Chevrolet Equinox EV 10-80% Charging: I'll give you a hint... It's not good... 

I live in the state of Florida and today I drove 185 miles from 80 to 20% driving 75 miles an hour with the AC set at 73. So it would’ve been 308 with a full charge. Much better than I ever got with my Tesla model Y performance.

As a Bolt euv owner, that charging looks great to me, but then every other ev's charging speed looks good to me :)

The Equinox is a great platform for Chevy…hopefully, with software updates, GM can update these curves…as Ford did with the Mustang. Thank you so much for the video! Great job showing the curves and the difference between this and the ID4. As for charge times, I’m an older driver (63) and have a Tesla M3 Standard with LFP. We’ve taken the car for 500 mile trips and the charge time was nice to rest, relax and “recharge”.

I just bought a 3RS and I really appreciate your efforts on this. I too, hope chevy updates the charging curve.

7:58 My expectation for the Equinox EV is that Chevy gets the 10% to 80% charge time to ~35 minutes, which I think they can achieve by smoothing out the curve. I think the biggest contributor to the erratic charging speeds will be the infrastructure itself. The only network that consistently and reliably provides a full 500 A without throttling is Tesla's Superchargers, and they still aren't open to GM EVs. When that happens, it will be a bit easier to discern whether it's power module, bridging, and cable issues on the charger side or charging profile programming and thermal limitations on the Equinox EV's side.

Appreciate the data and comparison. Good info that people need to take into account before purchase, depending on their situation. Your 'teacher voice' that it is 'unacceptable' should make Chevy take notice! 🙂

Yesterday I was on a 289 mile trip. I left the house with 93% SOH. In my 2022 ID.4 Pro S RWD. Range said that it had 238 miles on the GOM. On the first leg doing 70 to 75 mph mostly highway. I stopped the drop off package then started my trip back. I normally do this with 100%. But I forgot to plug in earlier. I arrived with 144 miles driven and 91 miles showing left. 3.5 m/kwh. Driving back home the EA was 68 miles on the highway distance. So I figured ok I should make it. After the ride back I made it to the charger with 6% and 15 miles showing left. I didn't have a working 350, so a 150 worked. It took 30 minutes to get to 75%. I only have 30 minutes free. Which was more than what I needed. Besides I stopped at Walmart and did some needed shopping. Overall ended with 3.6 m/kwh. The issue I have is I have already put on 76k miles on the car. And Max I can get is around 235 miles on a full charge. It would be nice to see more range. But still very happy with the car. Thanks for the update and what are you getting for m/kwh?

Thank you for this! Indeed charging is important…but as a retiree, and with lots of time in front of me…I don’t mind…maybe I will, at some point, but for now, I am all good - can’t wait to test it myself! As I said, it may not be the best at charging…but it is NOT a Tesla…which is what I wanted all along…knowing the horror stories of owners up in Quebec, with winter damages and all…its not only Toyota that got corrosion issues you know… Great video again. Eagerly awaiting the next ones. Great info with honesty = what we like at the end of the day!😊

Great video. Maybe your best as far as potential influence to this issue. EV drivers need consistency as you mentioned An unpredictable charging behavior will kill the road trip potential of this vehicle.

This seems more like a station issue than a car issue, especially if you're using the EVgo and EA stations using the BTCpower dispensers that are junk. BMW i4 owners can also attest to how those stations can only sustain >400A for a short period before the cables start overheating and they throttle, even though they are supposedly liquid cooled. Many of them that do manage to hit that 500A peak aren't even rated for it, if you look on the side of the dispenser, most BTCpower units will list that they are only rated for 350A.

I’m glad you shared this with me. The salesman told me it could take an hour to charge on the road. I thought he might be mistaken. The Tesla is charged in under 20 minutes. I also see that it was about a $30 charge. People have been telling me it costs under 15 for a full charge. What does it cost you to charge ? This car would not work for me. There’s times I’ll have to charge it on the road and I don’t want wait an hour.

The GM EV history is blighted by the Bolt fires. I am unsure, but speculated the original LYRIQ curve was due to engineers being very conservative with first model years to get real world charging in the data set b4 issuing the fix that brings it into nominal ranges. It looks somewhat similar to the original LYRIQ, so I think it is safe to assume an OTA update to fix will be forthcoming at some point. Thx for the video. I enjoyed watching.

