2025 Chevy Equinox EV RS — Living With One of the Best-Selling & Affordable Electric SUVs!
What’s going on, YouTube? So, since we first tested out Chevy’s affordable electric SUV, we were really impressed. And since then, it’s become a bestseller. And now we’re with the latest 2025 model, which we’ve had the chance to live with for the past 7 days. So, after those seven days, is this one of the best? Well, let’s go ahead and find out. [Music] as always. Let’s get things started here with a quick spec dump. Now, as the name implies, this is an electric SUV. This has an 84 kWh lithium ion battery pack. This model has the dual motor all-wheel drive system producing 300 horsepower. The range on this one is $285 mi. Now, the base price is $33,000 before the $7,500 tax credit. And if you’re looking to buy one or any new vehicle, we’d encourage you to go to carconfections.com/newcar quotes to get the best price. Now, this of course is a 7-day review, so that means we’re going to do a couple special things. We’ll be getting our official Kentucky sound level reading. We’ll also talk about the efficiency of this EV and at the end tell you if we like it better, the same, or worse after living with it this week. But let’s go ahead and close up the hood because even though they share the same name, the Equinox EV really looks nothing like the traditional Equinox. Now, like we mentioned at the introduction, this vehicle has actually become a bestseller since it was first introduced. Uh, last month was the best sales month this model has ever had. And if you count Tesla as a luxury EV automaker, this is the bestselling mainstream EV in America. And it’s easy to see why when you take a look at this because even though it has an affordable price tag, it certainly doesn’t have an affordable look. A very sleek design that everybody we showed this to this week thought it looked quite upscale and very aggressive overall, especially when you have the RS trim like we have today that gets you the black finish here on the grill. The LT trims have a little bit more body color up here in the front for a more traditional SUV appearance. Of course, the lighting is also quite advanced. You’ve got the light bar that goes across the front grill. Kind of goes into our uh daytime running light and turn signal indicator here on the RS. It does also have a dynamic animation. And this has front and rear animations when you get into the vehicle. Also, right here is your main headlight unit. As you can see, it is a projector LED headlight. And then as we walk around to the back, the really sporty design certainly continues here as well. Yeah, I think it’s very handsome. Actually, it looks a lot sportier than the traditional Equinox. Now, as far as design touches, we have a spoiler up here at the top. We have a wiper. And then really prominently across the entire back are our tail lights. These are going to be very premium tail lights. They’re fully LED uh on all models. So, as you can see, you have the LED brake light, LED uh reverse light, and we even have dynamic turn signal indicators. If you go for the higherend examples, you’ll have the clear lenses like this. And then as we drop down to the lower fascia. All of this is going to be nice and sealed off. You can tow with the Equinox EV. It’s rated at 1500 lb. Now, moving on to the wheels, you’ve got a few different selections. You start at 19in alloys. Our RS trim comes with 21in alloys. We’ve got the really nice looking gloss black design. Uh, obviously this is a large size as well for a compact SUV, so they stand out quite a bit and match nicely with the gloss black wheel arches and lower surrounds on this model. Now, as we move over here to the mirrors, you’re going to notice a gloss black finish up top for this trim. Blind spot monitoring is standard on all models. However, if you choose the base trim level of this, you will not have heating. Now, at the side of the Equinox EUV, overall vehicle length is 191 in, which is actually quite large for this compact segment. And I do want to point out uh even despite sharing the name Equinox, this is actually completely unrelated to the gas Equinox when it comes to the underpinnings of this model. Now, as far as design touches, I have to say, uh there are a lot of different things going on. We have the flush mount door handles. We have blacked out window surrounds. And you also find a blacked out roof. You can additionally get a white color roof if you prefer that design touch. And as far as your safety systems are concerned, you’re going to get all of those as standard equipment, all the active ones at least. Additionally, you have super cruise and that’s going to be an available feature on your upper end examples. We do have it on this model and it worked absolutely flawlessly. But guys, there’s a lot to discuss when it comes to the interior tech. But first, if