Auto journalist’s Blazer EV road trip turns into a software nightmare
I want to preface this story with a caveat: Lemons exist (and I don’t mean the fruit). Sometimes, you just get a bad car. And generally speaking, I have a very empathetic view toward the job of vehicle software engineers. The functions that customers expect their vehicles to perform have grown immensely in the past 10 years, going from basic command and control interfaces to fully featured smartphone operating systems with multiple applications and always-on internet connectivity. Building that into a product as complex and long-lived as a car isn’t easy!
But a recent story from one auto journalist borrowing a Blazer EV paints a pretty damning picture of GM’s software, a company that has already faced major criticism over its decision to remove Android Auto and CarPlay functionality.
Kevin Williams over at InsideEVs recently took a Blazer EV out on loan from GM on a road trip that would require multiple stops at DC fast charging stations to complete. We really liked this car on our first drive, the most “mass market” Ultium platform EV from GM yet — and we were pretty optimistic about the infotainment stack, too. But there’s a big difference between a first drive event under controlled conditions with engineers on-hand and an unsupervised vehicle loan.
I don’t want to beat around the bush too much here, so here’s what you need to know about what happened.
- The Blazer EV’s infotainment OS (powered by Android Automotive) all but completely died multiple times on this journalist’s drive. As in, very concerning screen flashing which then culminated in a totally black display. No apps, no navigation, no charge routing. Bizarrely, the software was able to be revived — temporarily! — by things like incoming calls, but the OS would crash again on the trip.
- When plugged into an Electrify America charge station in Wytheville, Virginia, the Blazer EV briefly fast charged before going into charge fault limp mode. This limits the vehicle’s charge rate (5kW max, it seems), power, and top speed — not to mention illuminates a bunch of concerning warning lights on the dash. At this point, Kevin no longer felt comfortable trying to complete the trip and drove the car to a local Chevy dealer, leaving it there for GM to retrieve.
I recommend you read InsideEV’s full story, linked above, too — it gives you a better sense of how this all unfolded over the course of the day or so (28 hours total) that Kevin had the car.
The most interesting thing I noted outside the story here is that one commenter said that the specific Electrify America charge station Kevin used had also put their Hummer EV into limp mode. This isn’t terribly surprising: Ultium-platform EVs and Electrify America stations seem to be particularly prone to fighting for some reason. But here’s that comment.
Like I said in the comments in the post announcing your road trip, watch out for those EA chargers. I also had to leave my Hummer at the Wytheville GMC/Chevrolet dealer over Thanksgiving for the service dept. to clear a corrupted charge session courtesy of that very EA station. To say I was annoyed at having to put my wife and child in a hotel in Wytheville while a family member drove through the night to pick me up so I could get one of our ICE vehicles from home and drive back through the night/morning to end up with 2 hours of sleep those two days would be putting it mildly. And a month earlier when an EA station in Columbia, SC required another unplanned overnight stay, but at least then I was alone. The truck itself has been great. I haven’t experienced any of the infotainment issues the Blazer did in this trip over my 5500 miles in the Hummer. It’s been perfect besides EA’s stations fluctuating current and tripping software protections requiring service visits to clear. There’s been no lasting damage so at least the truck is protecting itself…I just wish it didn’t lock out any attempts to charge afterwards. FWIW Wytheville GMC cleared the codes and I’ve driven almost 1000 miles since using Circle K and Chargepoint DC chargers without issue. I mostly charge at home anyway.
Now, whether you blame Electrify America or GM for the issues here, to me, is not really the point. The point is that experiences like this one have a deeply chilling effect on the confidence of consumers considering an EV. I have no doubt that GM would be happy to lay the blame for the limp mode experiences like this one at the feet of a “malfunctioning” or otherwise improperly configured charging station. I also wanted to include the entire comment, given that this person overall seems to be happy with their GM Ultium vehicle, and that these experiences seem to by far be the exception, not the rule. But when you have to stay in a hotel — twice — because your car pops up an error message necessitating a dealer visit after using a particular brand of charge station, that’s not what I’d call great UX.
The infotainment issues suffered by Kevin while driving the Blazer EV, though, seem totally unrelated to the charging problems. And given how much people today rely on in-vehicle navigation to get around safely — and doubly so given GM Ultium cars don’t have Android Auto or CarPlay as a backup — this is pretty concerning. No doubt, GM will continue to issue software updates and fixes to the Blazer EV as more vehicles are sold and it collects more data on bugs and crashes, that’s the unfortunate reality of deploying a complex piece of software as part of a hardware product in today’s day and age. This experience will, hopefully, be a relative rarity. But we know that even companies generally thought of as leaders in vehicle software can still seriously screw up that software — look at Rivian’s OTA debacle just last month.
The biggest concern Kevin’s experience raises is that carmakers seem unprepared for the reality of deploying heavily software-dependent products to customers who demand a “just works” experience similar to that of their smartphones and tablets. While technology like OTA updating makes responding to problems easier, it’s far from a panacea, and updates can and do go wrong. The role of vehicle software is more important than ever and, I believe, will become the greatest differentiator between vehicle manufacturers in the coming decades. Customers will learn of carmakers’ reputation for software just as they have for maintenance and mechanical reliability, and stories like this one are going to be a big part of defining that customer preference narrative.
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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