Driving The Chevy Blazer EV

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Last summer, I got a call from my neighbors Dave and Dana asking for my Tesla referral code. They had driven my Model Y and decided to get one for themselves. No one had asked me for that information before, so it took a little digging to find it. A few days later, I got an email from Tesla saying my referral bonus — dinner with Elon or something like that — had been confirmed. I didn’t hear anything more for a while and just assumed there would soon be another Model Y in the parking lot. Then I was informed that my referral bonus had been cancelled. Shortly after that, I looked out my window only to see my neighbors stepping out of a fire engine red Chevy Blazer EV.

So here’s the story. Apparently, they made the mistake of visiting their local Chevy dealer and got seduced by this Blazer sitting on the lot. The car certainly is RED! Dana has given it an affectionate nickname. She calls it The Cherry Bomb! And it does look good. Where the Model Y is all fluid lines, the Blazer EV is more chunky. GM has been designing cars for a long time. It once had the world famous Harley Earl as the head of its Art and Color section, where he created a string of iconic cars, including the epic Buick Y Job. The company has always had its finger on the pulse of American tastes, and the Blazer EV does a great job of tapping into where American car culture is today.

It is lower than a Suburban, but definitely not a sedan. There’s a bit of a station wagon vibe as well. If you squint a little, you can see just a hint of the Chevy Nomad that actually upstaged the Corvette in 1955. The Nomad was a go-anywhere, do-anything car that was a perfect fit for the “See the USA in your Chevrolet” ad campaign made popular by Dinah Shore. Bringing that vibe into the present and adding a bit of brawn to capture the design idiom of today is a master stroke by Chevrolet. It’s easy to see why Dave and Dana found themselves smitten with this car. And did I mention it is RED?

The Blazer EV has had some teething problems. It was late getting into showrooms because of multiple software issues that bedeviled the early cars. When Edmunds bought one for its test fleet, the car refused to function properly. On a trip to San Diego — to attend a Chevy media event — the car displayed eight different warning messages in a single day. “In just one trip from Los Angeles to San Diego and back, the Blazer EV went from perfectly fine to totally on the fritz. And that’s only the beginning,” Edmunds says. Along the way, “the window switches refused to work. Then the infotainment display completely melted down, stuck in an infinite loop of shutting off, turning on, displaying a map centered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and turning back off again. It did this until we pulled off the freeway and restarted the car. All was well after the reset, but an hour later, it happened again.” Chevrolet actually stopped selling the cars for a time until the glitches were fixed.

At first, the Blazer EV was supposed to be available with four trim packages — LT 1, LT 2, RS, and SS. The single-motor LT 1 and the SS are not yet available, so buyers have a choice of an LT or an RS version. Both have an 85 kWh battery and dual motors. The LT price, according to the Chevrolet website, is $43,690*. See that asterisk? That’s where Chevrolet explains: “MSRP less incentives. Tax, title, license and dealer fees extra. Residency restrictions apply. Not available with some other offers. See dealer for details.” The price for the RS is $47,095 with the same asterisk. Both cars have an EPA range estimate of 279 miles. The RS is gussied up with some extras, but the LT my neighbors purchased was far from a barebones car. It had every available feature, including a large tilt-and-slide sunroof.

This review is not about technical details. I did not dismount the wheels to measure the diameter of the brake discs, for instance. The purpose was to get some seat time in a Blazer EV and compare it to the Tesla Model Y I have been driving for the past 3 years. My impressions started with the appearance. I like it! The car is not as svelte as the Tesla, but that is intentional. It has a more visceral appeal, like a jungle cat getting ready to pounce. Dana says she finds the hood to be longer than she is used to — their previous car was a Chevy Bolt, which is considerably shorter than a Blazer EV.

So, what is it like to drive a Blazer EV? In a word — delightful. It has the same urgency under acceleration as the Model Y, and the same aggressive regenerative braking, which are two of the features of an electric car that drivers seem to appreciate the most. There is more whine from the electric motors than I am used to, but that is not a bad thing. In fact, I suspect the Chevy engineers thought about that a great deal and decided to give the car a more robust sound experience than the Tesla. Where the Model Y wafts along in near silence, the Blazer purrs. Yet in steady-state driving, it is as quiet as the Model Y. Different strokes for different folks. It’s why they make Coke and Pepsi — people like choices. The car is also quite roomy inside, with generous head and hip room.

I like that the Blazer EV still has knobs that can be twiddled to adjust the fan speed or volume of the radio, and actual stalks on the steering column. It felt like someone could rent one and feel at home almost immediately — a good thing, in my opinion. The ride is supple and smooth, turning is crisp, and one-pedal driving is easy to do. I also like that there is a control on the dashboard that allows the driver to adjust the desired level of regenerative braking. Tesla drivers can do something similar, but it requires knowing how to drill down through the menus on the touchscreen, which is not nearly as convenient.

Dave and Dana drive back and forth between Florida and the Midwest on a regular basis. That was a chore with their Bolt, but is much easier with the Blazer EV because they can use the Tesla Supercharger network along the way. Dave says he has seen over 150 kW while charging but that it soon tapers to around 100 kW. The Model Y may have an edge in the charging department, but unless you are using the superslab every day, the difference comes down to a few extra minutes a year — hardly enough to influence a major purchase decision.

In the final analysis, has Chevrolet gotten its sums right on the Blazer EV? In other words, is it a compelling electric car? I think the answer is yes. It is different than a Model Y but no less competent. Actually, it may have a little more carrying capacity in the rear thanks to its more squared off liftgate and higher roofline. The buying public wants choices, and the Blazer EV is an excellent choice for many people considering the purchase of their first electric car.