you’re new here, we’re brothers and we’ve been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We started young and since then we’ve reviewed over 2,000 cars at every price point. And if you want to know about all the latest and greatest rides, then make sure to subscribe to be a part of our Car Confections family. Let’s learn a lot and have some fun with all the newest cars. And let’s move on to the interior. First, here’s our typical Chevy key fob. As you can see, you have a smart entry system as well as the ability to precondition the cabin on the fob. Walking up to the vehicle, it’ll sense your approach. It’ll go ahead and pop the door handles out, and that’s also when it will play those animations in the headlights and tail lights and getting inside super easy. And then let’s take a look at the interior. I think one of the things that will really strike you about the cabin of this model is the fact that even though the starting price is a little above $33,000, you actually still get a very similar experience to many other much more expensive Chevy models. Uh that kind of begins with the seats. So you will have a cloth seat on your standard trim levels. However, we have the Evoteex leatherrett on the top trim levels, including this RS. Uh as you can see, pretty nice look to this. So you’ve got a little bit of cloth accenting. We also have the available red accenting inside of here to go with the back black seats, excuse me. And you also have RS branding up there at the top. These models also come with our power adjusting seats. And then you also have available memory seating. And let’s go ahead and climb on inside. [Music] Now, when you get inside and close up the door or tap the brake, that’s when the vehicle itself will power up. But let’s go ahead and take a look at the rest of the cabin materials. Like I was saying, for a vehicle that starts at $33,000, materials in here are still pretty good. So, you have a leatherrett with the texture through here, soft touch plastic along the top, and again, we have the available red accenting. So, it’s kind of a red fading into gray piece of trim right through there. On the upper part of the dashboard, this is all padded plastic. We’ve got these little gray accents through here, which by the way, they have ambient lighting behind them on the door trim and right there. And then you have a leatherrett along the console for your knee to rest against. Now, let’s jump into some individual features. We’ll start with the gauge cluster. So, this has a standard 11in gauge cluster on all models. You can easily reconfigure the design to a few different things, including the full screen map, which I know a lot of people quite like. Additionally, this model has an available head-up display. We have that option on today’s example. It is a very large head-up display. So, I definitely like that how big it is. It takes up a lot of space and gives you good information when you’re navigating. Now, as we pull back to the steering wheel, we’ve got a very nice thick steering wheel on the RS trim. It’s a flat bottom design with the red accent stitching and RS branding. Of course, it’s manual tilt and telescoping. We also have available steering wheel heating. And now let’s go ahead and take a look at interior storage. So this model has excellent packaging as you might expect for an electric compact SUV. And that starts with our center console. It’s very narrow, but it’s actually super deep, a lot more than you would expect. Um, so we put that to the test with the doughut test. And as you can see, we have 13 donuts inside. So we have a baker’s dozen. That’s really very good for a compact SUV. You also have a little bit of storage here. Two cup holders, a very large bin with a wireless phone charging pad inside. And then because we have great flexibility with the packaging, you’ve got this gigantic center pass through which is flexible for just about anything you want to throw there. The shifter is up here on the column like most recent General Motors products. Just pull down for drive, up for reverse. As you can see, we’ve got the 360 degree camera system on this example. Nice overhead view. You can switch between a few different other views through there as well. Then let’s press the P for park. You have an electronic parking brake and you also have auto brake hold. Now, let’s take a look at the climate controls next. So, one of the things with this model that I certainly appreciate and Mason appreciates as well is the fact that even though a lot of the climate controls are in the screen, you have redundant controls physically rendered through here. So, you can easily reach and make your temperature adjustments without having to interact with the display. I think that’s certainly better than what basically 90% of electric SUVs are doing these days. Uh, this is the available dual zone automatic