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If you own (or lease) a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV model or newer, you could be eligible for up to $3,000 off the new fully electric Equinox. Chevy is offering big incentives as it looks to ramp up EV sales in 2024.

Chevy Bolt EV owners eligible to save on the Equinox EV

Chevy Bolt EV owners looking to upgrade can now score up to $3,000 to buy the all-new Equinox EV.

According to a new memo sent to dealers (via CarsDirect), if you own or lease a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV or EUV model, you could be part of its new incentive offer.

Through April 30, Chevy is offering up to a $3,000 discount if you lease or finance at a special rate through GM Finance. Although loyalty discounts are common, this is a significantly higher offer than most.

If you choose to buy the new Equinox EV but don’t finance it, the deal takes $2,500 off the starting price.

Chevy already expects the Equinox EV to be one of the most affordable (if not the most) in its class. The electric SUV starts at just $34,995 with up to 319 miles range. That includes the $1,395 destination fee. With $3,000 off, the Chevy Equinox EV starting price could fall to as low as $31,995.

Chevy Equinox EV trim Starting Price
1LT FWD $34,995
2LT FWD $43,295
2RS FWD $44,795
3LT FWD $45,295
3RS FWD $46,795
Chevy Equinox EV prices (including $1,395 destination fee)

However, the automaker is currently only taking orders for the 2LT and 3LT trims. The entry-level 1LT is expected to roll out later this year.

The deal does not extend to the new Blazer EV, which just came off a stop-sale with lower prices starting just over $50,000.

Chevy-Equinox-EV-prices
2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV 1LT (Source: Chevrolet)

For now, Chevy’s cheapest Equinox starts at $43,295. The Chevy Blazer EV starts at $50,195 after the recent $6,520 price cut.

Both the Chevy Equinox and Blazer EVs are eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit, promoting even lower prices. With the tax credit, the Equinox EV (2LT) starts at as low as $35,795. Chevy Blazer EV prices start at $42,695 with the tax credit included.

EV model Starting Price
(including destination fee)
Range
(EPA-est miles)
Screen Size
Chevy Equinox EV 1LT $34,995 319 mi 17.7″
Chevy Equinox EV 2LT $43,295 319 mi 17.7″
Tesla Model Y RWD $45,380 260 mi 15″
VW ID.4 Standard RWD $40,290 209 mi 12″
Hyundai IONIQ 5
standard range
$43,175 220 mi 12.25″
Nissan Ariya Engage FWD $44,555 216 mi 12.3″
Volvo EX30 single-motor
extended range
$36,245 275 mi 12.3″
Chevy Equinox EV vs the competition (Source: Chevrolet)

Chevy announced a more affordable Blazer EV LT FWD will debut later this year with prices starting under $50,000 (not including the tax credit). The Chevy Blazer EV 2LT AWD features up to 279 miles range.

In comparison, Tesla’s Model Y starts at $44,990 with up to 260 miles range. With the tax credit, the starting price is as low as $37,490.

Chevy-Blazer-EV
2024 Chevy Blazer EV RS (Source: GM)

Meanwhile, Chevy is retiring its current Bolt EV as it prepares to launch a new Ultium based model next year. The Ultium Bolt EV will feature LFP batteries to drive costs down. With some models left, Bolt EVs are selling for under $20,000 with the tax credit included.

Are you ready to drive off in your new all electric Chevy at some of the lowest prices? We can help you get started shopping today. You can use our links below to find deals on Chevy’s EVs at a dealer near you.

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IONNA and Casey’s to bring more fast charging to the US Midwest

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IONNA and Casey’s to bring more fast charging to the US Midwest

Charging network IONNA is partnering with Casey’s, one of the US’s largest convenience store and pizza chains, to bring DC fast charging to EV drivers across the Midwest.

Starting this year, Casey’s customers can plug into IONNA’s 400 kW charging stations while grabbing a slice or stocking up on road-trip essentials. Eight “Rechargeries” are already under construction in six states and are expected to open in 2025:

  • Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Vernon Hills, Illinois
  • McHenry, Illinois
  • Terre Haute, Indiana
  • Parkville, Missouri
  • Kearney, Missouri
  • Blackwell, Oklahoma
  • Waco, Texas

The Casey’s deal pushes IONNA past 900 charging bays in construction or operation — more than double what it had just three months ago. IONNA says the partnership will “expand,” but doesn’t provide specifics.

“This partnership with Casey’s is key to expanding our presence in America’s heartland,” said IONNA CEO Seth Cutler. “With a shared respect and commitment to delivering quality customer experience, we are pleased to add Casey’s to our growing network of partners.”

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IONNA is a joint venture backed by eight of the world’s biggest automakers – BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota – working to rapidly scale a DC fast-charging network in the US.

Read more: Wawa is getting ultra-fast EV chargers from IONNA


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Google and Anthropic announce cloud deal worth tens of billions of dollars

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Google and Anthropic announce cloud deal worth tens of billions of dollars

Google, Anthropic agree to cloud deal worth tens of billions of dollars

Anthropic and Google officially announced their cloud partnership Thursday, a deal that gives the artificial intelligence company access to up to one million of Google’s custom-designed Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs.

