At the heart of the car, between the axles, is the 85 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which gives the Equinox EV an EPA range of 313 miles (513 km) on a full charge. It's not very helpful that GM quotes charging as “up to 58 kilometers of range per hour of charging” for AC Level 2 charging (up to 11.5 kW), or “approximately 120 kilometers of range in 10 minutes” with a DC fast charger of up to 150 kW, but not 0-100 percent time for AC or 10-80 percent time for DC charging. We quickly charged the car from 34 percent, without first preconditioning the battery. Charging peaked at 75 kW and took about 45 minutes to reach 80 percent. The charging port is CCS1, although Chevrolet will sell you an adapter to use NACS chargers.
On a full charge, the Equinox reported an estimated range of 310 miles in subzero temperatures, and during our week we averaged 3.5 miles/kWh despite using the car's heater, because there's enough else going on in the world that we don't need to shiver in our car to prove a point.
It could be the size of Goldilocks.
Credit: Chevrolet
An all-wheel drive version is available, but we tested the Equinox EV with front-wheel drive. The permanent magnet synchronous motor generates 220 hp (164 kW) and 243 lb-ft (329 Nm), which is enough to keep things lively. There are two levels of take-off regenerative braking available for the single-pedal driving mode, which you can turn on or off via a permanent icon on the 17.7-inch infotainment screen, but even with single-pedal driving disabled there's still a degree of take-off recovery, so you can't ditch the Equinox like you might with a European or Korean EV.
The part that all the comments will be about
The infotainment screen is bright, readable and responsive, and the built-in Google Maps navigation works well, especially with voice input. I also have to give props to the rear camera: one of the sharpest and highest resolutions I've encountered all year. But other voice commands for the Android Automotive OS-based infotainment didn't always work. And I'll be honest: I missed the ability to use Apple CarPlay, both for listening to my own music and for the messaging integration.