I think this is probably what the charge curve will look like on the 2026 Bolt replacement. Compared to the old Bolt that might seem like a miracle, but if you are comparing what is out there in the market it won't cut it. The Bolt actually is tolerable during the summer for regional travel. But it isn't acceptable for most people if you wanted to do a trip that requires stacking stops over longer distances. Winter time with no battery preconditioning, no heat pump the range collapses. I hope those issues have been addressed by GM. Now how does this charge curve compare to the Blazer? Curious how pervasive this issue is with the GM platforms.

If road tripping is a regular occurrence than get something else. It's that simple. Most people do not take 300 mile trips on a daily or even monthly basis so while this is something that should be improved its not going to be a factor in daily use for most people. If you charged to 100% before a road trip you could take a 400 mile trip one way and probably only spend 15 min at a charger. Unless you are planning on covering 500 miles from home one way there aren't a ton of instances where you are charging 10% to 80 at dcfc station. Just like those that need 0 to 60 in 4 secs should pass on equinox, those that need to frequently do 10 to 80 away from home should pass.

Hey congrats on the car. I spoke with you just before picking up my id4 in November. I've had 6 EVs and love trading them in and trying new ones. I love the equinox inside with all the real buttons and knobs cars used to have before Tesla destroyed that. Also love that it has android automotive,.my Polestar had that and it can't be beat. I think my days of trading in EVs are over tho as I'm now thinking of an early retirement and can't afford to be trading in all the time so I will likely keep my id4 and bolt for a while. If my id4 was written off for some reason, is put the equinox on my short list. Again congrats.

When you see the wattage come back up after the dip, that's the result of voltage rising as the battery charges. All the graphs you showed are wattage, which is amperage X voltage. If you did a graph on just the charge current, you would see a more steady graph, and there wouldn't be any rise after the drop. The charge profile of the Chevy Equinox may be adaptive, mostly thermal, as you suspect. The ID4 may be more of a program. While the ID4 seems better, there could be more degradation in 10 years, than the Equinox. In the long term, the Equinox (seemingly random) charge curve may be better for the "health" of the battery.

Thanks for very informative video. Iwas,or am.😮 Considering this for my first ev I'm 59 years old. Really researching the model y long range. Like the tesla because of the many years in the game and charging structure. Always love chevy and the vast amount of repair locations, I live in the motor city. You're video has leaned me toward modle Y long range AWD, can't beat what you get for price versus chevy ev

I was extremely interested in the Equinox EV, but, as an apartment-dweller, its charging concerns are a major turn-off for me.

Most EV owners will charge mostly at home over night. Cheaper kwh chares and like most the car will sit idle parked for at least 6 to 8 hours a day.. Thus you won't use charge stations much if at all. Few people go on long trips that they drive... those that do will be able to stretch their legs and refresh for a more enjoyable safer road trip... Bottom line...Because you never really thought about putting gas in your car you're thinking about charging it... stop it stop thinking about silly crap.. be happy to have a new EV got out enjoy it..

They will have to fix this. They have to know that charge speed is important, so the software needs to be updated. You are not being negative either. I get it that Chevy might be playing it safe and maybe waiting to get numbers back in order to improve things but if this is what they advertise, that's a problem. One caveat to the charging might be the charging station itself. Shared stations may not push as much as those that are not shared. But we'll have to wait and see what Chevy is doing. As an aside, YOU my friend will need to get a 7 dollar a month EA membership. You are paying close to ICE prices for a charge. 🙂 Thanks for this video.