climate control system. It is part of a package. Otherwise, you’re going to get a single zone automatic setup. And we also have the available ventilated seats on today’s tester in addition to the heated seats, which are standard on the RS trim level and the 2LT. Now, in terms of the actual display itself, as you can see, it is absolutely enormous. That’s kind of what I was referring to because it is very similar to many of your much more expensive Chevy products. This has the latest and greatest software on board. So, it has Google builtin. Uh, so you have Google Maps, Google Assistant, things like that. Everything in here is super nice and responsive. Uh, really, it’s a great screen to interact with with one caveat, of course, and that’s, as you may already know, every GM electric vehicle except for the Cadillac L does not have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto at all, wired or wireless, because they want you to use this built-in system. So, if you’re really addicted to Apple CarPlay, you might not be happy with uh that arrangement, but that’s the way that they have done this. And by the way, the Google built-in free trial is for 8 years. Now, up here, we’ve got our volume knob built into the display itself. There’s a six speakeraker sound system for every single version, so they don’t offer any type of branded sound system, but let’s give it a sample and see what it sounds like. Overall sound quality is fine. Uh definitely won’t blow you away, especially if you’re choosing a top trim. I would have liked to see a Bose sound system or something a little bit more elevated inside of this, but uh the gas Equinox kind of is the same way without offering any type of branded sound system. Now, wrapping up the front of the cabin, we have an auto- dimming mirror. We also have the available digital rear view mirror. And then up at the top, we do not have the sunroof, but you can actually option on a panoramic sunroof if you want. Now, let’s discuss the rear seat area for the Equinox EV. Now, perhaps uh one of the most impressive elements about this Equinox EV after living with it this week was just how spacious this rear seat area is, as well as the cargo area. You’ll see that in just a second. Uh, as far as the legroom and headroom figures, uh, we’re sitting at 38 in of legroom, 38 1/2 in of headroom. Those are very good figures. As a matter of fact, it’s actually right on par with that of the Blazer EV, which is the bigger electric SUV in the uh, Chevy lineup. Now, of course, we brought the official Car Confections ruler along with us so we can get a realistic uh, knee room figure. This seat is adjusted to Drew, who is 5’8, and I’m 5’9. And look at that. A whopping 10 in of knee room. That is absolutely fantastic. My feet can slide up underneath of the seat. The seats themselves uh kind of hug you in just a little bit and they are relatively comfortable. The only thing I will say is that the seats themselves do not recline. Now, if we fold down the center armrest, there are two cup holders inside of here. And as far as features are concerned, we have uh rear vents as well as heated back seats. Heated back seats are going to be available as an option on your top-end examples. We do also have two USB ports as well. and then a little storage cubby down below. As far as the door trim is concerned, they had to cut cost somewhere. So, we do have a hard touch upper part on the door trim. However, we have a padded armrest portion and then there’s additionally some bottle storage down below that is big enough to fit a bottle of around this size. Now, as far as the tailgate is concerned, you do have a hands-free power one uh that’s going to be on your upper end examples of this car. And as I was just talking about, you actually have quite a lot of space when it comes to the Equinox EV and the cargo area. As a matter of fact, it’s almost identical to what the Blazer EV is giving you. So, you’re sitting at about 26 cubic feet of space uh behind the second row of seats. If we get those seats folded down, which I can just kind of reach up here and do it, it does fold 60/40 split. Uh there are not any handles to fold them in the cargo area, though, so keep that in mind. That’s going to give you your maximum of around 57 cubic feet. So, that is very good. Uh, honestly, for this segment of vehicle, uh, that’s for sure. Uh, and by the way, if you do happen to be crossopping this Equinox EV with maybe some gasoline compact SUVs, we’d encourage you to go to carconfections.com/vehicle rankings. Now, the reason you do that is because we’ve gone through all the compact SUVs on the market. There are tons of them and ranked them in individual categories that might matter more or less to you. things like cargo capacity, uh technology inside the cabin, resale reliability, powertrain choices, all of that is detailed for you. So, if you want to make an informed buying decision and cross shop all of the options, be sure to use our tools at carconfections.com/vehicle rankings. Now, back to this cargo area. Let’s get our cargo length, width, and height figures. The cargo length is going to be very good on this model. I have a feeling. Yeah, indeed. 