The deal, which is worth tens of billions of dollars, is the company’s largest TPU commitment yet and is expected to bring well over a gigawatt of AI compute capacity online in 2026.

Industry estimates peg the cost of a 1-gigawatt data center at around $50 billion, with roughly $35 billion of that typically allocated to chips.

While competitors tout even loftier projections — OpenAI’s 33-gigawatt “Stargate” chief among them — Anthropic’s move is a quiet power play rooted in execution, not spectacle.

Founded by former OpenAI researchers, the company has deliberately adopted a slower, steadier ethos, one that is efficient, diversified, and laser-focused on the enterprise market.

Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.5, its latest AI model

A key to Anthropic’s infrastructure strategy is its multi-cloud architecture.

The company’s Claude family of language models runs across Google’s TPUs, Amazon’s custom Trainium chips, and Nvidia’s GPUs, with each platform assigned to specialized workloads like training, inference, and research.

Google said the TPUs offer Anthropic “strong price-performance and efficiency.”

“Anthropic and Google have a longstanding partnership and this latest expansion will help us continue to grow the compute we need to define the frontier of AI,” said Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao in a release.

Anthropic’s ability to spread workloads across vendors lets it fine-tune for price, performance, and power constraints.

According to a person familiar with the company’s infrastructure strategy, every dollar of compute stretches further under this model than those locked into single-vendor architectures.

Google, for its part, is leaning into the partnership.

“Anthropic’s choice to significantly expand its usage of TPUs reflects the strong price-performance and efficiency its teams have seen with TPUs for several years,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in a release, touting the company’s seventh-generation “Ironwood” accelerator as part of a maturing portfolio.

Anthropic takes a page from Palantir as AI battle with OpenAI goes global

Claude’s breakneck revenue growth

Anthropic’s escalating compute demand reflects its explosive business growth.

The company’s annual revenue run rate is now approaching $7 billion, and Claude powers more than 300,000 businesses — a staggering 300× increase over the past two years. The number of large customers, each contributing more than $100,000 in run-rate revenue, has grown nearly sevenfold in the past year.

Claude Code, the company’s agentic coding assistant, generated $500 million in annualized revenue within just two months of launch, which Anthropic claims makes it the “fastest-growing product” in history.

While Google is powering Anthropic’s next phase of compute expansion, Amazon remains its most deeply embedded partner.

The retail and cloud giant has invested $8 billion in Anthropic to date, more than double Google’s confirmed $3 billion in equity.

Still, AWS is considered Anthropic’s chief cloud provider, making its influence structural and not just financial.

Its custom-built supercomputer for Claude, known as Project Rainier, runs on Amazon’s Trainium 2 chips. That shift matters not just for speed, but for cost: Trainium avoids the premium margins of other chips, enabling more compute per dollar spent.

AWS outage ripples across internet, puts pressure on Amazon ahead of earnings

Wall Street is already seeing results.

Rothschild & Co Redburn analyst Alex Haissl estimated that Anthropic added one to two percentage points to AWS’s growth in last year’s fourth quarter and this year’s first, with its contribution expected to exceed five points in the second half of 2025.

Wedbush’s Scott Devitt previously told CNBC that once Claude becomes a default tool for enterprise developers, that usage flows directly into AWS revenue — a dynamic he believes will drive AWS growth for “many, many years.”

Google, meanwhile, continues to play a pivotal role. In January, the company agreed to a new $1 billion investment in Anthropic, adding to its previous $2 billion and 10% equity stake.

Critically, Anthropic’s multicloud approach proved resilient during Monday’s AWS outage, which did not impact Claude thanks to its diversified architecture.

Still, Anthropic isn’t playing favorites. The company maintains control over model weights, pricing, and customer data — and has no exclusivity with any cloud provider. That neutral stance could prove key as competition among hyperscalers intensifies.

WATCH: Anthropic’s Mike Krieger on new model release and the race to build real-world AI agents

Anthropic’s Mike Krieger on new model release and the race to build real-world AI agents

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JB Straubel’s Redwood snags $350M to deploy more US-made battery storage

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JB Straubel’s Redwood snags 0M to deploy more US-made battery storage

Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO and cofounder JB Straubel, has raised $350 million in new funding to scale its US-made battery storage systems and critical materials operations. The company is ramping up to meet surging demand from AI data centers and the clean energy sector.

The oversubscribed Series E round was led by Eclipse, with participation from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, and other new strategic investors.

As global supplies tighten, the US is racing to secure domestic production of critical materials like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper. In July, Redwood and GM signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to turn new and second-life GM batteries into energy storage systems. Redwood launched a new venture in June called Redwood Energy that repurposes both new and used EV battery packs into fast and cost-effective energy storage systems.

Redwood says large-scale battery storage is the fastest and most scalable way to enable new AI data center rollout while unlocking stranded generation capacity and stabilizing the grid. Battery storage also helps industrial facilities electrify and balance renewable energy output. The company aims to deliver a new generation of affordable, US-built energy storage systems designed to serve the grid, heavy industry, and AI data centers, reducing dependence on imported Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.

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Redwood will use the new capital to expand energy storage deployments, refining and materials production capacity, and its engineering and operations teams.

Read more: Redwood is repurposing GM’s EV batteries into energy storage


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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