Chevrolet Blazer EV stuns reviewers for all the wrong reasons after 23 major failures in two months, highlights major sticking points for EVs

Tesla may have a reputation among electric car manufacturers for its lack of quality control and myriad recalls, but Chevrolet seems adamant to take the top spot as sketchiest electric car — at least if this particular review unit is any indication of final production quality.

As Edmunds's Nick Yekikian explains, Edmunds bought its Chevrolet Blazer EV from a dealership with the intention of doing a long-term review of the SUV. However, shortly after buying the vehicle, it went completely haywire, resulting in eight warning messages making an appearance on the dash, indicating there was some sort of issue with the electrical system of the vehicle.

Apart from the text-based RPG taking place in the dash, the window switches, infotainment system, and charging system all seem to have gone haywire, too, with the car at one point saying that it was unable to charge, despite being nowhere near a charger.

A few more error messages and failures later, including the “reduced acceleration” and the loss of one-pedal driving — all of which seemed to disappear all by themselves overnight — and Edmunds took the EV back to the dealership to see what was going on. A code scan at the dealership revealed 23 errors or failures, resulting in the vehicle being checked in for a service, which has thus far taken two weeks, with no prognosis or ETA for the repairs provided.

Although the electric car industry is maturing rapidly, these long waits are common among electric car owners — especially since the supply-chain issues spurred on by demand outstripping manufacturer capabilities. The multitude of errors in the Blazer, while almost certainly some sort of cruel stroke of bad luck, are becoming something of a trend with electric vehicles.

Outfits like J.D. Power and Consumer Reports have repeatedly found that reliability issues are more common with EV-only brands like Polestar, Rivian, and Tesla. These studies have also called into question the reliability of innovative tech features often paired with electric cars.

On the other hand, more recent studies seem to have found that EVs suffer fewer breakdowns than their petrol-powered counterparts — which is to be expected, since EVs are theoretically simpler than ICE cars, making them statistically less likely to break down.

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