Despite the Chevy Equinox EV’s U.S. launch delay that General Motors officially announced last week, the production start of Chevrolet‘s new electric crossover remains scheduled for this year in Mexico.
A GM Mexico spokesperson confirmed to local media Vanguardia that series production of the all-new Chevy Equinox EV will begin before the end of this year at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant, a timeline that remains within the tentative “end of 2023” schedule for the assembly of the vehicle that the company had previously communicated. As such, the delay in the launch of the Equinox EV will not have a major impact on its production process.
Rogelio Arzate, Executive Director of Government Relations of GM Mexico, informed the Mexican media that the automaker is preparing for the start of mass production of the all-new Chevy Equinox EV at the Ramos Arizpe complex. Although he did not reveal the Equinox EV’s specific production start date, Arzate assured that it will be before the end of this year.
In particular, the all-new Chevy Equinox EV is the second all-electric vehicle that GM is scheduled to manufacture in Mexico after the all-new Chevy Blazer EV – whose production in Ramos Arizpe began in the middle of this year. The factory is GM’s fifth facility in North America capable of producing electric vehicles, and the plant is scheduled to exclusively buildzero-emission vehicles starting next year.
In addition, the executive of GM’s Mexican subsidiary also stated that the imminent production start of the high-volume, all-new Chevy Equinox EV will imply a substantial increase in the manufacturing of Ultium Drive motors at the Ramos Arizpe plant, which has been manufacturing them since 2021 for the GMC Hummer EV built at the GM Factory Zero plant in Michigan. Locally manufactured electric motors are also used in the Mexican-made Chevy Blazer EV and Equinox EV.
Series production of the all-new Chevy Equinox EV will begin sometime before the end of this year at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant, the main manufacturing center for the electric crossover responsible for supplying North America and other regions internationally. The Equinox EV will also be manufactured starting next year at a SAIC-GM joint venture plant in China, where the vehicle was first leaked last September.
Subscribe to GM Authority as we bring you the latest Chevy Equinox EV news, GM electric vehicle news, Chevrolet news, and ongoing GM news coverage.
Comments
I am curious if this semi-validates my theory that the few month delay of the latest EV’s from GM has to do with the software? It would make since if they continue building them at a slow pace and stockpile those while the software is brought up to needed quality and then the latest software can be loaded. I am still confused if the Blazer uses Ultifi or not. They were supposed to be the first ones, but I don’t know if that happened or they just used what is in the Lyriq. I know the Lyriq software has been pretty buggy from what I’ve seen, so maybe this will help in that regard as it would be the latest and greatest Ultifi rather than Lyriq and Blazer software. Pure speculation here though.
I’ve heard from an article that Ultifi will be introduced to GM EVs later this year.
These EV station wagons will pile up unsold at dealerships just like the Mach-E is.
I’m on the sales frontline everyday and I’m not seeing any interest in the Blazer EV. It’s a nice looking vehicle and accelerates like a Corvette. It’s just not on anyone’s radar. A vehicle that size needs a 600 mile range. You can make a case for the Bolt or Bolt EUV as a great commuter vehicle. If your world is a 25 mile radius. However, the Bolt and Bolt EUV have cooled off as well. Usually, new products stimulate interest 6 months ahead of time. I haven’t heard of any Equinox EV inquiries. The high demand vehicles I’m currently seeing are Trailblazer, Trax, Corvette, and High Country anything. Manufacturers have missed the market big time with EV’s. It’s going to bite them in a big way.
it’s a different story at the dealership near my house. They get a lot of EV interest.
My local Ford dealers cannot keep the Mach-E on their lots. I have two neighbors owning them, one in blue and one in yellow. There is no lack of interest in EVs, especially for us who can charge them for free. No more gasoline!
Interesting that the high demand Chevy vehicles at your dealership are the 2 cheapest, one of the most expensive and the most expensive truck trim-line.
How much does your dealership gouge its customers for with markups on new products? Perhaps you have a dealership problem, and this practice is finally (rightfully) discouraging people to even bother to inquire anymore… BTW, I asked this question yesterday, and I still don’t expect an honest answer.
MSRP or less on any product. Not every dealer gouges their customer. Auto Groups were the worst thing to ever happen to the car business.