77 in of cargo length behind Drew’s 5’8 driving position. From behind the second row, you can expect a little over 38 in. As far as the opening, that’s going to be a little bit more on the narrow side, 42 in. And then height is also probably going to be on the shorter side for an SUV just due to the sleek profile. 26 in of height. That’s not That’s not fantastic. Now, as far as the load in, let’s get that as well. That’s very good at uh 30 in. And then if we lift up the floor, you’ll find a very surprising amount of space. You could actually fit quite a lot of stuff under the floor. Uh this is your charge cable right here. Uh there is not going to be a spare tire though, so keep that in mind. Well guys, here we are behind the wheel of the Chevy Equinox EV. In this test drive, we’re going to be discussing quite a lot. As you can see on the screen right now, we’ll be getting our real world efficiency as well as our sound level reading as well. But first, we need to start with a hard acceleration. All right. And that was 60 mph. Not bad. Not bad at all. So, like we discussed at the spec dump, uh, this comes in two different versions. We’ve got the all-wheel drive, the dual motor all-wheel drive, which gives you more power, 300 horsepower and 355 lb feet of torque, um, being powered again by the dual motor all-wheel drive system, and an 84 kWh lithium ion battery pack. Now, you know, if you’re crossopping this with your typical mainstream compact SUV, which I think most people would be, you know, in particular, like a an ICE Equinox is going to be much less powerful than this. So, you can definitely feel that nice wall of torque, which just propels you forward in a a very linear kind of way. Yeah, I have to say after living with it this week, uh that’s one of the biggest takeaways that I got from it is it’s actually a very pleasurable driving experience because typically you don’t have uh that level of power in this segment. Uh we actually spent an entire week with the gas Equinox as well not that long ago. And that was really one of the weakest points about that car was how slow it was. And this certainly does not suffer from that deficiency. The all electric torque really really just pushes you back in your seat. It feels quite nice. Now, if you get the front-wheel drive version, I do want to point out you’re going to have a lot less power. That of course brings your price down. Uh, but we’re sitting at 220 horsepower and 243 lb feet of torque for the front-wheel drive version. So, the all-wheel drive is quite a substantial upgrade. However, I still uh want to point out that the front-wheel drive is more powerful than the gasoline uh Equinox as well as most of the compact SUVs in that segment. Other thing to consider is of course being an electric vehicle, you don’t have any traditional transmission, whereas a lot of things that compete in this segment would come with a continuously variable transmission. Uh I think a lot of people would kind of prefer that seamless feel. No drone or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely like the amount of power that you get here. It’s not overwhelming. You know, some EVs you accelerate hard, it gives you whiplash. This isn’t that type of vehicle. It’s definitely targeted towards the the heart of the segment. Um, but it’s plenty for your everyday life. And let’s also take a second to discuss ride quality as well. We’ve made it to just the highway portion where we can discuss this easily. And I have to say, after living with this model this week, I’ve been very impressed with it on our home uh roads. Uh, when you hit bumps in the road, it does a pretty good job of soaking things up. I’m not going to say it’s like the most comfortable thing that you could buy at this, you know, compact segment, uh, because we do have the really big 21in alloy wheels on the outside. So, that’s something to keep in mind. Uh, but overall, I think the ride is actually quite good despite those wheels. Uh, the seats are comfortable as well. So, I think most buyers will be very pleasantly surprised with the ride quality. And this is also our designated strip of road to get our sound level reading. So, let’s go ahead and get that going. 