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Edmunds Bought A 2024 Chevy Blazer EV And It Already Has Lots Of Problems

In what may be disappointing news for fans of GM electric vehicles, noted automotive publication Edmunds has experienced numerous problems with its 2024 Chevy Blazer EV test vehicle, which it bought two months ago for a long-term evaluation.

A full 23 three problems cropped up in the first two months of driving, Edmunds reports, noting that “in just one trip from Los Angeles to San Diego and back, our Blazer EV went from perfectly fine to totally on the fritz.”

Side view of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV.

The Edmunds drivers saw eight error messages appear on the model’s screens during the first day of driving. The warning messages were not merely dashboard glitches, either, since definite malfunctions of systems soon began to appear as well.

The window switches of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV tester stopped working entirely as the first of several issues to arise. The infotainment display soon began malfunctioning also, turning itself on and off repeatedly. Meanwhile, the display showed a map with the location of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV indicated at a remote point in the Pacific Ocean rather than on a California road. Restarting the car only got rid of the faults for a brief time, after which they returned.

Rear three quarters view of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV.

Other error messages indicated issues with the high-voltage and 12-volt systems, along with generalized warnings to service the Blazer. Auto hold and one-pedal driving became unavailable after a warning message reading “reduced acceleration – drive with care” displayed.

The dealership service department confirmed 23 glitches, including problems with the body control module (BCM) and other control modules, failure of the radio and failure of the radar sensors. As GM Authority reported previously, GM has issued a stop-sale for the 2024 Chevy Blazer that will remain in effect until a software update is rolled out to remedy the errors.

Cockpit view of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV.

For its test, Edmunds bought a 2024 Chevy Blazer EV from the RS AWD (all-wheel drive) trim and configuration. As one of the few publications that buys its own long-term test vehicles, Edmunds paid $60,215 for the Blazer. Assuming that the Blazer EV unit can be rendered functional by the mechanics, Edmunds will test drive it for a total of 12 months and 20,000 miles.

As a reminder, the Blazer EV draws motivation from GM Ultium batteries and GM Ultium Drive motors. Under the skin, the Blazer rides on the GM BEV3 platform, with production taking place at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico.

GM Authority’s own experience behind the wheel of the Blazer EV was quite positive, with the vehicle not exhibiting any glitches during our two days with the vehicle. Check out the first driving impressions by our own executive editor, Alex Luft, in the video below.

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Comments

  1. I honestly hope GM’s EV’s are successful, but this isn’t good news and I am certain that I don’t want one.

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  2. The Blazer EV is becoming a big pile of crap. Lower case gm have do better, and it’s not only software glitches but build quality in regards to door strikers being weakly made. True the door strikers are made by a contractor, but still good testing should have exposed the weakness.

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  3. At least it’s appropriately named.

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  4. Once the news of this fiasco are heard by the buying public it will be hard to over come the negative press.

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    1. It was already heard several days ago. This site is just late to the party.

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      1. I was just going to say. I heard about this issue before christmas with Edmunds mentioning they had these issues.

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    2. This is Motor Trend’s SUV of the year. Just as well not to believe what you read in car mags.

      Reply
  5. Wasn’t ready for prime time. Embarrassing.

    Where’s the pre-production validation…or were those typically very experienced engineers a victim gm’s relentless cost cutting?

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    1. With gm’s insanely quick push into EV world, I suspect a lot of the little QA-based validations are being “passed” to get something on the road.

      Doesn’t help that gm has been awful in the last 10+ years regarding electronic warnings and glitches. My 2009 Suburban was throwing warning lights at an alarming rate with only 72,000 miles on it a few years back.

      A huge miscalculation on gm’s part. First impressions are killers in this business.

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    2. I personally think GM will go permanently bankrupt when they go all EV. This experiment by Mary Barra is a gigantic mistake. They should have developed hybrid vehicles further, with EV in the commercial vehicle segment, and only for Cadillac. Electric vehicles are much harder to produce reliability, as electric glitches have a habit of multiplying and leaving a car totally immobilized, and only fixable at a dealer. This Blazer is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to GM’s future.