They also haven’t advertised either one really yet. I canceled my Blazer reservation after they jacked the price up $10K over the reservation price and took away CarPlay. Plus it’s just ugly. Looks like they really went hard on the 1968 Impala influences including that purple paint color. So ugly car that has fish gills without a decent dark color to hide the “dents as style” design and I’m not surprised there’s little interest.
I would have reserved an Equinox if they had offered it, but the jacked up price on it and promise of no CarPlay guarantees I won’t get one. I’ll probably wait to see how nice the Honda Prologue is then after it ends up being $10K more than it should, I’ll probably just get another Solterra. It’s a ridiculously nice driving car despite all the horrible design influences Toyota had on it.
Now that GM has issued their pricing for these, I guess Honda will tack on a few more thousand for the privilege of owning a supposed more reliable version.
I previously found these an attractive alternative. Very disappointed in how much it will cost to drive one of these off the lot. I’ll likely go with a well-discounted hybrid of PHEV made by others.
Pure speculations at this time. Wait until you see them gathering dust on the dealers lots. They will adjust production according to market demands and eventually drop the price.
So where are located that there would not be any interest in EVs? Down here in North Central Florida, I can not go out on the road for two minutes without encountering multiple Teslas and at least one or two other EV brands, and we are not in an affluent area. I thinkthe “usable at time of purchase” tax rebates that will kickoff in 2024 along with ready availability of different models and the lowering of interest rates should get things going. It’s possible the buyers that can use the current tax credits may already have an EV. The lack of interest on the part of dealers and salespeople doesn’t help the situation any. Our local dealer couldn’t care less about EVs, bringing in a Bolt every other month or so. This may just be one of the low points to adoption of a new technology, but I feel it will all rebound.
Your point about the 600 mile range is what I’ve been saying all along. In the white Christmas states the 600 mile range gets knocked down to 400 and I could still live with that. My recommendation is to wait until GM vehicles can use the Tesla supercharger system even if you have a home system.
My city has a few Ionic EV and some Ford Lightning and Mustang EV but no GM EV, period. What they get in is pre-sold. I really like the Ionic EV from Hyundai. However, it doesn’t qualify for the tax rebate. Now I hear the Equinox EV is going to be assembled in Mexico? Will that disqualify that vehicle as well? As it is, there are only a few vehicles that qualify for the rebate. The vehicle must be under $55K MSRP, have final assembly in the USA, and there are buyer income limitations. That makes for a mighty small list of eligible vehicles as well as eligible buyers. Microwaves were $400 in 1973; VCR’s were $400 in 1986. Prices came down considerably over time. I hope the same for automotive battery packs.
EV needs to be built in North America for the tax credit, not just in the US. So Canada and Mexico also qualify.
Cars must be under $55K. For trucks and SUVs the limit is $80K, so the Lyriq, Blazer, Silverado, etc all qualify.
And the income limit for joint filers is a MAGI of $300k or less. Considering the Top 5% of household incomes starts at $290,406, the vast majority of files are under the limit.
The bigger limitation right now is that the credit is non-refundable, so most filers don’t pay enough in taxes to take full advantage. Currently there’s the so-called “lease loophole” where the credit is transfered to a financing entity, but they are not legally compelled to transfer the benefit of that credit to the leasee, and not everyone wants to lease. However, the buyer credit will be transferable to dealers starting January 1st, and it is sounding like it will be irrespective of tax liability.
Battery prices have already plummeted significantly. When the Chevy Volt came out, the battery pack cost somewhere in the range of $1000/kWh of capacity. That is now well under $100/kWh, so a full order of magnitude cheaper. With new chemistries and a massive expansion of production capacity, it is sure to drop further, but at the moment the industry has a lot of research and capital expenditure it needs to recoup.
As usual, some people think their personal experience is indicative of the entire market. It’s not. That’s why it’s called the online echo chamber.
From Ford Authority:
YTD (3Q) sales Mustang Mach-E
2023 28,882
2022 28,089
Q3 only
2023 14,842
2022 10,414
Without data it’s just opinion.
Why in the hell is $7500 USA tax dollars going to the buyer of a EV Equinox with it not even being built in the USA? WTF!!!!
because it uses North American components. It’s built in North America, it’s part of the USMCA trade agreement.