General Motors has issued a stop-sale order for the all-electric Chevrolet Blazer. As previously reported, the model has been criticized for presenting reviewers with electrical problems. That’s not what you want to see from any vehicle and absolutely intolerable on an EV. Even worse is the fact that the Blazer EV uses the Ultium platform GM claims is about to underpin its future lineup.[…]
The Fast Lane Truck noted electrical problems with the GMC Hummer that made it un-drivable, requiring help from the dealership and a software flash. Meanwhile, both Edmunds and InsideEVs recounted similar problems with the Chevy Blazer EV.
Automotive News reported the stop-sale order was issued late on Friday, when people would be preoccupied with the holiday weekend. “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries,” stated Global VP of Chevrolet Scott Bell.
Those “quality issues” included repeat crashing of infotainment systems and problems charging. InsideEVs said it received feedback from readers claiming that they had likewise endured issues with Ultium-based products — including the Chevrolet Blazer EV, GMC Hummer, and Cadillac Lyriq.
Related: “When you’re dealing with a family emergency, the last thing you should have to worry about is your relatively new vehicle,”
While the EV might have been the first automobile, there was a reason as to why it didn’t last and was dropped in favor of the ICE. It is called energy density and batteries, as they currently stand, just don’t have it.
Still don’t have it…
The 1922 Detroit electric, with the Nickle-Iron battery could go 212 miles on a charge (though it would take forever to get there)…
Buy a pig …it’s gonna squeal!
Some of the issues that we see cropping up are part of the semi-unnecessary whiz-bang tech that’s piled on. Electric door handles and such. A/C and power windows became pretty much standard on almost everything you buy, along with other goodies, to mask the cost of meeting ever more stringent and costly emissions and safety regs. Similarly, a lot of unreliable new gee-whiz, and sometimes range sucking, tech is being dumped into EV’s to mask the cost. “Of course it’s expensive, sir. It’s an ULTRA luxury automobile.”
The galling thing about battery powered cars – every time you think about accessing some creature comforts, you’re going to think about having to charge sooner. Better just drive along in chilly silence….
Blazer, what an appropriate name for an EV!
From the second story. “We’ll eventually get to the point where traveling with an EV is as easy as it is with a gas-powered vehicle, but trips like this are reminders that huge growing pains remain, largely with the state of the infrastructure still incapable of supporting the growing EV marketplace.”
My 2000 GMC Pickup Truck takes ten minutes to fuel, hit the head, and to pay. I can stop at any of dozens of Gas Stations along the way, and jump right back in to run another 300 miles. I have done 2,000 miles in 48 hours and that was in the days of 55MPH Speed limits. Now it’s closer to 30 hours.
I am a GM retiree and I have to tell you Mary Barra, pals with Joe Biden and CEO of GM, is a total lunatic. She wants to make Buick and Cadillac all-electric while understanding nothing about electric cars. That strategy will destroy the company and she doesn’t care. There is a history of this stuff at GM.
My wife and I worked for a division of GM. In 2008, the managers bankrupted this division through greed, took care of themselves financially and fired all 4,000 employees in one day. It was quite the story. I knew this was going to happen and I saw it the rot while there. I joined another company in 2007 when I could rather than when I had to. The other employees were not so lucky. It didn’t have to happen.
Why would the latest incarnation of Government Motors care about their plans for the company, when they have full government support from the democrats? Hell, the last time they blew up, the price of healthcare per vehicle was higher than the cost of the raw materials…
Gm has issued a “stop sale” order? Reminds me of a tree falling in a forest and did it make a noise?
Another Edsel in the works?
You could at least drive an Edsel 500 miles before a 5 to 10 minute fuel up.
This doesn’t sound like a software problem. Trouble with the infotainment system AND recharging the battery? Those are two completely different systems.
Elon Musk claimed the big three auto makers couldn’t compete in the EV market because they had to do two things right (EV and ICE) while he is focused only on one.
It’s all one system now on CANbus
The EV “Blazer”?
Them adds just write themselves.
Government Motors is doomed.
After the bankruptcy ,of the governments,hopefully there will be some value left for a car company to rise from the ashes.
Although I suspect my old square body Chev will outlast the company.
Looks like Mahindra will be our future suppliers of work trucks.
And ,Trucks that work.
If you listen to the eco whacks .. private ownership of automobiles will be banned in the near future.