You probably already noticed this, but GM in an effort to keep costs low on the Equinox EV while offering such a large 85 kWh usable battery, they did it by reusing the Ultium cells on their larger products (e.g. Lyriq, Silverado EV & Hummer EV) but removing the number of cells in the battery pack. However this has the effect of having a REALLY low nominal pack voltage for a BEV. Notice that at low SoC the DC fast charger is at ~300V, which meant the pack was only at ~270V. Even at 50% SoC it only goes up to 315V on the charger, meaning the pack nominal voltage is around 285V. GM compensates for it by allowing the Equinox EV to take a ton of Amperage (up to 500A which is impressive) but that means you'll also get a ton of heat buildup in the cables, inverter & battery pack, which is why I suspect it slows so dramatically up top of the charging curve. In comparison, the VW ID.4 which you also have operates close to 350V nominal. In your ID.4 fast charge test, the car at 10% SoC is already around 330V on the pack, meaning the DC fast charger is already putting out 360V and it only goes up from there. The ID.4 can therefore go up to 175~180 kW peak and hold it relatively steady with a slow ramp down because Watts is a function of Volt * Amps, meaning the VW doesn't need as high Amperage to get theses speeds = less heat buildup = more stable & predictable charging times. If you need to roadtrip often and want to stick with a GM EV, I would probably think about the Blazer EV with the 100 kW pack or the Lyriq with the same unit since they operate at higher voltage and can do the 190 kW peak instead.

OMG! I wasn't thinking that it would be so bad!

Meh, I fast charge about 6 times a year. Each time I’m gonna give up 10, maybe 15 minutes? Max? I can deal with it…

So the question I'd have is whether you were using preconditioning through navigation (or is that even an option in the Equinox EV?). The reports I've seen so far is that doing so significantly improves the charging profiles for Ultium EVs.

I wonder why other manufacturers haven't adopted the 800V architechture of the Kia/Hyundai EGMP platform?

Id.4 mostly quotes its charging percentages on its 62KWH battery. The curve on its “PRO”, with its outfitted 85KWH battery, is lower

Is this charging problem is something that can be fixed with an system update you can download?

Thanks Would love to see another charge session

Coming from a Bolt owner, this curve is very acceptable to me. No need to cook the battery if I’ve stopped for upwards of an hour for a food and restroom break. Will it preheat in advance of a charging session? If so, huge progress on Chevy’s part.

150kW is a joke in 2024, basically means these are all local commuter cars yet again.

If you are fast charging once on a long trip and it is paired with meal time, then this curve won't matter too much. So for me it will be fine and also we are making long trips about once or twice a year.

Nah, it's too long if you want to make a longer trip. I really like my Bolt. But I don't do LONG trips. I drive it from Northern VA to NYC with one 45 - 50 minute stop. We did this going to Goshen for LegoLand a few weeks ago as well. It was no problem to make a lunch stop with the family. But if we wanted to drive to Florida...forget about it. We'd never get there.

That’s such a bummer. Was seriously considering the Equinox EV to join my Bolt EUV, but it isn’t much of an upgrade when it comes to charging. Just don’t understand why GM didn’t rewire the pack to have a higher nominal voltage. It likely would make a big difference if it’s not trying to dump 500 amps in and heating up. I almost wonder if it would charge faster on a “150” kW station that is limited to 350 amps

Let’s make sure we are comparing similar batteries? The equi has 88kw battery what’s in the ID? Sounds like you expect the equi to travel 300 miles every day? Most days I will be driving 30 miles. Once a year, may take a 300 mile trip . I also have a level 2 charger at my fitness center. I’m betting it will charge adequate while I’m in the center?

I just finished watching Out of Specs Cross Country Race with the EV Pickup Trucks including the Silverado EV. in this series Team Silverado discovered that if they didnt Precondition the battery for charging the Silverado which is Ultium Charged amazingly better than if they had preconditioned the battery. Could you do a charging test after stressing the car and plugging in without preconditioning and see what happens. I know it seems odd but Ultium might actually like riding it a tad warm.

Does this EV not have pre-heating for the battery? If it does, did you use it?

The nominal pack voltage is 288v.....just why? Equinox has 10 modules at 28.8v each. 12 modules is needed at minimum just to match voltage of the Bolt.

precondition, precondition, precondition, set your charging location in the vehicles nav and let it prepare for the charging on its own.

Wow. That's disappointing. I had high hopes it would have been better.

Just curious, did you used pre-heating option before starting your charge? It usually helps a lot on my Model 3 (getting the Equinox EV today, so I'll have to try it myself).

Everyone tries to do charging curves in the wild, but there are so many variables that the curves need to be done in a lab under controlled conditions.

Today i charged at 350 kw EA charger from 29-80% took just under 32min

Have you used manual preconditionning or this function is just for winter time prior to fast charging sessions?