55 mph. We have it on fan speed one. 54.6 dB is what we are sitting at as our official sound level reading. Um, now it is official because the first time we drove this vehicle was up in Detroit. So, now we’re back home in Kentucky. So, we can truly compare to all of its rivals at carconfections.com/soundle readings. And indeed, that is a very quiet soundlevel reading. It’s not quite the, you know, quietest EV that we’ve ever tested, but if you compare it to the gasoline compacts, that is one of the very quietest that you could be crossopping this with. So, it’s quieter than things like the gasoline Equinox. So, that’s uh definitely something worth noting. Now, we made it to a little bit of a back road here, so I can talk briefly about the dynamics. It’s not the big focus of this vehicle. Um, of course, you know, if you really want to go fast, Chevy makes like the Blazer SS EV as well, but there’s just inherent things that are better about electric vehicles. How they carry the weight is one of those things. So, compared to the traditional Equinox, the weight is down low in the platform on this. It really helps you have a nice balanced feel when you go around corners aggressively. The steering is nicely weighted as well, and it’s very responsive when you put it into sport mode. And let’s talk about uh overall range because this is an electric SUV after all, that’s a big very important thing. So, uh because both of the models, frontwheel drive and all-wheel drive, have the same 84 kWh uh battery pack, that means the frontwheel drive gets better range, 319 mi of range. that is actually very very good, especially on that lower price model. Um, all-wheel drive reduces it down to 285 mi of range. Um, so that’s actually still pretty competitive, especially for this price point. And let’s talk about our efficiency as well. So, like I said, we lived with this for the whole week. What type of efficiency are we getting? Well, uh, we’ve been sitting at 3.4 4 kilowatt or miles per kilowatt hour in this model, which is actually very good for an electric SUV. As far as how that would compare to the EPA estimated range of 285 mi, if you math it out, uh, you know, 3.4 times the 84 kWh battery, you’re sitting right at the 285 mile mark, uh, for this all-wheel drive version. So, I would definitely expect to be getting that 285. Um, it is worth noting, of course, we did have pretty good weather here in Kentucky. was around 75 to 85° uh which is you know better than the winter for EVs but overall I think you will get that range figure. Yeah, this is a nice and aerodynamic shape. Charging is also important. So let’s quickly talk about that as well. The charge port has not been updated to NACS. So that is a pretty important thing to uh mention here. It’s the CCS adapter. But as far as charging speeds are concerned, um you’re sitting at 150 kW uh fast charging. So that’s also not the fastest EV out there when it comes to charging speeds, but it’s okay. Uh Chevy says that’s good for 77 mi of range in as little as 10 minutes. And let’s go ahead and talk about today’s Slam Dunk and Airball. I’ll start with the Slam Dunk. It’s really going to be kind of the overall packaging of this vehicle. Um, it is just a very valuepacked model. Uh, you’ve got just a lot of standard features that are very impressive. And honestly, if you really kind of go feature by feature, it kind of doesn’t make a good case for the Blazer EV. Uh, I can’t really picture exactly why you’d want to do choose that. It’s not a big difference in space, for example, or interior finishes or technology or whatever. Like, this vehicle just really is a very, very strong option. Yeah. On the airball side, what we’re going to say is uh perhaps some of the interior finishes in here could be a little bit nicer. There are some cheap plastics uh throughout the cabin, especially when you’re talking about one at this price point where are above 50,000. We’ll talk about that in just a second. But this cabin is a little cheap. And then also kind of the side air ball I’ve just mentioned is no uh wire, no CarPlay, and no Android Auto I think is a big deal for a lot of buyers. And I think that’s going to be something that Chevy needs to go ahead and add back. And wrapping up this weekong review, do we like it better, the same, or worse after living with it this week. Um, I think I speak for all of us here and say that we like this Equinox EV better. I think we are very impressed with it. The first time that we drove this vehicle and living with it just kind of further uh impressed us because this is actually a very solid all-around product. And quite frankly, I think I would take this Equinox EV over the gasoline alternative, which is something that most of the time I cannot say when there’s two options. Yeah, undoubtedly this is better than the traditional Equinox. Um, so, you know, maybe it doesn’t match everybody’s lifestyle being electric, but with that amount of range and the all the benefits you get, I think this is definitely the best Equinox to buy. And now, let’s talk about the very important aspect of price for the Equinox EV. So, like I said at the very beginning, this vehicle starts at a little over $33,000. And the important thing to note about that