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  6. GMA is just posting this weeks old news??

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  7. Disgusting. Another vehicle rushed to market half-baked just to sit on lots to collect dust and the few actually sold will make HUGE profits for GM. Uh huh.

    We’d better not see the Equinox EV for at least 2 more years.

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  8. Hope GM isn’t topping the cake with “Parts not available”, or “Engineering is looking into the issue but no fix is available at this time”.

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  9. I hate to say this because I am the one that always kept saying to keep Barra but someone most definitely needs to be held responsible for this colossal S-Show of BEV’s
    This is a huge embarrassment. GM has basically evaporated their early lead as a Legacy Automaker.
    What a joke. I have tried to tell everyone that much style batteries are not the correct choice and GM needs to move to Cylindrical ASAP.
    GM better just pay insane amount of money to basically steal Tesla software engineers.

    How does GM justify using much bigger battery packs but get so much less range?
    The Blazer won Motor Trend SUV of the year and customers can’t even get them. Ridiculous.

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    1. Thats the price you pay for being wrong and gullibly supporting Mary Barra

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    2. I’ve said it before and will say it again.
      There’s no accountability under Mary.

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      1. But there’s diversity, equity, and inclusion…..or something.

        Who knew it took qualified car people to build cars?? Kinda like it takes a qualified doctor to remove your spleen..

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        1. I bought an early Tesla Model 3 Performance. Drove it for 3 years and 30,000+ miles with no problems. Car was kept up to date with over the air updates. There were some build quality issues and a bit of a harsh ride but nothing serious. I traded for a Lyriq that spent 13 weeks in and out of Cadillac service departments during the first six months. They finally got everything fixed and it is performing great. I am very pleased with the Lyriq. BTW I had a reservation for a Blazer EV but cancelled it.

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    3. GM hasn’t had long term leadership plans for decades, Mary’s BEV debacle is just the latest and possibly fatal. Old school GM engineers were less inhibited and could produce great cars, as well as invent great firsts still used today, like AC in cars, portable AC units for homes, hydraulic valve lifters, mechanical heart pump, advanced blood and vaccine sterilization, developed the first operating system for computers, first air bags in cars and many more – but nothing impactful in the past 40 years. Tesla looks a lot more like post WW2 GM than lower case gm does. Old school GM would have been capable of developing the best BEVs with cutting edge technology, current gm – no chance. Despite having some solid engineers still on the payroll, bean counters and business majors run this company that does little more than orchestrate the assembly of parts from numerous global suppliers. Ultium has been an unmitigated disaster to date, with billions invested and little public interest in these high priced, over weight, inefficient offerings stacking up at stealerships. It speaks volumes that the old tech Bolt accounts for nearly 80% of GM’s paltry US BEV sales despite all of the Ultium based options. GM’s BEV sales in 2024 will fall off a cliff and with the escalating CAFE standards (and fines) and states’ looming ICE ban mandates, GM will be in a bind as 1/2 of all of their US sales (and 90% of profits) are heavy, body on frame trucks and SUVs which have worse fuel economy. Hence, GM’s push into BEVs, but I think they bet on the wrong horse with their Ultium/LG Chem architecture. VW MEB and Toyota eTNGA aren’t any better, but they are both working to improve this through licensing tech/platforms (VW), partnering with with Chinese automakers (both), and flat out copying Tesla (Toyota). GM wouldn’t consider any of these options.

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      1. Your references to GM’s history may be true but the problem is that in those days GM didn’t have the world wide competition it does today. Also, product life cycles are a fraction of what they used to be. The bottom line is that nothing is the same; you can’t compare now to then.

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  10. I have been considering replacing my 2012 Silverado (87k miles) but it has been excellent so far (back to dealer only once for airbags recall). With the recent engine and transmission issues I wonder if I could ever get a new one as good as what I have. Although my wife’s 2019 Equinox Premier has been flawless as well. I am meticulous for maintenance which I do myself, may have something to do with it.

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  11. I can buy a 2024 Chevy Trax with less glitches at less than half the price. The more you spend the more aggravation.

