Remember the opening of Casino Royale? Daniel Craig’s James Bond whoops a man in a bathroom then drowns the man in a sink of water. The bad guy’s boss asks Bond, “How did he die?” Bond replies, “Not well.” If someone asked Edmunds, “How did your 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV die?” Edmunds would offer the same two words in response. Last week, we posted on the experience the car sales site has had with the SUV that takes over as Chevy’s new entry-level electric vehicle until the upcoming Equinox EV and rebooted Bolt come along. The Blazer EV, after coughing up “the single longest list of major faults we at Edmunds have ever seen on a new car,” has been at the dealer for at least two weeks of Edmunds‘ six weeks of ownership. We then updated the post with comments from a Blazer EV owner who wrote in with a similar tale of owning an example for five days before having to take it back to the dealer, where it’s been for three weeks.
It’s important to note that before Edmunds posted its story, Inside EVs told the first big story we know of about having its Blazer EV press vehicle die 28 hours into a what was meant to be a week-long test. Then, Inside EVs received a few letters from GM EV owners — Blazer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV — recounting good experiences as well as gremlins. Let’s be clear, GM’s probably sold close to 10,000 Ultium-based EVs since 2022, we’re talking about a handful of failing grades.
However, it’s not good to have your new mass-market EV making the worst headlines in two separate publications for the same reasons — infotainment and charging glitches. So GM has issued a stop-sale on the 2024 Blazer EV for software issues that it says pertain to “a limited number” of units. Global VP of Chevrolet Scott Bell said to Automotive News, “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries.”
Engineers are on the case, the automaker saying in a separate statement, “To ensure our customers have a great experience with their vehicle, we are temporarily pausing sales of Blazer EVs. Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update. We apologize for the inconvenience.” AN said owners will need to stop by the dealer to have the updated software installed; it appears this can’t be resolved with an OTA update. Chevy says the problem in the code is “not safety related nor related to Ultium or Google Built-in.”
On a separate note, and perhaps just as concerning, is the dealer experience. Added to other tales we’ve told about owner quandaries with EVs, wide knowledge gaps remain between the dealer and the automaker, those gaps multiplied into an even larger communication gaps between the dealer and the customer. Inside EVs wrote in summing up its mailbag, “In the emails, there’s a tone of frustration, as many of the afflicted owners have said that they don’t feel that the service departments truly know what is wrong with their vehicles, or how to fix them.”
There’s no such thing as a bloodless revolution. The switch to EVs is undoubtedly a revolution, and it will take scalps.