GM’s electrification strategy has undergone several shifts in recent years, reflecting the rapidly evolving landscape of the automotive industry. Initially, GM planned to transition directly from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to all-electric vehicles (EVs), bypassing hybrid models altogether. However, The General has since revised its approach, and now plans to reintroduce plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to the North American market by 2027. Despite the fact that this technology already exists in the Chinese market, GM has made it clear that it won’t be sourcing the Chinese-spec Chevy Equinox PHEV for sale in North America.
In a recent interview with GM Authority Executive Editor Alex Luft, Chevrolet Global Vice President Scott Bell provided insight into the reasoning behind this decision. Bell emphasized that the Chinese-market Equinox PHEV, which recently launched under the SAIC-GM joint venture, was simply not considered suitable for the North American market.
“[The Chinese-market Equinox PHEV is] a vehicle with a different purpose, and it’s built in China,” Bell explained to GM Authority. “Mary [Barra] has talked about us having this capability and technology, but we have to do what makes sense for this market, and we have to be very deliberate in how we chase that volume in terms of how we invest in the portfolio. We already invested the right way into EVs.”
“We are definitely paying attention to what the market is saying to us and trying to pick our points of where we want to be, but for us to be quick and easy in bringing that model over, I don’t see that as the smart play,” Bell added.
Bell’s statements echo a similar sentiment expressed by GM President Mark Reuss in May.
The Chinese-market 2025 Chevy Equinox Plus PHEV is offered in four trims, including RS and Activ equipment levels. Motivation is provided by a next-generation PHEV powertrain that pairs an electric propulsion unit with a turbocharged 1.5L gasoline engine, delivering 96 miles of all-electric range and over 621 miles of combined range with the high-capacity battery option, as measured by the China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle (CLTC). Pricing for the 2025 Chevy Equinox Plus PHEV starts at 149,900 yuan ($16,108 at current exchange rates, 8/21/2024) and goes up to 179,900 yuan ($25,222).
Looking ahead, GM Authority anticipates that the North American-spec Chevy Equinox is likely to offer a PHEV variant at some point in the future, although it should be noted that Scott Bell did not confirm any specific plans for such a model at this time.
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Comments
What is going on here. In the USa you can’t get a UTV for 16 large.
And in the meantime a BYD Malibu equivalent is 50,000$+, and Buicks made in China were being sold at a loss. This math seems wrong. Course it was probably done by Google AI, which as I do recall, isn’t accurate at all. Isn’t a Times editor being let go for using AI and getting basic facts like Clinton’s Bday wrong?
The pricing $16,108 to $25,222 explains why this PHEV:
“was simply not considered suitable for the North American market”
It is priced too low for US consumers. if built in the US the labor cost alone would probably increase the price by a factor of 4.
I wonder what the labor rates are in the SAIC-GM joint venture plant(s).
Something must be wrong with the conversion, because otherwise it would be a business slam dunk to import them even with the 25% tariff.
Am I missing something? Their insight for not bringing over the Chinese spec is that it’s not suitable and serves a different purpose?
They already have an EV equinox in the US.
They might put their PHEV tech in larger vehicles.
And importing from China is a no go.
My guess is they are waiting to see how receptive people are to the Equinox EV in hopes people will just make the jump to EVs instead? A better idea would be to stop axing entry level trims in their EVs and prevent them from getting more affordable. The problem is I think its a stupid strategy and a completely missed opportunity by not offering the hybrid but like I said before. It wouldn’t be GM if their business decisions didn’t leave me scratching my head.
So we get them from Mexico instead. A difference whiteout a distinction.
The comments from the three GM execs don’t make any sense. The Equinox PHEV is absolutely what a lot of US buyers would want and love. If there are issues with importing this vehicle
then they should say that but to say that this vehicle does not make sense for the US market is awful.
I have owed several Bolt EUV’s and now a 2024 Equinox EV. Both my wife and I agree that these are some of the best GM vehicles we have ever owned. The problem for early buyers of EV’s is that the market has changed and depreciation on EV’s is now brutal. As the range improves and battery prices fall in the next two or three years the depreciation will only get worse. Having said that I have no problem with keeping my 2024 Equinox EV for years if that situation does happen.
To close, I am reminded of a story that Jay Leno mentioned about his Chevrolet Volt.
He said that he and fellow employees would take it to lunch every day then plug it in when they got back to the shop. The only time he bought gas was once a year at Christmas. This is a story that would resonate with American car buyers who struggle with range and charging issues.
I am thinking that they do not want to be at the mercy of China for production and technology.
The Chinese PHEV Equinox is made in China which is politically toxic now. Also the price/performance ratio would crush any North American made competition. Look at what the Korean Trax has done to the competition.
No more Chinese built crap.
I don’t want Chinese built vehicles in the US either, but you are mistaken in saying that they are crap. In fact, their quality is now world class and that is precisely the problem. If allowed into the US market they would dominate sales and push our traditional auto makers into bankruptcy. This is the reason behind the 100% tariff on Chinese built vehicles.
