Chevrolet Equinox EV
Published · Researched 2026-09-21
Chevrolet Equinox EV — review
The cheapest honest 300-mile EV in America, sold by a company whose software team keeps tripping over the charging cable. If you can live with GM's update roulette, the value here is almost unfair.
What it is: a compact electric crossover on GM's Ultium/BEV3 platform, built in Mexico, on sale since the 2024 model year. Front-drive (220 hp, 319 miles EPA) or all-wheel drive (300 hp, 307 miles), priced $36,495 to $49,195 for 2026.
What's genuinely good is the core proposition. Three-hundred-plus miles of range for mid-$30s money is still rare air, and owners who've piled on real miles are the car's best salespeople — a 2025 with 65,000 miles and "no problems" drew 135 reactions in the big FB owners group, and a Florida-to-Ohio Super Cruise road trip report ("performed fantastically") pulled 165. The interior is roomy for the class, the 17.7-inch screen is genuinely nice hardware, and around town it's quiet, comfortable, and cheap to run. Multiple owners describe the used market as "a crazy bargain," and they're not wrong — depreciation plus lease incentives have pushed real transaction prices far under MSRP.
What's actually wrong is everything with a software version number. Four recalls so far, and every single one is software: pedestrian-alert sound compliance (three separate campaigns covering 2024-2026), and a January 2025 recall of 2,890 AWD models whose adaptive cruise control could fail to brake — a brake-module software bug, which is the kind of sentence that should make you sit up straight. Owner reports fill in the rest: a 2025 owner lost all DC fast charging mid-road-trip from Atlanta to Chicago — Tesla Magic Dock, GM-branded stations, everything refused, "unable to charge," stranded on Level 2 in rural Kentucky and Indiana while the EV concierge was off for the weekend. Others can't break 115-120 kW on chargers rated for far more, well under the 150 kW rating. A 2026 RS owner with 117 comments on his rant: update after update, then the radio stops working, ride getting worse, "should've bought a Kia or Hyundai again." A 2024 Launch Edition owner's wireless phone charger never worked and the dealer shrugged. There's even a lemon-law thread from an owner with repeat charging failures. And the permanent structural complaint: no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, ever — Google built-in only, which remains a dealbreaker for a large chunk of buyers. None of this is a battery-fire scandal; it's death by a thousand software cuts, which is arguably more annoying because the hardware underneath seems fine.
The social pulse: this is the most emotionally complicated owner group in the cluster. People genuinely love the car — the high-mileage success posts get the biggest reactions — while simultaneously running a thread literally titled "Did GM bet wrong?" (81 comments) about whether GM's EV commitment will survive. The lease-vs-buy debate (58 comments) is really a battery-longevity anxiety debate in disguise. Owners are defensive of the Equinox EV and furious at GM's software QA in the same paragraph.
Value call: new 2026s start at $36,495 but nobody should pay sticker — lease incentives are the whole game, and used examples are where the math gets silly. Cross-shop the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (better charging curve, $7,000 discounts on 2026s, leases from an effective $425/month) and the Kia EV6 — both charge faster and run more polished software, but cost more. The Equinox EV wins on range-per-dollar and loses on charging speed and software trust. A used 2025 is the sweet spot; skip the 2024 Launch Edition with its early-build gremlins, and don't pay full MSRP for a 2026 when the 2027 Bolt arrives around $29k.
The tradeoff, straight: the best EV value in America with the worst software manners in its class. Buy it cheap, charge it at home, and keep your road-trip expectations modest.