{"id":33295,"date":"2024-09-02T12:43:52","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T16:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=33295"},"modified":"2024-09-02T12:43:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T16:43:52","slug":"chevy-expands-two-track-strategy-with-equinox-ice-ev-siblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/chevy-expands-two-track-strategy-with-equinox-ice-ev-siblings","title":{"rendered":"Chevy expands two-track strategy with Equinox ICE, EV siblings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Minneapolis \u2014<\/em>\u00a0Electric vehicles have shaken up the auto industry with upstart Tesla Inc. boasting sky-high capital valuations, governments mandating EV sales and drivers plugging into new electric infrastructure across the country. Still, the EV future remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

Most mainstream auto brands have created new, separate model lines for their EVs \u2014 targeting Tesla with premium-priced chariots aimed at premium customers. Think Volkswagen\u2019s ID line, Kia EV, Hyundai Ioniq, Toyota bZ4X, Nissan Leaf\/Ariya. Luxury automakers have also introduced separate EV lines like the BMW i-series, Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQS.<\/p>\n

Not Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

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Scott Bell, Chevy global vice president, with the brand’s redesigned gas-powered Chevy Equinox. GM’s bowtie brand is offering ICE and electric versions of three of its most popular models, a different strategy from many other mainstream brands. <\/em>Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/div>\n

General Motors Co.’s meat-and-potatoes brand has introduced Equinox, Blazer and Silverado EVs that parallel familiar internal combustion-engine badges with an eye towards eventually converting all production to EV. Chevy, Volkswagen and Honda stand out as mainstream staking their futures on electric vehicles, hoping to follow Tesla into what GM calls an autonomous, EV future of \u201czero emissions, zero crashes, zero congestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equinox is particularly notable. Customers have a parallel choice of ICE and EV versions of the small SUV in the largest segment of the auto marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are different vehicles,\u201d said Chevrolet Global Vice President Scott Bell in Minneapolis for the Equinox ICE\u2019s media test. \u201cEquinox is a very valuable name. We\u2019ve been selling Equinox for 20 years and plan to sell them for many more. So as we transition to an all-EV portfolio eventually, we didn\u2019t want to lose that brand. The same for Blazer and Silverado, for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

As GM goes all-electric over the next 10 years, Bell does not expect it to happen overnight.<\/p>\n

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Chevy’s Equinox siblings: EVs on the left, ICEs on the right.<\/em><\/div>\n
Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe intent when we set out with this strategy was to make the EV business as incremental as possible,\u201d Bell said. \u201cNot to switch our existing customers \u2014 although (the choice) is there if they want to switch. The intent was to bring new customers in, leverage that EV tech, then keep them for life. We’re conquesting Tesla buyers \u2014 that\u2019s a big piece of the EV business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other mainstream automakers have also remade their business plans to go all-electric. Honda, for example, is calling its planned end of ICE production by 2040 its \u201cSecond Founding.\u201d And other mainstream companies have introduced EVs under traditional badges \u2014 the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Hyundai Kona EV \u2014 but Chevy is the most aggressive in targeting three established model badges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good idea in the long term, assuming that Chevy will sell nothing but EVs,\u201d said Karl Brauer, a veteran auto analyst for iSeeCars.com. \u201cBut in the meantime, it might be confusing to customers who don\u2019t know that, say, Equinox has two very different drivetrains.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Chevy Equinox EV becomes price competitive with the gas-powered model when the federal tax credit is applied. Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

GM\u2019s strategy dovetails with government regulatory trends pushing automakers toward EVs. The driving force in the United States is California, the nation\u2019s largest auto market (and, were it a country, the fifth-largest economy on the planet).<\/p>\n

By 2026, the Golden State will require, under its Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) rules, that 35% of automaker sales be zero-emissions vehicles. Failure to meet that goal will set automakers back $20,000 per vehicle that is shy of that threshold. The sales requirement jumps to 43% in 2027, 51% in 2028, 59% in 2029, and 68% in 2030 on the way to outlawing sales of new ICE vehicles in 2035. Fourteen other states have adopted the standards set by the California Air Resources Board regulatory body.<\/p>\n