As electrical automobiles (EVs) slowly work their method towards the mainstream in some components of the nation, automakers are introducing extra EVs in fascinating automotive niches. These embody high-performance vehicles, such because the Porsche Taycan and Lucid Air Sapphire, which boast exotic-car-beating acceleration instances. They embody costly off-roaders with get together methods, just like the Mercedes-Benz G-Class EV that spins in place and the GMC Hummer with its close to sideways CrabWalk.
However People purchase few of those area of interest vehicles. We purchase an terrible lot of sensible compact SUVs — the best-selling sort of car in the USA final yr.
If EVs will ever be actually sensible for middle-American consumers, we’ll want cheap, nice, easy-to-drive, easy-to-own crossovers from manufacturers with dealerships and restore bays in each city and little to no political baggage to start out fights.
Enter the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV. With a beginning worth within the low $30,000 vary and eligibility for the federal authorities’s EV tax credit score, the Equinox is among the most reasonably priced new vehicles in America this yr.
I spent per week test-driving a barely upscale model – my tester got here within the top-of-the-line RS trim and included the Energetic Security Bundle 3, which provides Tremendous Cruise hands-free freeway driving know-how. It retails for $51,245, together with a $1,395 supply charge. It’s eligible for the EV tax credit score, which might lower the acquisition worth to $43,745 for many consumers.
I discovered it an incredibly good automobile, largely for a way, properly, regular it was. The Equinox EV is just not with out a few quirks (and one unusual design flaw in severe want of rethinking). Nevertheless it’s a nice, sensible EV at an reasonably priced worth from an automaker with restore services nearly in every single place. It might make a wonderful alternative for a lot of customers.
Engaging, however Not Outlandish
Some automakers have used the rise of EVs as an excuse to construct wild-looking vehicles (the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is, functionally, only a good household sedan. Nevertheless it appears like an alien’s household sedan). I’m a fan of that method. Many consumers aren’t. They need a automobile that appears like they anticipate it to look however with some delicate creative touches that set it aside.
The Chevy Equinox EV is typical sufficient in its method to slot in subsequent to different Chevrolet SUVs. However a pointy nostril, a skinny line of LED lighting throughout the entrance, and an accessible contrast-color roof make it look just a bit particular.
Fashionable Cabin, Straightforward to Use Tech, however One Lacking Characteristic
The Equinox EV’s cabin follows the same line — fashionable, not outlandish. The standout characteristic is a large 17.7-inch central touchscreen — the identical one Chevy makes use of in full-size vans — however on this compact car, it’s huge.
Google built-in provides you entry to navigation, streaming leisure, and different fashionable tech necessities. Nonetheless, Chevrolet doesn’t equip the Equinox EV with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. With practically each different automobile in the marketplace in 2025 offering these as commonplace gear, it’s an odd omission.
In the event you purchase the automobile, you’ll get used to interfacing with Chevrolet’s interface as a substitute of a mirror of your cellphone’s. It’s not more likely to be a day-to-day hindrance to your driving.
My RS included pink and inexperienced backlit panels, which designers little doubt supposed as a sporty factor. The selection felt oddly Christmasy year-round. Once more, you’d get used to it. However I discovered the colour alternative odd.
None of that was sufficient, nonetheless, to detract from a well-planned, snug cabin with loads of house. Stepping as much as the RS will get you heated leather-based seats, a heated steering wheel, and different luxurious automobile niceties.
A Driving Expertise So Good It Threatens Extra Costly Vehicles
The usual Equinox EV is available in a front-wheel drive (FWD) setup with 213 horsepower and a variety of 319 miles between fees. My RS mannequin got here in all-wheel drive (AWD), with 288 hp and 285 miles.
Practically 300 hp in a mainstream compact SUV feels fast and sporty. Electrical vehicles speed up sooner than gas-powered vehicles even when the 2 have equal energy (gasoline engines construct up torque over a number of seconds whereas electrical motors don’t must). Put these two info collectively, and one can find an exceptionally fast compact SUV.
Steering is gentle and responsive. The large 21-inch wheels of the RS made the experience a bit firmer than you would possibly anticipate in a household SUV however by no means jarring. I think the smaller wheels and taller tires of the 1LT and 2LT fashions erase that really feel if it worries you.
Actually, all-wheel-drive Equinox fashions supply the identical stage of energy accessible within the bigger and dearer midsize Blazer EV. Oddly, the Equinox gives extra cargo house than the marginally bigger Blazer, too. It’s honest to ask why anybody would purchase a Blazer EV when that is sitting on the identical lot, with most of the identical components, practically the identical dimensions, and a lower cost.
A Weird Design Flaw
The oddest factor concerning the Equinox EV is that you just don’t flip it off. You merely get out and stroll away. It can shut itself down because it detects the important thing fob leaving.
Must you insist on a strategy to flip it off, it may be performed by a touchscreen menu.
However I discussed a design flaw, and that deserves a proof.
Like nearly all 2025 vehicles, the Equinox EV begins with a push-button fairly than the flip of a key. It detects the presence of the important thing fob to know whether or not or to not begin.
However key fob batteries fail. Like most push-button vehicles, the Equinox EV has a fail-safe — a bodily key hiding within the fob. However, in contrast to most push-button vehicles, you may’t use it to open the doorways. There’s no keyhole in any door.
The one strategy to get into the automobile with a lifeless key fob battery is to squat down low by the tailgate and discover a keyhole the other way up close to the license plate holder, horizontal to the bottom. It’s lined by a rubber plug, which you could take away to seek out the important thing cylinder. Unlocking that can open the tailgate, letting you into the rear cargo space.
From there, you must decrease the rear seats, clamber over them, climb over the again of the entrance seats, and place the important thing fob within the cup holder. If there’s a trickle of battery juice left, the automobile ought to detect it sufficient to start out. If the important thing fob battery is totally lifeless, you’ll want to exchange the battery to start out the automobile.
I verified this with a Chevrolet consultant as a result of I couldn’t consider it, both. Stepping into an Equinox EV with a fading key fob battery requires joint mobility many People lack.
If in case you have any mobility restrictions in any respect, this automobile is the fallacious alternative for you. Even the younger and versatile don’t at all times keep that method. With an harm, you would possibly discover this automobile inaccessible.
This can be a foolish downside Chevrolet has the know-how to repair, and we hope they deal with it for the 2026 version. This firm has constructed hundreds of thousands of vehicles over greater than a century. Practically all of them had a keyhole within the driver’s door. This one, bizarrely, doesn’t.
The Mainstream EV From the Mainstream Firm
That one weird flaw apart, the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV is a minor triumph. It’s a sensible, easy-to-live-with, engaging EV in a category of car People love from a model they know properly. Purchase one, and also you’ll by no means battle to seek out sellers who can service it. You’ll possible by no means flinch at what the corporate CEO is doing within the newspaper.
You’ll simply have a likable compact SUV, accessible within the mid-$20,000 vary after the federal EV tax credit score.
