Chevrolet is blazing a new path the 2024 blazer ev is the brand’s first mid-sized electric utility vehicle and the beginning showrooms next summer will be going up against the likes of the ford mustang maki and tesla model y fox news editor gary gastelu and joining me in the fox garage to talk about it is scott bell the vice president of global chevrolet welcome
Yeah thank you thanks for having me this will be in showrooms next summer it’s actually going to be alongside the current gas powered blazer uh what’s the thought process behind having the two models and that’s a completely different vehicle as well yeah we’re excited about this one i obviously pulled the cover off yesterday here in california uh yeah so look we
Introduced the the current blazer the ice variant their internal combustion engine variant of that vehicle uh four years ago um made a big design statement uh in the segment and and certainly for chevrolet and we’ve had great success with that and you know our our mission has been to to provide eb for all chevrolet’s going to play that role here for for general
Motors and do it in big volume this is one of the biggest segments in the industry so um you know to get an entry into this segment uh is critical if we want to get the masses to you know kind of adopt the eb uh uh you know going forward so i this is this is the right place for us to be right we we talked about silverado um earlier in the year we’re going to talk
About an equinox variant here uh very soon uh but those are the three largest segments in the industry and and chevrolet’s going to play that role now that equinox that’s going to be coming out later in the year you’ve said you’re going to be having a model on a version of that that might be priced close to 30 000 uh the blazer when it first goes on sale the cheapest
One’s going to be 47 then you’re going to get down to 44 a couple of months later uh gm doesn’t get that 7 500 tax credit right now which puts you at a little bit of a disadvantage price-wise with some of your competitors uh do you think this pricing is going to hold up are you kind of hoping up uh holding out hope that they’re going to have new eb tax credits in
A year or two look adoption is is is critical for our success right so we know we know cost is one of those barriers for consumers just to flip um you know we’re we’re hopeful that the government will find a way to kind of lean in there and and and do something but we’re prepared we’re we’re prepared to go either way so the the pricing you know we’re good we’re
Going to go in we’re very competitive in the segment and uh we like where we stand like you said we’ll be in that 45 range up to 65 for the ss so um it’s right in the right in the place where the market actually transacts today for the most part so we’re we’re looking you know yes we’d like to see some uh incentive help sure but um right now we’re feeling good
About where we’re at that ss gonna have 557 horsepower all-wheel drive train 0-60 under four seconds uh it seems like everybody comes out with the eb these days they have that performance model at the top of the lineup uh that seems to be pretty important to get people excited about these right now yeah i mean you look you look at the vehicle the design is is
Outstanding the tech in the in the product is phenomenal uh performance is a you know one of a key pillars for chevrolet for sure the ss badge we don’t we don’t take that lightly so we don’t put it on just anything but this vehicle certainly lives up to that kind of capability so uh got a lot of hype around it here in the in the early hours of it being out and uh
But the rs is a beautiful product as well and and the lt will be awesome too so i yes but we’ve certainly created some hype and that performance numbers you just quoted are pretty pretty stellar now one of the more unusual things about the blazer ev is that you’re going to have it available with front wheel drive rear wheel drive and all-wheel drive only vehicle
In america that’s sold that way and it’s pretty rare uh in the history of the vehicle uh of automobiles uh tell me exactly how that’s gonna work and which model gets what and what’s the point i have in the front and rear wheel drive particularly uh yeah i mean it’s it’s the beauty of altium right so the altium base of this product gives us opportunities to give
Customers choice we’ve got a lot of um you know a lot of variants here so ltrs ss and as you mentioned front wheel rear wheel or all wheels so um we think that’s going to play well for us um it’s it’s it’s not a big tear-up to do like it would have been in ice variants to offer that kind of level of capability and to your point it is the first time that we’re
Doing it so we think you know look performance is is is enhanced greatly in that in that rear wheel drive variant so we like that um but we we got front wheel and all-wheel drives for for for anybody who wants it so i um it’s gonna be a good good opportunity for us to give customers choice now along with the consumer models uh you’re also gonna have a police pursuit
Vehicle version of this based off of the ss i believe this is the first uh ppv electric vehicle that’s been announced so far although people are using uh various electric cars including the chevy bolt uh as patrol vehicles and traffic enforcement type vehicles uh already uh i guess and you’re not just throwing this out here to see how it sticks you’ve probably spoken
To law enforcement agencies to see if this is something they’re interested in have you been working with them on its development we we have so that’s that’s the um you know that’s why we made a big deal about it last night this was not a an afterthought i’ll put some badges on it and call it a police pursuit vehicle we’ve you know our fleet commercial team is we we
Do a lot of business in that space today and tahoe is a big piece of that but having an ss variant gave us permission to give them something they’re looking to get their fleets electrified so we’re we worked with them uh and in the vehicle although we didn’t show it live last night we showed some photography of it the interior was actually designed specifically
For them so it’s a different interior to be able to manage their emergency equipment and things they need to carry around so uh very purposely built and uh based on the the the the hype of the that what we did last night and some of the police folks that we had the lapd he was around us last night they were they were all on stage late the night last night looking
At the car so a lot of a lot of good positive feedback from them for sure now the range on this uh will run from 247 miles of charge to 320 miles of charge dependent on the model consumer reports recently had a uh survey that found that that’s the main concern for ev buyers right now the main turnoff is range and charging availability uh do you think this is uh
Enough to reach the total mainstream are we still in the early adopter stage uh as far as yeah i think you know our research would tell us 300 is kind of that the magic number um many don’t need it so that’s you know to have variants that are less than that that will be less expensive because they don’t need the large battery packs it will be good again choice
For us is a good thing uh but yeah 320 is is is great in comparison to anything that is out there um you know charging is infrastructure is another piece of that puzzle so we can’t just you know give them the range and think we’re good we’re spending a lot of money you know three quarters of a billion dollars general motors alone and infrastructure so we’re doing
Some charging things with the bolts we’ve been putting helping consumers get that charger into their garage for those that can do it at home uh but we’ve got dealers working in communities we’re just announced to deal with uh pilot flying j uh facilities across the country to get some fast charging on on highways around the us so a lot of work to still be done but
Uh yeah 300 is is kind of that magic number and and we’ve got a lot of good good feedback on that now one last thing i have to ask you about this the styling is very distinctive and you’ve described it as being inspired by the chevy camaro both on the outside and on the inside uh there’s rumors going around that the camaro with the internal combustion engine uh
Is going to be discontinued pretty soon and might not even be replaced by another camaro in the near future electric or internal combustion uh what’s the future of the camaro does it have a place in chevy’s lineup or can we expect to see something else as you transition toward the electric era if performances i’m not going to make any future product announcements
Here but for you know performances is a is a is a main pillar of chevrolet um you know for certainly ca camaro uh in in introducing a blazer ss i i think we’re gonna get a lot of performance enthusiasts that are gonna they’re gonna come towards uh a blazer it’s a little bit more practical and and you can’t knock a 0 to 60 time under 4 seconds so blazer will will
Definitely be a big piece of that puzzle all right scott bell vice president global chevrolet thanks for joining us today yeah thank you for having me appreciate it and to read more about the blazer ev and for all the latest automotive news head on over to foxnewsautos.com
Transcribed from video
2024 Chevy Blazer EV – Review By VIZTUZA