Remember the opening of Casino Royale? Daniel Craig’s James Bond whoops a person in a toilet then drowns the person 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 identical two words in response. Last week, we posted on the experience the automotive sales site has had with the SUV that takes over as Chevy’s recent entry-level electric vehicle until the upcoming Equinox EV and rebooted Bolt come along. The Blazer EV, after coughing up “the only longest list of major faults we at Edmunds have ever seen on a brand new automotive,” has been on the dealer for a minimum of two weeks of Edmunds‘ six weeks of ownership. We then updated the post with comments from a Blazer EV owner who wrote in with the same tale of owning an example for five days before having to take it back to the dealer, where it has been for 3 weeks.
It is important to notice that before Edmunds posted its story, Inside EVs told the primary big story we all know of about having its Blazer EV press vehicle die 28 hours right into a what was meant to be a week-long test. Then, Inside EVs received a number of letters from GM EV owners — Blazer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV — recounting good experiences in addition to gremlins. Let’s be clear, GM’s probably sold near 10,000 Ultium-based EVs since 2022, we’re talking a couple of handful of failing grades.
Nevertheless, it isn’t good to have your recent mass-market EV making the worst headlines in two separate publications for a similar 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 consumers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we’ll take a temporary pause on recent deliveries.”
Engineers are on the case, the automaker saying in a separate statement, “To make sure our customers have an incredible experience with their vehicle, we’re temporarily pausing sales of Blazer EVs. Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners might be contacted with further information on tips on how to schedule their update. We apologize for the inconvenience.” AN said owners might want to stop by the dealer to have the updated software installed; it appears this could’t be resolved with an OTA update. Chevy says the issue within the code is “not safety related nor related to Ultium or Google Built-in.”
On a separate note, and maybe just as concerning, is the dealer experience. Added to other tales we have told about owner quandaries with EVs, wide knowledge gaps remain between the dealer and the automaker, those gaps multiplied into a fair larger communication gaps between the dealer and the client. Inside EVs wrote in summing up its mailbag, “Within the emails, there’s a tone of frustration, as lots of the afflicted owners have said that they don’t feel that the service departments truly know what’s mistaken with their vehicles, or tips on how to fix them.”
There isn’t any such thing as a bloodless revolution. The switch to EVs is undoubtedly a revolution, and it is going to take scalps.
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
