How far will the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV go at highway speeds? I fully charged my front-wheel-drive Equinox EV 2RS and headed to the New Jersey Turnpike to find out.
The Equinox EV is a compelling new electric offering from General Motors. The front-wheel-drive version has a combined EPA range rating of 319 miles and has a starting MSRP of $34,995. That makes it one of the most affordable all-electric vehicles in the US.
But the Equinox EV has some big shoes to fill. The combustion Equinox has been one of Chevrolet's best-selling vehicles for over a decade, averaging more than 250,000 units sold yearly over the last ten years.
For the Equinox EV to share in the success of its sibling, it needs to deliver the same reliable utility that customers have experienced with the combustion version, and having a long driving range, particularly at highway speeds, is certainly part of the equation.
So I set out to see just how far I could drive my Equinox EV at 70 miles per hour, and compare it to the EPA range ratings. I used the same course on the NJ Turnpike and set the vehicle up the same as I do whenever I range-test EVs here in New Jersey.
I charged it up to 100%, set the tire pressure to the manufacturer's recommendation, put the Equinox in the most efficient drive mode, the climate control to 70° Fahrenheit and on the lowest fan setting, and hit the highway.
On the day of the test, the conditions were favorable for a good result as the temperature was in the mid-80s without much wind. I'm not sure just how much that helped, but I cruised past the Equinox EV's EPA-rated highway range of 291 miles and finished up driving 303 miles with the vehicle's range estimated saying I could still drive another 3 miles.
Gallery: 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV First Drive
As I do with all of my range tests, I break down the drive into quarters and look at the distance driven and the energy consumed during that quarter of the test. In every quarter, I was able to drive a little farther than the previous one and finished the test with an overall consumption of 3.4 miles per kWh.
While I was very pleased with the results, I was very surprised to see the overall energy consumption that the vehicle showed. It calculated that I used 90.2 kWh during the range test and that's more than the stated usable capacity of 85 kWh.
Measuring the usable capacity of an EV battery pack isn't as simple as measuring the capacity of a gas tank. There are different ways of calculating the battery pack's usable capacity, and even then outside factors like ambient temperature and how much the pack is stressed during the drive will affect exactly how much energy you can pull out of it.
I've also been recording my DC fast charge events and have twice charged the vehicle from zero to 100% state of charge and in those charging sessions, the stations reported dispensing 100.6 kWh and 97.13 kWh. Even with charging losses and the energy needed for the thermal management system during the charging session, those numbers are more charging losses (18% and 15% respectively) than I've ever seen on any of my many 0-100% charge recordings.
I typically see between 7% and 12% losses in my DC fast charge sessions. So that, combined with my range test results, led me to believe that there's a chance the usable capacity on the Equinox EV is closer to 90 kWh than it is to the stated 85 kWh.
Does that mean GM is lying? No, not really. There are different ways to measure the usable capacity of an EV's battery and it is possible that GM used a more conservative method which resulted in a slightly lower usable capacity.
If that's what was done, then it's possible that GM did it to under-promise and over-deliver, or the cynic might speculate they did it for warranty reasons, so down the road, the capacity loss doesn't seem as bad because the starting point was artificially low. Let the conspiracy theories begin!
