Here’s Why The New Chevy Blazer EV SS Should Worry Other Electric Car Companies!

We are going to do a deep dive into both this rs model, as well as the ss and tell you everything that there is to know about it: powertrain, technology, interior and a lot so stay tuned and lets get right into it. In order to talk about the new chevy blazer ev, i have doug houlihan here, who is one of the main guys making it possible for this car to even exist in the first place. So doug lets walk through and talk about. First, this rs model that we see here and then move on to the show stopper, which is the blazer evss, with 557 horsepower 648 pound feet of torque, really impressive figure. Yeah yeah thanks case hey id like to start because on on all the blazer evs, it starts with the altium platform and with that modular design that we use across our gm ev portfolio, we actually took three different battery packs and we took the largest version and That set the wheelbase, so we took the wheels we pushed them out. We set the largest battery pack in the underbody and then create the body structure around it, with the altium platform were actually able to create a flat load floor in the second row seat, which well show you in just a few minutes. We actually have a very low center of gravity, which gives it just a great riding feel and structural rigidity good for handling yeah, extremely good for handling, and so well go ahead and start off talking a little bit about one of the big differences between the models.

Sure of the blazers, so it starts with a 1lt and a 2lt. Then you go to the rs and the ss and each one has not only different range ratings, but also different options for both front wheel, drive, rear wheel, drive and all wheel drive correct. So the one lt is front wheel, drive only right right, so basically ill walk you through the trim levels as well as our batteries, and so with the 1lt, its front wheel, drive, and that comes with 240 sub miles of range. All right, then, when we go to 2lt, we keep that front wheel, drive we go to the next size battery, so we get 293 miles of range, but we also offer all wheel drive. Then, when you go to the rs which you see over here next to me, this is where we put a larger rear drive unit in it and we create a rear wheel, drive variant for the blazer ev and then they are 320 miles. So is it the rear, wheel, drive model specifically that has 320 miles, because theres also an option for all wheel drive on the rs right? There is right, so you can get it in front, wheel, drive all wheel, drive and then on the rear, wheel, drive. We actually put a larger rear drive unit in the rs than it would be. It would be on the two wheel drive so theres, two all wheel drive systems, we have a, we have a drive unit and then we have an even larger drive unit.

Okay. Okay, then, once once we do that, we then put in the ss we go ahead and we put in another front drive unit and we create the largest horsepower possible 557. and then thats a range of 290 miles on the ss correct, correct so on the rs. If you want to absolutely maximize range, what is going to be the configuration that gives rear wheel, drive, rear wheel, drive largest battery pack, okay, so 1lt it takes the the entry battery pack 2lt and the rs front, wheel, drive and all wheel drive. Take the the mid size pack and then when we go to the to the rs, you can also get that rear wheel drive with the largest battery pack. So if you want to get that maximum figure of 320 miles range rear, wheel, drive, rs is going to be the model for that also, a good option, just because rear wheel drive is a lot of fun, its yeah, its a ton of fun – and you know Some other key features on the rs are, of course, the 21 inch wheels yeah. So both of the lt models are 19s. Those are 19s exactly and then all of these weve incorporated a 789 millimeter tire od, which thats a really really important piece of data, because it gives us what we call the rim to ground to still have plenty of rubber on the road for great ride. Comfort and then, when we step it up to the 22s, we still got that really good ride, because weve got the tire od to handle it yeah, so the biggest wheel in the lineup.

Obviously, on the top model, this ss that you see right here and well, go ahead and start talking about the ss because, like i said, of all the models, this is yeah. This is the showstopper 557 horsepower 648 pound feet of torque and 0 60 in under four seconds. You got it all, really impressive figures and also just a cool car to look at. I personally love the way that this roof line comes down to the beltline its. So short there it makes it look more like a more like a sports car than a crossover. I think, thats a really nice design element, and i know you guys were saying that you pulled a lot of design from the camaro and the corvette right right. Exactly and also the two tone roof so standard on the ss is this two tone: black roof, complementing our beautiful red exterior, and we also offer that on the rs as well and aside from obviously, the 22 inch wheels that we mentioned theres a few design differences Between the ss and even the rs, so looking at the front end, you see a big difference here. Yes, so you have a more aggressive, uh, lower fascia and in front fascia here and these these uh grillettes in here, which are really really cool, ill, get out of the lights. So you can see them and then tell me a little bit about the lighting signatures. So i know that theres more functions here than just being headlights, you get animations as you approach or walk away from the car, and it can also show your state of charge correct right.