I did not mean crap in terms of build quality, I meant it in terms of these products being dumped here by gm and Ford knowing it would create a crap storm as well as this nation not giving a damn about its manufacturing base being turned over to the USA’s biggest military threat.
Bell states that, “We are definitely paying attention to what the market is saying…” that the Equinoxx PHEV “was simply not considered suitable for the North American market.” And that “we have to do what makes sense for this market.”
What? Really?
This isn’t an explanation! This is just a bunch of nonsense statements that say absolutely nothing. I call total BS.
I’m confident the US market would clamour to purchase the Equinox PHEV that achieves 96 miles on a single charge. Bring the technology here and build the darn car… NOW!
That range would be closer to 50 miles per charge and 350 miles total range if an EPA range was given. And if built in Mexico it would be over $30k.
And what would your estimated price be if it was built in the USA with Union Labor?
Oh wait we already know you can buy an Equinox EV for between $43,000 and $51,000 depending on options and range.
The Equinox EV is priced between $43,000 and $51,000 is due to corporate greed. Remember. despite the high price, you will still get the cheap interior that Chevys are famous for.
Corporate greed?
Have you been watching too much news?
“Ford’s electric vehicle unit reported that losses soared in the first quarter to $1.3 billion, or $132,000 for each of the 10,000 vehicles it sold in the first three months of the year”
GM’s top finance executive, Paul Jacobson, acknowledged earlier this week that the company’s current electric vehicle lineup is operating at a financial loss.
Great way to run a business
Kei,
I couldn’t agree more!
Kei – my sentiments exactly! Bunch of corporate hocus pocus sidestepping the issue. Other than California due to exhorbitant gas prices – EV’s are really just a niche market of all vehicles available. Currently drive a 2023 Terrain Denali AWD (love that small SUV) – but would upgade in a heartbeat to a GM small luxury (or sporty like Chevy RS) SUV PHEV option if available. Next year, the 2025 VW Tiguan w/b offered as PHEV w/ an expected 62 mile (100km) EV range + ~400 mile gas range. If GM doesn’t provide what consumer want – I may change loyalties!
IMHO – the PHEV is the best of both technologies & the best solution for the infrastructure that currently exists.
PHEVs are generally a LOT pricier than ICEs and HEVs. They are NOT the answer. Leave it in China.
They don’t want to tell us this but if they bring the PHEV Chinese Equinox here the fear is no one will want the EV Equinox. That’s it in a nutshell foks. I like the EV Equinox but I think the new ice one is drop dead gorgeous! Ok if that’s the case then make the.
2.0 liter available as an option.
A Rav 4 Prime hybrid already costs more than a Equinox EV. Not sure how GM would get a hybrid much cheaper than the base model electric Equinox.
I feel like GM will utilize PHEV on the future ICE Silverado, Sierra, Yukon, Tahoe, and Slade down the road to keep them going with CAFE standards.
There’s no reason to compete with itself when they are trying push ev
If it had a diesel, we wouldn’t have this problem.
Once again they (and the gov’t) put themselves in this situation. Had we not had this major push to go all electric so fast, GM could have offered this right now and the public would have eaten them up if competitively priced. There was no need for the Equinox EV at this point in time.
Do these guys go to school to learn this corporate doublespeak? If you examine this official explanation it quickly becomes apparent that it is an incomprehensible word salad of cliches and unsupported assertions. GM won’t bring this car to the US because this is “a vehicle with a different purpose, and it’s built in China, . . .” “Mary [Barra] has talked about us having this capability and technology, but we have to do what makes sense for this market, and we have to be very deliberate in how we chase that volume in terms of how we invest in the portfolio. We already invested the right way into EVs.”
Does this make any sense to anyone? The Equinox PHEV has “a different purpose” What in God’s name does THAT mean? It doesn’t make sense for the US market? Yeh, WHY is that? GM has to be “deliberate”? Bringing this EV to the US would lack in deliberation? This is complete nonsense, just words strung together. The final part may be the key. “We already invested the right way into EVs.” In other words, when we killed the Volt we made a corporate decision to focus on EVs rather than PHEVs in the US and we are not going back on this decision. Other than the obvious point that they are not mutually exclusive. You could do both. Many companies do. This is just childish stubbornness elevated to corporate policy.
Come on GM and Mary B. get your head out of where the sun don’t shine. A PHEV Equinox would be a great addition to the Equinox line!!!! The EV’s are not practical for many people in certain parts of the country! No charging stations and below zero weather in the winter are just 2 reasons. I’ve been a loyal GM customer since 1978 and have bought over GM 66 (64 Chevys) cars and trucks since then, and now have a 2020 Equinox that I’m thinking of trading off, but for the first time since 1978 I’m actually considering a Toyota, a RAV4 hybrid. My first choice would be an Equinox Hybrid if only they made one!
Many people lately have agreed with me that GM has a management problem……. Except I’ve been saying this for decades, haha….