is, uh, that you do still qualify for the tax credit if that applies to you. So, uh, this is a very affordable product. If you factor that in, it’s looking at the mid $20,000 price point, especially if you’re going on the base end. Now, if you want a, you know, fully loaded example like this, this will run you quite a bit more. Uh we’re sitting at 43,400 as a starting point for this RS trim level. We also have pretty much every option package. There are several option packages that are quite expensive. All told, after destination, we’re sitting at 52,530, which is uh pretty much fully loaded besides for the moon roof. Uh honestly, I would probably take a more basic version uh as compared to this trim level. That seems like a little bit expensive, but if you want all the features, this certainly is going to give you all that. Now, if you’re looking to buy a Chevy Equinox EV or any new vehicle, we’d encourage you to go to carconfections.com/newcar quotes. The reason you do that is because we have a tool on our website that’ll connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price. It’s also going to give you access to invoice pricing information, which is a great tool for dealership negotiation. If you’d like to take advantage of that, as well as things like our monthly payment tool, you can find a link to that in our video description, as well as a pinned comment down below. But buying a vehicle is about more than just the original MSRP. So, let’s discuss resell and reliability. First up, let’s talk about resell value. As an economics graduate myself, we took the time to develop what we think is a good estimate for this Equinox EV’s potential resale value. We estimate that after 5 years and 60,000 mi, it’ll be worth 54.7% of original MSRP. And after 10 years and 120,000 mi, 20.4%. Now, it’s worth noting those are pretty good resale value percentages. It’s actually above average for all vehicle brands. However, a couple things to note is that some of the Japanese rivals such as Toyota, Honda, Subaru, and Mazda will be better. And also, this is an electric product. So, sometimes that can positively or negatively affect your resale value. It will depend on market conditions. Now, I’ve also done the same for reliability by developing the combined reliability index. This takes into account several studies on reliability from trustworthy sources and combines them in a way that gives you the most holistic picture. In this regard, Chevy is rated well above the overall industry average for all vehicle makes. Now, if you’d like to learn more about our resale values, our reliability data, or our methodology, be sure to go to carconfections.com/reliability and carconfections.com/resell. Buying a new vehicle is a big decision, so you want to make sure you’re making a smart purchase, especially if you’re cross shopping between different vehicle brands. Now, when it comes to your warranty, you have a 3year 36,000 mi basic warranty, a 5year, 60,000 mi powertrain warranty. The battery itself is covered for 8 years, and 100,000 mi, and you also get one complimentary service visit. And guys, that’s going to wrap up our in-depth review of the 2025 Chevy Equinox EV. If you enjoyed watching our 7-day review of this model where we talk about all of our impressions and living with it, we’d really appreciate it if you hit that subscribe button down below. By subscribing, you’re going to help us to get more vehicles like this for us to live with and provide you those impressions because the manufacturers do pay attention to subscribers like you all. If you’re already a subscriber and fan of the channel, thank you so much for your continued support and we’ll catch you next time as we sample more of the latest automotive delicacies. [Music] What’s going on, YouTube? So, since we first tested out Chevy’s affordable electric SUV, we were really very impressed. Oh my gosh, that distracted me so much.
Here’s our Week-Long Review of the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV RS!
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The Chevy lineup is quickly growing, including new affordable options like this new Equinox EV! So, with tons of value and practicality, do we think this new EV is better than the Tesla Model Y? Or should you buy the new competition: the Toyota bZ, Hyundai IONIQ 5 or Tesla Model Y? Go ahead: CLICK to find out 🙂 Also, be sure to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and tap the notification bell if you enjoyed this review — it helps us more than you can imagine!
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0:00 Intro
1:32 Detailed Exterior Walkaround
5:08 Interior Design & Technology
11:43 Rear Seats & Cargo
15:32 Test Drive & Impressions
18:56 Sound Level Reading (dB)
22:26 Air Ball & Slam Dunk
24:23 Pricing
25:57 Resale & Reliability
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