Yes, and we can. We can turn on that state of charge, and that goes to a blue, illumination and, and actually the center lip bar starts to fill up right, as, as you fill up the actual charge itself and obviously also lip bow tie, which is yeah, yeah and all led Lighting all around, because i mean led lighting – is kind of becoming the standard in the industry and then tons of technology as we move towards the interior. So maybe just another thought on that on the exterior that we didnt touch. Yet is those front brembo brakes. So when we talk about ss, we talk about performance and not only the horsepower, but we need that braking performance so front brembos, track tunes, independent front and rear suspensions super cruise, which is industrys first hands free driving assistance technology on us and canada. You know compatible roads and weve got what we think makes a really really compelling ss yeah and then even more technology like park, assist obviously tons and tons of driver aids for lane keep assist automatic emergency, braking, even in reverse yeah, exactly so tons of technology. To keep this relevant when it comes to driving, but also how you display information, so 17.7 inch infotainment display and an 11 inch instrument cluster. All digital is a really impressive thing to look at in this interior. I mean these are. These are huge screens and kind of my favorite thing about looking at the interior of this car.

I also enjoy the turbine style vents and i know theres some specific details here that are particular to the rs and the ss right right, and you know at this point it would be really cool to introduce justin salmon hes our designer and hey justin, well bring Him over because i really like to give him the opportunity to to talk about what him and the design team have done to create a really really compelling interior absolutely lets. Do it heres justin! Now we have to talk about the interior of this new chevy blazer and in order to do that, im going to talk to justin salmon, who is the expert when it comes to the interior as well as the technology here so justin tell me first about the Technology that you see when you walk up, because this this is one of the most striking things about the interior as you approach it. Definitely, i think the centerpiece of this interior really is our virtual cockpit system, and that refers to these two displays that are working in concert. We have our 17.7 inch diagonal freeform center display there, as well as an 11 inch cluster display and were really maximizing. The active pixels on that center display weve got that freeform technology allowing us to take picture really close and following the periphery the shape of that screen, thats some technology that were really excited about also trying to strike the right balance between digital and tactile inputs.

So we maintain certain controls, like the volume knob, which interacts really, interestingly, with the screen there, as well as our hvac knobs down below. So customers will have the choice between interacting with those familiar physical controls, as well as being able to have redundancies on the screen to quickly tap through some of that, so its nice that you get options. Some of those things that you have to mess with. Often, while youre driving and you dont want to take your eyes off the road to engage with are still hard buttons, which i appreciate, i know a lot of my co workers appreciate and then you still have plenty of technology that keeps this up to date. Fresh good with the competition definitely but then in overall design, theres some cool elements here, one of the things that stands out the most aside from the screens and the technology are these turbine style, vents yeah. Those are elements were extremely excited about. Looking at our rich performance history, the rounds have been a signature element for chevrolet performance. So when we, when it came time to design the blazer uv, we really wanted to elevate that and execute it in a way that felt appropriate for the eevee space. So we explored some different material interactions and and some play with translucency that really highlights some refined details in those rounds and with the available ambient lighting its really going to celebrate those areas in low light scenarios, so yeah and then obviously, this being an ss interior.

Theres a few additions, so both the rs and the ss get a flat bottom steering wheel right, thats, correct it kind of keys into our performance pedigree and also theres a bit of ingress egress when theres a bit of spaciousness. That comes with that, as you slide into the vehicle and the driving dynamics, as you feel that wheel is something that felt appropriate for the performance of this vehicle, and then you get additional accents in this ss model. If you didnt already notice its a black and red interior, so some very, very bright accents even here in the back seat and something else that i like that we have in the back seat, is two usbc ports as well as vents. So your rear seat, passengers dont, have to bake and then, if we pan up also a big moon roof which is nice to have all right and the center portion of that is openable and there will be a motorized shade that will allow customers to close that. So you know, temperature can definitely come into play with those panoramic glass, roofs and definitely thought about the customer in that regard, and then lets check out the trunk as well, because i know people are going to be interested ill, get a hand for us to uh. Okay, cool kick that off. Oh here we can also talk about um, while were here sure lets mention the material of choice or whats. On your mind, uh, i was thinking mentioning the seats, sure sure, so something that you get on the ss and the rs model are heated and ventilated, front seats, and then i know in the rear.