If Ms. Barra keeps up this Word Salad Pig-Latin, she’ll start getting more laughs than The Camel.
GM quite a while ago could have put a medium sized (around 30-40 kwh) battery in large vehicles such as the Tahoe, Denali, Silverado, and Escalade, with next to no weight penalty, but would have allowed around 60-80 miles work-a-day driving with 400 miles or so of range on a smallish engine for the weekend trips.
Instead, they discontinue more vehicles than they make – usually when they just start getting popular… Its as if GM is allergic to gaining market share.
EV sales in China currently are around a whopping 51%. Of course this is de facto government forced, since you cannot register the car in the larger cities unless it is an EV.
GM came out with the second generation VOLT (53 mile electric range, plus 300 miles on gasoline), except many of us got 60-70 miles before the engine started, back for the 2016 model year… This is almost 9 years ago.
The loaded cost of batteries lately has been $139/kwh, and possibly GM’s ULTIUM program is even cheaper… A 30 kwh battery for a VOLT sized vehicle would give easily 120 miles of electric range, so 60 miles is easy for an extremely large vehicle (that is, something with half the miles per gallon).
So the battery cost to GM would be around $4,200 and dropping quickly. A vehicle would not necessarily have to have this optional price added since pretty good 0-60 will be helped by the electric motors in the drive train…. The almost 9 year old 2016 volt had a concentric drive train (think Swiss Watch) which was unbelievably compact. The two Planetary Gearsets, 2 hydraulicly operated clutches (zero wear since they only engaged or disengaged under zero torque conditions) also had no Slipping Bands that automatic transmissions have, since the gear ratio was intrinsically changed depending on the relative speeds of the motors and optionally the engine if it was running.
Such monetary savings would also be helped by a much smaller engine since the ultimate ‘pickup’ would be both electric motors and the gasoline engine. 1500 cc would be plenty. Since they also cranked the engine at much less wear during starting using an electric oil pump until the engine started, the engine should last easily 200,000 miles before the first overhaul. Since the typical car would only use the engine half the time, figure on 400,000 miles on the vehicle before troubles. I believe the current turbo 3 cyl 1200 or 1300 cc engines work this way – lubricating the engine prior to startup.
This car had no starter motor nor solenoid, as the engine was cranked by ‘over speeding’ one of the 2 drive motors causing the crankshaft to turn, due to the intrinsic differential gearing.
In 2019 I bought a Volt since I wanted this highly efficient car. I couldn’t believe GM would throw away such perfected technology. Maybe they’ll dust off the plans and use this as inspiration for a drive train for larger cars/trucks, but I haven’t seen a great deal of intelligence out of GM lately. Fortunately for them, Ford and Stellantis seem to have trouble making even a basic vehicle, Hyundai/Kia, and even the most modern Toyota engines just suck.
No stopping to fast charge the vehicle since there was no issue to running the propulsion battery almost dead.
Since the battery is smallish, a 15 to 30 ampere charger in the vehicle would have been plenty to recharge it overnight. Even charging it at 110 volts from the garage/carport receptacle would end up saving plenty of gas; if the large truck/large suv buyer only drove 30 miles on average per day, they’d never use the engine 5 days a week.
All those items compensate for the meager extra battery expense. GM is apparently too dumb to see it, since they already have the patents for it.
Bottom line: GM made a decision to go all or nothing with straight EV and straight gas engines in North America and it’s blowing up in their faces spectacularly.
I am wondering if GM even has the rights to use the PHEV technology in the Chinese Equinox in other markets since they do not own a majority share of the joint venture. This could be another reason they didn’t stick this technology in the redesigned model.
Ford is pivoting away from full EVs to focus more on other hybrid options. It’s only a matter of time until GM is forced to as well. The question is will they lose all their most loyal customers in the meantime, never to be seen on a GM dealer lot again?
“We already invested the right way into EVs.”
Is that why the $4 Billion Orion plant is sitting collecting dust? Even Ford admitted they made a mistake and converted its Oakville plant to HD trucks.
GM is still digging it’s heels into the all EV strategy, which will ultimately cost them market share and possibly viability as a company. I understand (due to tariffs, etc.) that they wouldn’t import this vehicle to the US, but they should produce it in a dormant US plant. I know (as they probably do also) that it would sell like hotcakes, even priced at $40-$45K. The main issue is they don’t want to completely stall the Equinox EV sales which will eventually happen anyway. I steered away from using my GM employee discount to recently buy a Lincoln Corsair PHEV. I would have bought an XT4 PHEV or possibly the Equinox PHEV if either were available. Until GM follows Ford’s lead and produces every vehicle in some type of hybrid form, they are going to miss the boat. I predict Ford will become larger than GM in the future due to GM’s resistance to changing their EV strategy. I love the idea of an EV, but wouldn’t buy one until they are competitively priced, have double the current range, charge faster, and aren’t affected by cold temperatures. The charging infrastructure won’t matter as much if they can make a 600-plus mile road trip without needing to charge.