile model coming soon

Chevy announced its Equinox EV rollout plan today on a conference call to journalists. It acknowledged being late but also had some pleasant surprises for its new lowest-cost EV.

The Chevy Equinox will launch at a much higher price than initially anticipated and it will launch a few months later than expected. Initially scheduled for “Fall 2023”, the Equinox will start rolling off the line at the beginning of 2024. Order banks will open up next week and GM says it already has “200,000 hand raisers”. So it seems like it will be quite popular.

The initial front-wheel drive version will cost about $49,000 while the AWD version will be about $3400 more. That’s all the info we have at the moment on this car. But the higher price point would seem to indicate a much higher trim package as the graphic below shows with the 2-tone paint job.

But what about the plan to deliver a $30,000 vehicle that goes 250 miles that CEO Mary Barra touted? Well they mostly missed one piece and smacked the other out of the park.

Chevy now says that at the end of next year (2024), Chevy will begin deliveries of the $30,000 model except it will cost $34,995. And about that range…

The range however is quite impressive at 319 miles and with the Federal and other discounts will make this a mid-$20K car. That’s a pretty compelling package. In fact, the $35k model will have the same battery as the ones going on sale next week.

Some other notes:

• Chevy will not extend the Bolt builds in Orion plant as it delays retooling for the Silverado.
• Chevy Bolt EVs will be available until March 2024 in many markets by the time they wind down production which will end in December.

Electrek’s take:

NGL it is hard to take Chevy at its word on timing and prices at this point. There’s been a ton of movement on its EV plans and we could easily see all of these plans slide further down the road with prices that may also fluctuate. Also, that price still says “starting around $34,995″.

However, the $30K $35K Equinox will be a solid deal with Federal Tax Credits available upfront. Also, it is interesting that there will be only 1 battery for this vehicle and it will take the base model a very respectable 319 miles.

Why not continue to build the very popular Bolts during the newly created gap between Silverado production? I imagine it isn’t profitable and supply chain parts orders can’t just be spooled up at the drop of a hat.