Outboard seats are optional on the rs and then standard on the ss, if im not mistaken, yeah, so that the perforation that we did to kind of enable that heated and ventilated seat theres a lot of celebration in the detailing there. It almost becomes a lightning bolt. Almost ss shaped easter egg, which is something that the team had a lot of fun with. But the craftsmanship that you see in the in the pattern of that perforation is something that were really excited about: yeah so and overall, its a cool interior. And there is a good amount of soft touch, also like this nice size platform for resting. Your arm, which is you cant, say enough for having this as youre driving in ergonomics, yeah good platform, im glad that youre keying into the soft materials thats, really something we wanted to dial up for this vehicle, and it really gave us an excellent canvas for applying Color, in really bold ways, so again, like you mentioned in this example, were pairing the adrenaline red with the black and thats, a more overt and very expressive combination, but itll also open up the wave for choices as you move between trim levels to have something more Understated and sophisticated, so you know, playing with more tone on tone combinations, with contrast, stitches theres, going to be a wide variety of choices for our customers, thatll cater to quite a few different tastes, yeah and then, of course, you know, theres still certain materials that, in Order to keep the price down some of it is is not as soft touch but uh, but overall, a lot of really good materials that are in here and just a fun interior to look at between the color, the turbine style vents, the screens its a nice.

Looking place to sit yeah, definitely we wanted it to have a sense of character and excitement. You know in a lot of our performance vehicles when you get into the interior, it feels like youre getting into something special and thats the kind of energy and drama that we wanted to bring to the blazer ev. So i think we really struck the mark with that and im super proud of what the teams have put together so walking you through the technology journey on the blazer ev, just starting with the front end here, some of the technology that we have in terms of The lighting is pretty wonderful. We have a walk up and walk away, choreographed animation. That animation. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it also provides a functionality of showing the indication of your charge status, so the the faster the pulsation rate, the closer you are to a full charge. So not only does the lighting show you an animation as you walk up and youre state of charge, but theres also some details that we obviously have to cover with charging. So a few specs that arent quite released yet would be the exact size of the battery itself and the time to charge from zero to a hundred or zero to eighty percent uh. But i know its up to 190 kilowatts correct, fast charging right, yep 190 kilowatt dc fast charge at public stations. What that means in terms of your charging experience on the blazer ev is you can get up to 80 miles almost 80 miles in under 10 minutes of charging.

Also included is an 11 kilowatt ac on board charging module. That is what provides some of the expedient charging that i just described, but also covers your home charging. And then the screen has a bunch of extra functionality, because this is an ev, including route planning. That accounts for the fact that at some point, youre going to need a charge right. Yes, absolutely on the blazer ev, you can leverage the my chevy app, which allows you to do route planning. So if you know where youre going in your destination, the route planner will show you all the dc fast chargers along the way, in addition to where theyre located youll also know what the state of charge will be upon. Your arrival, the station availability at that charge station, you can reserve a charge station and you can also know the real time power rating of the stations there, which is a really nice feature to have, because not every ev in this segment gives you the ability to Plan your route with charging in mind a lot of them are just standard navigation. So having that as a feature is going to be really helpful, especially for people who are converting from gas to ev and they might not know every charging station thats around them. The car will be able to figure that out, yeah absolutely and what i really like about using the my chevrolet application is. You can plan your route while youre still in bed, while youre drinking your morning, coffee in your kitchen and then as soon as you get in your vehicle, youre ready to go and everything is placed in your vcs screen.

So we provide that flexibility. So you dont have to be in your vehicle to actually do your route planning and when we curated the charge experience for the blazer ev customer, we didnt stop with those charging specifications that i shared and also with the route planning applications that we make available. We also curated smaller details to help make the charge experience better. We have a power open charge, port door. We have a phrase that general motors called abc always be charging if you think about how often youre going to be interacting with your charge port door, its at a magnitude of 10 times that you would on the fuel door equivalent. So weve provided a motorized experience for you with the press of a button. Your charge port door will seamlessly open and close. So there you have it a deep dive into the all new 2024 chevy blazer ev. These vehicles are going to become available starting in the summer of 2023, beginning with the 2lt, and the rs models then later on in the end of 2023, youll be able to get your hands on a blazer ss and then finally, in q1 of 2024, the 1lt Will become available and the pricing works like this. The one lt starts at 44 995. If you want to go up to the 2lt its 47 595, then the rs starts at 51 995 and then the ss is 65 995. So its a big upgrade in price to get that 557 horsepower and 648 pound feet of torque.

But if you want the absolute mac daddy fastest blazer ev, you can get there. It is. Let us know what you think down in the comments below and well catch.