GM Issues Stop-Sale Order On Chevrolet Blazer EV After Breakdown Reports

Following reports of problems from InsideEVs, Edmunds and owners, GM hits pause on Blazer EV sales for now.

2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS exterior

Patrick George

By: Patrick George

Dec 23, 2023 at 9:27am ET

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Following a week of reports about problems with the new Chevrolet Blazer EV, including InsideEVs reporter Kevin Williams experiencing a breakdown in one during a road trip, General Motors has halted sales of the electric vehicle to fix certain software issues.

Automotive News reports that the stop-sale order was issued late Friday and affects "a limited number" of Blazer EVs. GM did not say how many are impacted; about 1,000 are currently for sale nationwide, according to Cars.com.

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The Blazer EV's troubled rollout

Many automakers have experienced software, charging and quality challenges with early EVs. But the Blazer EV has had an especially tough week after problems emerged during media tests, and owners have already seen similar frustrations too.

Chevrolet engineers are working on solving issues related to the vehicle's touchscreen, "and, rarely, during charging attempts at some public DC fast chargers," according to Automotive News. Kevin encountered both issues during his attempted Ohio to North Carolina drive this week, which ended with the car stuck at an Electrify America station in rural Virginia.

"We are aware that a limited number of Blazer EV owners have experienced some software quality issues," the automaker said in a statement to InsideEVs. "To ensure our customers have a great experience with their vehicle, we are temporarily pausing sales of Blazer EVs. Our team is working quickly to roll out a fix, and owners will be contacted with further information on how to schedule their update. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Scott Bell, vice president of Chevrolet, added: “Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries.” The automaker said the issue is not safety-related.

The stop-sale order also comes after car-buying website Edmunds issued a scathing report about the Blazer EV the staff purchased for evaluation two months ago. The publication reported window switches that refused to work, the infotainment display getting stuck in a shutdown loop, a number of error messages and the failure of various driving functions. "What we got back from the dealer was alarming: the single longest list of major faults we at Edmunds have ever seen on a new car," the publication said.

Moreover, Blazer EV owners who contacted InsideEVs following our report indicated similar problems, as well as other issues with GM's Ultium-branded cars. That name refers to the automaker's new common platform and battery setup due to underpin all its future EVs. Though the Ultium platform is considered crucial to GM's future and its goal of going all-electric by 2035, the cars themselves have been subject to numerous delays throughout the year, generally slow rollouts and issues with early examples. (GM did add today that the Blazer EV stop-sale is "not related to Ultium or Google Built-In.")

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This story has been updated with a statement from GM.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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