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  12. Somebody screwed up allowing a major automotive source to take a vehicle that was not given the VIP treatment before delivery.

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    1. Edmunds buys the car themselves in order to not get any special treatment. The whole point is that they get the same sort of car any consumer would.
      They were delivered a pile of crap.

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    2. They bought off of the lot exactly for that reason, to get the same thing a customer would get.

      Reply
  13. That’s why I won’t buy any new vehicle model in the year of introduction. It always takes a year to work out the inevitable bugs.

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  14. Oh, sh*t. That doesn’t look good. That doesn’t look good, at all.

    Reply
  15. Hoo Boy….GM has really shot itself in the foot now! How can this sort of disgusting nonsense continue, when will GM learn that when (not if) something this screwed up happens, that you jump on this sort of a problem like, right now and take this whole mess down a few notches. But….Nooooooo, instead of falling to their knees and begging for forgiveness, they just let that POS stay at the dealer while Edmunds keeps raising doubts as to the actions of GM, I mean 23 things wrong with just one vehicle is just unacceptable on any level! Were this a Toyota with this sort of a problem (would never happen trust me) they’d go right to the source of the problem, and even before doing that, they’d send Edmunds a brand new vehicle to replace the POS that “took a dump” and appologize profusely and if any other POS were to end up at the dealers (that in itself is a major cause for worry…knowing how some Chevy dealers haven’t the capability of fixing these EV’s when they “short circuit” themselves) they’d send another vehicle for that poor buyer to replace these screwed up vehicles, not wanting ANY bad publicity! But, we are talking arrogant GM here and it’s this lack of attentivness and attention to detail that’s going to be GM’s downfall, it’s coming and yet no one at GM seems to be held responsible for such craziness! And…not to whip a dead horse (sic) I believe that when such lousy, poorly mismanaged attention to quality control issues happens, someone “at the top” needs to personally get involved (are you listening, Mary?) and go right to the heart of the problem, and if need be go right to the dealer working on this POS, given the responsibility to fix everything wrong with it and stick with it until the exact cause is found and a plan for stopping this crap “dead in it’s tracks” is emplemented.
    Well, we know this isn’t going to happen…way too much drama and besides no one “at the top” is getting thrown under the bus for this, and that POS vehicle will linger at the dealers until they either correct everything wrong or…(and this will more than likely be the scenario) wait until a legal team is hired to bring a class action lawsuit against GM because of their inactions taken here. This whole fiasco shows that GM certainly does not “sweat the details”, no way should this vehicle ever have left the factory, and can you imagine the embarrassment to Motor Trend Magazine after making this POS it’s EV of The Year choice! OMG, as a retired GM employee with almost 40 years of service, I am embarrassed when something like this happens and yet…it ain’t the first time and it certainly won’t be the last time something like this has happened!
    Sadly it’s the way “GM Rolls”, and with so many amazingly talented people working for GM, you’d think this sort of a fiasco would not ever be a concern, however…the really talented group of designers, engineers, assemblers ect are not running the company, never have, never will. It’s very similar to our government…the good people are not in charge, they simply follow orders from “upper management” who have been selected to run this “dog and pony show”, year after year, failure after failure, while never having to take full responsibilites for their actions, or inactions. Pathetic, just pathetic.

    Reply
    1. You are so right. If this was Tesla Musk would be on it 24/7 and pushing everyone to get it fixed. No weekends off no vacations just stay on it until it is fixed.
      I do give someone at GM credit for putting out the Stop Sale on the Blazer EV to avoid further embarrassment.

      Reply
  16. Buy a gm EV and you are rolling the dice. This one came up craps.

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  17. Get over it!. Completely new vehicle and platform. I’m not surprised problems have shown up. All of your doom and gloom is just nonsense. I’ll probably buy the Blazer EV or the Equinox EV. I won’t panic if problems arise as long as they’re fixed at no cost to me.

    Reply
    1. Good luck on the side of your local interstate at midnight waiting for a tow, and then the subsequent 41 days in the shop 3 times a year…..but hey, defend GM and Mary forever.

      Absolutely nobody is stopping you from buying your dream EV, so why take that defensive posture?

