EV Info

Fact-Check: Edmunds Chevy Blazer EV vs Tesla Model Y

Posted on by Adam

Statement: #1
“Blazer EV’s launch has been marred by some glitchy software issues”
Rating:
Misleading or half-truth, or bias present

As reported on Yahoo, ala AP, ala Edmunds; Edmunds did a comparison of the Blazer EV vs the Model Y, and overall the article is mostly factual, but one main point needs to be corrected. Let’s review the article before jumping into that point.

… the Blazer EV’s launch has been marred by some glitchy software issues. It is also competing with a host of other electric SUVs, the most popular being the Tesla Model Y. The automotive experts at Edmunds put these two electric SUVs in a head-to-head competition to determine if the upstart Blazer EV can unseat the Model Y. (yahoo.com)

“Glitchy” is when your touch screen radio takes a few seconds to change the station after you press it, or when an app on your phone doesn’t work right and you close the app and relaunch it. Chevy has put a stop-sale on all EV Blazers due to major software issues as of Dec 22nd and we haven’t seen any communication from Chevy that has stated otherwise.

Knowing the up-hill battle that all legacy OEMs are having with the software running on their new EVs, we would recommend waiting at least one full model year before purchasing any of their EVs, giving them time to work out the bugs, both major(stop-sale) and minor.

Statement: #2
“Blazer EV and Model Y ‘tie’ in Performance and Comfort”
Rating:
Misleading or half-truth, or bias present
PERFORMANCE AND COMFORT

The Chevrolet Blazer EV looks sporty, yet appearances are deceiving. In Edmunds’ testing, a dual-motor Blazer EV RS accelerated from zero to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds. This is fine for everyday driving but well off the Model Y’s pace. On the upside, the Blazer EV has an impressively smooth and comfortable ride over bumps and ruts.

The Tesla Model Y is available in three trims. Of these, the dual-motor Performance model is the speed demon. It sprints from zero to 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds. Unfortunately it also has a ride that feels like a hay wagon over cobblestones. Edmunds recommends the Model Y Long Range. It’s still plenty quick and has a more comfortable ride, though it’s still not as cushy as the Blazer EV’s.

Winner: tie (yahoo.com)

Who from where chose to put Performance and Comfort in the same category?! Can you imagine someone test-driving a Ferrari, a Viper, a Lamborgini, or a Corvette and criticizing its comfort over the its performance? Are those cars comfortable? Heck no, but they sure are fast, and that is why people buy them.

That aside; They are critical of the MYP (Model Y Performance) ride quality which is stiffer than the MY RWD and the MYLR (Long Range), as, well, it is the performance edition of the MY. Chevy doesn’t even have their “SS” trim available for testing or purchase as of the date we’re writing this, and the Blazer EV LT is not in the same ballpark as the MYP as shown by our EV Comparision Tool: (The Blazer got zero points)

While the overall size of the Blazer EV is larger, there is nothing groundbreaking that would differentiate the Blazer EV from the Model Y in terms of comfort or otherwise as shown above, and the MYLR is leagues ahead in the performance category.

Statement: #3
“Blazer EV is the ‘Winner’ on Technology Features”
Rating:
Misleading or half-truth, or bias present
TECHNOLOGY FEATURES

Each of these electric SUVs sports a large touchscreen in the center of its dashboard. They both have high-resolution displays and accurate Google-based navigation. The problem is both systems lack Apple CarPlay or Android Auto smartphone integration. That means there’s no way to integrate your phone’s apps into the touchscreen like you can with most other vehicles.

Tesla also places everything from climate settings to the speedometer into the center touchscreen itself. The Blazer EV is less distracting to drive thanks to its digital instrument cluster in the driver’s line of sight and easy-to-reach dials and buttons.

Another advantage to the Blazer EV is its available Super Cruise hands-free driving aid. This system allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on most U.S. divided highways under certain conditions. The Model Y’s AutoPilot system works great on the highway for assisted lane keeping and adaptive cruise control but does not yet offer full hands-free driving. Tesla also offers a pricey Full Self-Driving Beta upgrade that allows these systems to operate on city streets, but overall Edmunds has found Super Cruise to be easier and most enjoyable to use.

Winner: Chevrolet Blazer EV (yahoo.com)

This truly makes me question who is getting their pocket lined by GM or one of GM PR / marketing firms. Did Yahoo ala AP ala Edmunds miss that the current stop-sale of the Blazer EV is due to their poorly executed technology in the vehicle? Whether it is the hardware and/or the software, the technology cannot even be ranked and needs to be thrown in the trash until Chevy engineers can figure out the current issues and deploy a fix. (More from Edmunds on their issues with the EV Blazer.) Secondly, Tesla did have a hands-free suite of driving aids, however, due to various reasons we will not get into here, the NHTSA and forced Tesla to issue a “recall” (OTA update) that forces drivers to have their hands on the wheel at all times. Other OEMs are not “hand-cuffed” by this as their current market share and the press they get are a tiny fraction of all of the people with Teslas on various social media platforms. This will change with time.

Now, with that said, we need to expand on this point of legacy OEMs vs. what we have seen and are continuing to see from the new players (Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, etc.) which is where the old “technology” stops, and the new technology starts. What do we mean by this?

Well, when these, shall we call them “legacy journalists” write about (old) technology, they have over and over again shown that they judge technology by cool buttons, nifty lighting, and dashboard gauges (some of which are dummy gauges or lights) and you may throw in the hot button topic of Teslas driving aids (Autopilot and FSD (Full Self-Driving) vs what the competition has, which in this case is GMs “Super-cruise”, and their now defunct “Ultra-Cruise”.

This is where we make the shift from “old-tech” or catchy features the dealership salesperson wows you with, to the actual (new) technology that the next generation of vehicles have. (Tesla had this “next-gen” technology in 2012/2013.)

“Technology” in a vehicle is no longer buttons or big screens. It is what the user cannot see that makes the technology of today. And to be clear, this technology can and will absolutely be moved over to Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), however not one OEM has figured out how to do that. So for this I will be talking about EVs exclusively. You have various major parts of an EV. The obvious ones… the battery, and the motor(s) and then some less obvious ones to the typical user, like the charge controller, on some an inverter, the telematics module (think connectivity, 5G, etc.), and the various computers (either zonal or domain-based) that control everything from the music to the heat to the power requested when you push down the pedal and more, all through software and Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. Today’s market leaders can update any of the items above with a simple OTA push. Tesla recently sent out updates giving owners more range on Model Y LR and in another case sent out an OTA giving Model 3 owners more horsepower. How does this work? Too much to explain here, but if you’d like to know more, please poke up to write a blog on how that is done. My point is just through a software update like on your phone, a Software-Defined-Vehicle (SDV) can be updated in ways we couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago.

Now with that said, not one legacy OEM has been confirmed to have a fully updated SDV using OTA. Ford, GM, Kia and many others are still relying on “recalls” and “TSBs” to have owners of their vehicles bring (or tow) their vehicles to a dealership for service. (Mercedes may be the closest with some of their higher trimmed vehicles, but this still needs to be confirmed)

Another example of that is when an owner badly wrecked their Tesla Model 3 and tweeted that he couldn’t get the glovebox open after the wreck to get his insurance and registration out due to the airbags… a few days later and this feature is pushed to every Tesla while their cars sit in the driveway overnight. Now that is technology!