Sadly, it appears to be like like our 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV’s catastrophic failure in Virginia would not appear to be only a one-off expertise with an unusually bum automobile. 

The day after our story went stay, our buddies at Edmunds printed a bit chronicling their strife with the Blazer EV. It has been of their possession for 2 months, however it’s spent greater than two weeks on the dealership’s service division with a laundry record of issues. Equally, shortly after reporting on our Blazer EV drive, an array of GMC Hummer, Cadillac Lyriq, and Chevy Blazer EV homeowners have turn out to be far more vocal about their autos’ woes.

It looks as if the floodgates have opened. Here’s a assortment of emails I’ve acquired from Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV, and Chevrolet Blazer EV homeowners, all of them explaining their points, lots of them an identical to what I skilled, in their very own phrases.

Bear in mind, these automobiles are all on GM’s new Ultium platform, a typical EV structure that ultimately will underpin each new GM automobile within the close to future because the American big goals to go all-electric by 2035. 

There nonetheless aren’t a ton of those automobiles on the highway but; based mostly on our newest knowledge, GM bought about 6,900 Ultium-based EVs between the beginning of the yr and the tip of Q3. However extra are coming quickly, together with many new fashions from every of those manufacturers. (We reached out to GM for touch upon these points however haven’t heard again but; we are going to replace this story once we do.) 

Glitchy, Damaged Infotainment Techniques

The Edmunds employees and I each had the identical downside: the infotainment would randomly crash, then reboot and flicker for a really very long time, till the infotainment simply would crash solely. This seems to be considerably frequent amongst all three fashions, particularly the Blazer EV, and the Cadillac Lyriq.

Andrew Kozar emailed me twice in fast succession; he’s solely had his Blazer EV since Nov. 27. After 5 days of possession, the automobile’s infotainment display screen crashed and acquired caught in the identical loop as we’ve described earlier than.

“[Three days later,] we took it to the seller. Nobody appeared to know what to do,” Kozar wrote. “After two weeks a tech was lastly capable of reproduce the problem (after some insistent prodding from myself with image proof I used to be not making it up.) They determined to do a software program replace that bricked each the infotainment system AND gauge cluster rendering it ineffective. As a result of no speedometer means to driving. We’re at present ready on a alternative module and on week three of the seller having my automobile. I used to be fortunate sufficient to drive it 5 days issue-free.”

About an hour after his preliminary e mail, Kozar replied explaining that the dealership changed your entire radio module. It was put in, however Kozar says the dealership’s technicians couldn’t sync the brand new module to the automobile, so the automobile remains to be inoperable. Kozar isn’t certain when he’ll get his Blazer again. 

Much like Kozar, Jeffrey Wiens bought a Blazer EV on Nov. 12. He stated the infotainment display screen conked out three days after taking possession, and he’s spent three and a half weeks with the dealership, with an infotainment display screen that always crashes, and reboots with not a lot recompense from his native GM seller. 

Sammy Kumar had a 2023 Cadillac Lyriq, however related software program woes with the infotainment display screen and Tremendous Cruise noticed him commerce the automobile in for an Escalade-V.

“I had the infotainment situation the place the display screen would simply minimize out whereas driving as effectively however the situation that made me promote that automobile was Tremendous Cruise,” Sammy stated. “I had it on my earlier Escalade and it labored flawlessly. The Lyriq on the opposite would often disengage from SC with none actual purpose. There was a stretch of freeway that was simply straight and it disconnected 4 or 5 occasions. It was sunny, with fairly low site visitors, and no apparent the explanation why it will disconnect. There was one other incident the place the automobile simply began merging into one other lane with none warning. I had Tremendous Cruise’s automated lane swap characteristic which shows on the display screen earlier than it switches lanes. I believe there was a lag with the show/infotainment system as a result of there have been different situations the place I used the flip sign to invoke the on-demand lane departure and the alert did not present up till after the automobile had switched lanes.”

Regardless of the Escalade and Lyriq each utilizing Google-based techniques, Kumar says the Escalade’s has been way more dependable.

Charging Points Aren’t Unusual

Infotainment points are one factor. Positive, they are often probably debilitating in the event that they have an effect on the gauge cluster to the purpose the place there’s no manner for the motive force to find out how briskly they’re driving. However largely they may very well be labeled as annoying, and never fairly dealbreakers.

Charging points, although, can severely affect the perform of the automobile. A number of homeowners reached out and stated they’ve skilled charging occasions which have despatched their autos to the service division.

One in all our common commenters, the person named Carac, and his GMC Hummer EV could also be one of the crucial telling experiences right here but. His truck had two totally different charging points after attempting to quick cost at Electrify America stations, and one incident occurred at the exact same DC quick charging station the place I bumped into issues in Wytheville, VA.

“On Oct. 4th, I finished in Columbia, South Carolina at 11:35 p.m. at about 30%.,” Carac wrote. “I used to be the one one there, plugged right into a 350 [kilowatt-hour DC fast charger], it charged for a minute and 55 seconds, max 300 kW then I observed the cost charge jumped all of the sudden and it stopped charging, then the ‘Cost Port Error’ got here up on the display screen,” he stated, by way of e-mail. Sound acquainted? After that occasion, he stated his Hummer wouldn’t cost in any respect.

The native GM seller cleared the codes, and all was effectively. Till Nov. 21, anyway. That is when the Hummer did the identical factor in Wytheville. The one distinction is that the automobile would cost however at a really gradual charge of 9 kW. Once more, the native GM seller cleared the codes and the automobile continued on. To be secure, Carac’s been avoiding Electrify America stations solely. 

The Blazer EV and Cadillac Lyriq are additionally not proof against charging points. Reader Invoice Boyance handled glitchy infotainment and charging points. His Blazer refused to cost, then the “infotainment system went haywire,” and a “crimson warning mild got here on.” Boyance says the seller took the automobile again, changing it with a gas-powered ICE Blazer RS. Likewise, this instance on Reddit tells of a Lyriq that may solely cost at 7 kW on a DC quick charger.

In fact, I did get some correspondence from Lyriq, Hummer, and Blazer homeowners who had been happy with their buy, even when their automobile had points. Nonetheless, it’s greater than somewhat regarding that there are such a lot of points with the Ultium-based automobiles regardless of solely a relative handful being on the roads.

Within the emails, there’s a tone of frustration, as most of the troubled homeowners have stated that they don’t really feel that the service departments actually know what’s improper with their autos, or learn how to repair them. 

35 Photographs

GM and Electrify America are nonetheless engaged on determining precisely what occurred throughout our drive to North Carolina. We are going to replace you when now we have an official reply from each sources.