So this is all moot.
This is the end game.
A real Blazer
https://www.restoreamusclecar.com/vehicles/1419/contact
From what I’ve quickly seen, every American state has a Lemon law.
Canada doesn’t, but there is an “arbitration” process if you buy a brand new piece of shit.
https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/office-consumer-affairs/en/buying-and-leasing-big-ticket-items/recourse-vehicle-defects
The problem is being forced to buy a brand new piece of shit because authoritarian freaks have been empowered.
But shortages of batteries and battery cars will mean you’ll be on a waiting list to get something substandard.
Kinda like our health care.
2024 duramax half ton on a four hour travel avg 7.8 l/ 100k, decent ! ….. has about 5000k on it and hoping it will get better with more use, once we hit warmer temps and summer fuel.
Geezus, who invented this insane “charging network” concept? When my flashlight goes dim I change the battery – take a new one out of the recharger and put the dead one in the recharger. Takes 20 seconds and my flashlight is back to full power.
For EVs to be workable they need to scale this up based on standardized vehicle batteries. Every “gas station” should have a large rack of them ready to go – you pull up, slide your dead one out into the charger rack, and slide a fully recharged one into your vehicle, and hit the road. If you “run out of gas” your friendly roadside assistance pickup truck can bring you one to swap in.
Yeah, I get it, they’re heavy and bulky etc etc but so are several giant tanks of fuel buried underground on every street corner and we solved that, so I think we can figure out storing lotsa batteries. All the planning and engineering is simply pointed in the wrong direction on this one.
RNrn
Hi RN, the problem with your solution is that EV batteries are very expensive and they deteriorate with use and age. If you have a new EV every time you swap a battery you could lose tens of thousands of dollars by swapping your brand new battery for one that is on its last legs.
A standardized battery is a pipe dream, I’m afraid. Can you imagine Tesla, GM, VAG, Ford, Honda et al agreeing on the size, shape, weight, voltage and amperage for a universal battery?
The problem is that Tesla, GM, Ford, Volkswagen et al are supplying both the gas and the gas tank for EVs so they can all go their own ways. Hell, they can’t even agree on a standard charger plug. It’s insanity. If EV’s are truly so important to saving all our lives and preventing global boiling surely the brilliant green governments would have imposed a standard on this by now. But no, the only imposed standard is “no more ICE” (pun intended).
For over a century GM, Ford, Volkswagen et al are perfectly fine to rely on identical spec gas from 3rd parties named Exxon, BP, Shell, etc. under a pretty tight standard and all their engines run on it just fine. Imagine if Exxon, BP, Shell, etc were the suppliers of swappable batteries – I don’t see why a similar standard couldn’t be achieved. As for deterioration and loss of value when a battery swap occurs, again – standards and consumer choice. I’m pretty sure the gas coming out of the pump from Shell, PetroCan, Pioneer, etc is all pretty much the same in terms of quality. I would expect the same from every swappable battery rolling out of the charged rack and into my EV. Another win – it’s even better to have batteris centrally managed – the provider can take them out of service for recycling when they deteroriate below minimum spec.
As I said, this is a problem of planning and engineering being pointed in the wrong direction. It’s our idiot governments that are doing the pointing, and consumers that will suffer.
RNrn
You are aware that gasoline blends vary widely by state, yes? And then there’s diesel. And propane. And you do notice that when you fill up you have to choose which of three blends of gasoline you want?
ICE manufacturers waste an awful lot of time, money, and ultimately horsepower/efficiency designing engines that can tolerate whatever crap legislators insist on putting in gasoline, like corn ethanol. And woe betide the driver who puts regular unleaded in his Z4.
It’s not just the EV’s, there was an article not too long ago about an ICE Chev Colorado that bricked itself doing an automatic over the air (OTA) software update, when it lost conectivity and killed the battery searching for signal until the battery was dead!
Solution given was to turn off auto-updates, just like on your cell phone or computer..
Having worked at a large contract EMS that made in-car electronics for Ford and others, I can say from experience that the “programmers” working on those systems have no idea what they’re doing. Generally they’re electrical/electronics engineers who picked up some programming along the way, and they’re doing the least amount of work possible to fulfill the terms of the contract. Security, reliability, safety – the mentality is that it’s the customer’s job to specify that if it’s important.