      Reply
  18. The problem is GM should be run by the Dealers that know the business they should form a association of dealers that make the decisions on what should be done the people that run it now making 20 to 30 million a year do not care about nothing but their check and if GM goes bankrupt they will all get big checks I feel sorry for my dealer and all the dealers that have been in the family for generations the top people only got their education from professors that do not have a clue about how to run a business hopefully the dealers will take action to keep GM from bankrupcy

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    1. Sounds good, I don’t trust dealers, sorry. They spend too much time trying to screw we customers! I agree they should take dealer input.

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  19. MARY, MARY, MARY, PLEASE JUST GO AWAY ALREADY, THE DAMGE IS DONE, YOU CANT REPAIR WHAT YOU DID.

    Reply
  20. Let the “1st on the block” volunteer lab rats drop $60K when you can buy an ICE for 45-50 and not deal with all the crap.
    Call me in 10 years and I’ll take a second look .

    Reply
  21. It looks like G.M. will go down in a Blazer of (in)glory.

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  22. How is this possible? I thought electric vehicles were more reliable than ICEs? All the EV experts say so. So Edmunds HAS to be lying then…

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  23. Told you This EV thing wouldn’t work and this is the so call 2024 suv of the year! The 2024 Chevrolet Trax would have had made more sense to make suv of the year then this phile of crap

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  24. Im not surprised by this. Gm’s quality is back to what it was in the 80s. They can’t get issues figured out yet continue to sell products with known problems. I speak from experience as the proud owner of a POS 2023 C8. The transmission had issues right from 130 miles and completely failed at 528 miles. 5 years in to the product life cycle and they are still making revisions only to see 2024s have transmission issues. Add to that a non timely transmission repair (8+ weeks, well before the strike), and you have guaranteed I will never buy another gm product.

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  25. This is really amusing – really! Keep the whines coming. Maybe GM will supply the cheese?

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  26. Typical growing pains, Tesla was no different when they started out, and they were electric cars only, now we have a company making the transition from gas to electric, to be expected. With that being said its still not a good PR situation. Just my 2 cents worth.

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  27. MotorTrend named this junk SUV of the year and sales have been suspended.

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  28. gm will just put in for another bail out. Pathetic. Time to move on from this Fisher Price Mickey Mouse car company. My skateboard from 1987 is more reliable.

    Reply
  29. The Chevy Blazeriq looks similar to the Cadillac Optiq. The difference is the Chevy is pre-dented from the factory ahead of the front doors.

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  30. Has anyone read Musk’s book? If he was faced with this kind of problem he would go 24/7 even sleeping at the factory to resolve the issues. He might be tough on his people but the important people – the customers – would benifit. Was GM shut down for the holiday week with everyone taking time off while the problems continued to stew. Unacceptable!

    Reply
  31. On a positive note, at least the “range extending” heated windshield wipers didnt fail………..

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  32. Reason #59,269 why Mary Barra should be fired. What more has to happen to convince shareholders to replace this incompetent CEO, bankruptcy? GM, like this country desperately needs new leadership before it’s to late.

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  33. We traded our 4-year old Chevy Bolt EV for a 2024 Blazer EV – only because there were no new Bolt. We have a fast home charger that is set to charge the battery to 80% during off-peak hours. Thirteen days after purchase I noticed that the car was charged to 100% and it would not start – an error message said “Service Battery Fault Vehicle Won’t Start”. The dealer sent a flatbed wrecker to pick it up; fortunately, the tow-guy was knowledgeable when we told him the car would not go into neutral unless it is “on”. Clearly an engineering mistake. He had to drag the car out of our garage (used some sort of “rubber slippers” under the wheels). It took the service department 1.5 hours to figure out and get the Blazer off the flatbed; overheard the service guys saying to use jacks and roll it off (?) – don’t really know as we were signing out a loaner vehicle – but the handy free Onstar service updated our phones when they started to work on it. That was 3-days ago and We have heard nothing from the dealer. Now that we’ve had a reason to research the downside of the Chevy Blazer I think we made a mistake and if the dealer will take it back and sell us our old Bolt we will do that.

    Reply

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