Please try to the precondition battery and see what difference that makes.

I'm looking to only charge overnight in my garage and use this as a commuter. How long will it take on a level 2 charger at home? Great work and insight! Thank you!

I hope GM can fix this somehow. Wondering if the software pre-conditioned the battery. Thanks for the video, I was waiting to see how the 10% to 80% it will take.

Does it do something similar if you start at 30-40% too? I wonder if it's a temperature or some other issue rather than what the curve is supposed to be. That looks horrifically bad.

I guess that's why they don't advertise 10%-80% charging speed. They say "70 miles of range in just 10 minutes of charging", but it's similar to Hyundai Kona and Kia Niro speeds so I guess it's ok for the entry level EV.

You aren't showing any info about the chargers themselves. What are they supposedly rated at? And are the cables on them actually capable of supporting that max rating for more than a couple of minutes? Our of Spec nerd level stuff. The biggest problem though is the low voltage Ultium pack used in the Equinox.

Chevrolet reduced the size of the pack from the Lyriq/Blazer when they made the Equinox. This resulted in the lower voltage you observed on the Equinox. The lower voltage means it will never charge as fast as a Lyriq/Blazer.

OH yea and reported on other Ultium vehicles at some points it is better to keep your cabin's AC Off and let the HVAC system have full attention to cooling the battery.

Why didn't you go to a Tesla charger?

Those aren't issues that's by design to prevent the battery from overheating. I'm order to keep the battery from getting too hot they put the fastest charging curve possible till 30% to let the battery cool. Then ramp it up once it's cooked down enough. Of course charging speeds carry by location such as Phoenix to San Diego. Might be faster, might be slower

I got a way better charging curve on a tesla supercharger with a awd blazer ev which is supposed to have the same charging capacity. Got 155kw from 16-30%, 120-130kw from 30 to 38%, 120 down to 105kw at 50%, a little dip from 50 to 65% with 75kw then ramped up to 90kw from 65 to 75% then slowly goes to 65kw at 80%. 61kwh in 37min. Dont know why you got bad result but it was bot the car fault

Also, does it do the same thing if you plug it in to a 100kw charger? If it doesn't then potentially it would be faster if it could keep the 100kw up to 75-80.

2:48 I think this is still a space to watch because it's not clear whether this session was suffering from thermal issues. The Equinox EV should be holding 500 A until at least 40-45% SOC, so the fact that the current started dropping only 5 minutes into the session indicates that something is off. Also, the current versus voltage is a bit misunderstood. If the C rate is the same, the internal resistance and heat stress on the individual battery cells doesn't change, even if you double or halve the voltage. The difference is really in the cabling and busbars. Either you spend more money on more and better materials (e.g., copper instead of aluminum), or you introduce more heat into the system at higher currents.

I am wondering if preconditioning the battery thru the screen first will affect the charging curve?

The interesting thing here to me is that Car and Driver got 51 minutes from 10-90, which logically would be a much lower 10-80 time than what you got on either charge. And those tests would have been done in May so it should have been warm/hot then too, so I’d be curious to know what caused the difference.

Such a good review. Chevy should have learned from the Bolt … overall a great car for the price but the crippled DCFC rate of 55kwh held it back from what it could have been. I hate that it appears the the Equinox EV may suffer something similar.

The 84 is not a good charging vehicle. We have a 2023 Pro S plus. We’ve taken numerous cross country trips with. It completely sucks. Especially compared to the Tesla model Y. So much nicer of a road trip.

Not acceptable for 2024. This is horrible. Is the Blazer EV any better? There needs to be a baseline for people to compare cars. Every car maker will show numbers that make their car look good. Need standards similar to comparing phones, cameras and computers.

Did you precondition the battery?

Wow my model y hits 250kw everytime and slowly goes down as it charges. 250 should be standard by now.

Wow that taper holy shit

Some Chinese EVs are charging at 550 kw speeds. That's 10% to 80% charge in under 10 minutes. But we'll probably never see that here

Wow surpisingly disappointing! Thats just little faster than Bolt!! For the price they are asking?? There are way too many choices

Those are very disappointing results. About double what my ioniq5 takes. I was sort of interested in this car, but not so sure after seeing your video unless there’s another factor at work.

This is quite bad