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More than a decade after we named the Tesla Model S our Car of the Year, the EV landscape remains skewed toward specific driver niches. That's been predicated on and perpetuated by avant-garde SUVs such as the BMW iX or Jaguar I-Pace, premium sedans including the Porsche Taycan and Lucid Air, and ostentatious trucks like the Rivian R1T and GMC Hummer EV. Varied makes and form factors aside, these vehicles share chic, genteel appeal, not to mention price tags approaching or surpassing the six-figure mark. Many such EVs are great, but none of them is exactly ... normal. At the same time, many mainstream EVs have many turn-offs of their own, whether extraneous drama, first-effort foibles, or polarizing designs.

Enter our winner. Relevant context for the Blazer EV's victory comes from another all-electric Chevrolet, the Bolt EV, our 2017 Car of the Year. That another Chevy EV has now aced our criteria among evolved technical and market considerations indicates it fulfills the promise established by the Bolt: Electric driving can be democratized. In this sense, our SUVOTY judges saw enormous potential from the Blazer EV.
Features editor Scott Evans, who chaperoned our long-term Bolt for a year, felt that lineage. "Chevrolet really paid attention to what worked and what didn't in the Bolt EV and applied those learnings here," he said. "This is a fully realized electric vehicle, not a quick and dirty project." This is sustained through the criteria we use to determine our winner.

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General Motors' Ultium EV platform is the multibillion-dollar foundation of its electric transition, including the latest recipient of our Golden Calipers. The Blazer EV showcases Ultium's flexibility with unprecedented powertrain diversity. Two battery-pack sizes will be available, but—like no EV before—also front-, rear-, and all-wheel-drive configurations. Chevrolet could've simplified things by proceeding with fewer options, but this spread indicates a dedication to choice, recognition of Ultium's potential, and a focus on engineering.
The Blazer EV we tested was the sporty-looking RS trim. Its midsize lithium-ion heart sent electrons to a dual-motor AWD system producing 288 hp and 333 lb-ft of torque, good for a 6.0-second 0-60 time. We also recorded a 131-foot 60-0 stop and 27.4-second, 0.63-g lap around our figure eight. Compared to other mainstream EVs, these results aren't exceptional. Rather, they're more like those of a normal crossover and very similar to those of the gas-powered Blazer RS.

Motor Trend

It’s nice looking, but the company that makes it has admitted that most people don’t want an electric car yet.

And the stated range is over rated just like in every other EV including Tesla products:

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EPA ratings for our dual-motor RS test vehicle come in at 103/88/96 mpg-e city/highway/combined and 279 miles of range. In our road-trip range test, which represents distance potential under real-world factors, including a 70-mph average and typical accessory use, it covered 239 miles. That's 23 miles more than the dual-motor Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 2 better than the average of every EV we've run through the test

I would not buy that car as a primary vehicle unless I lived in a major metro with abundant charging infrastructure…and had an ICE vehicle in case I needed to take longer trips outside of the urban/suburban areas.

They would have to double the range for the same price. They are still not there yet. The “latest and greatest” EV is still not ready to replace ICE vehicles for most people.

This post was edited on 10/26/23 at 7:01 am