A sporty, all-electric family SUV made by Chevrolet. It's designed to be fast and fun to drive while still having plenty of room for kids and groceries.
Having most of the car's heavy weight positioned very low to the ground. This helps the car stay flat and stable when taking sharp turns instead of leaning over.
Unlike gas cars that need to rev up their engines to go fast, electric cars can deliver all of their pulling power the very instant you step on the gas pedal.
The Blazer EV SS is a fully electric midsize SUV made by Chevrolet that is designed to be very fast. It uses powerful electric motors instead of a gasoline engine, offering a sporty driving experience in a practical family vehicle.
A feature in electric cars where you can speed up and slow down completely just using the gas pedal. When you lift your foot off, the car brakes itself and recharges the battery.
A high-tech feature from General Motors that lets you take your hands completely off the steering wheel on certain highways while the car drives itself.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special, high-performance version of Porsche's famous sports car that is designed to perform exceptionally well on race tracks while still being legal to drive on public roads. It is built to be lightweight and fast, focusing on driver connection rather than luxury cruising.
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There are plenty of driving enthusiasts with the responsibility of family life.
It doesn't mean getting stuck with a family truckster.
The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS is here to rescue parents from bland ordinary transportation.
It's not just stickers and badges, power is up, the suspension has been tweaked and
there are new drive modes, like wide open watts, or wow, wow, that's a good jolt.
The fact that GM is hosting automotive riders at the new 10-tense Motor Club, part of Charlotte
Motor Speedway, is a good sign.
First of all, let's set some expectations.
The General Motors engineers on hand say yes, this is a high performance vehicle, but it's
not intended to be a track monster, it's about everyday fun.
So if you live in an area with twisty turny roads, this could be a lot of fun.
Pricing starts at $62,500 with the performance package and destination before any tax incentives.
Another EV maker might want to shy away from these letters, but they're legend at Chevy,
reaching back to the early 1960s, starting with Impala.
Over six decades, performance expectations have changed, straight line performance isn't
enough, European brands taught us that curves and braking are important too.
Now there are EVs, a whole new world, soul-shaking V8 engine notes are out, stealthy instant
torque and low center of gravity are in.
SS gets some cosmetic changes.
One of the first things you'll notice is the fascia.
In the case of the SS, this is unique, everything south of the light bar is unique to the SS.
It gives it a little bit of a wider and more aggressive persona and kind of sets it apart
from the remainder of the lineup.
22-inch wheels here, these that are being shown are unique for SS, it has the SS branding
of course on it as well.
The rockers here are unique for the SS, and then as you make your way to the rear of the
vehicle, you'll notice the execution of the taillights are in a clear lens.
That sets it apart from the red lens execution on the lower trim models.
We think it adds a nice bit of flair to the SS.
And then to kind of close things out, you have a lower fascia here that is unique for
the SS so that diffuser treatment is different than what you'll find on the RS and LT models.
Buying a Blazer EV can be confusing, it's available in front drive, rear drive and all-wheel
drive configurations.
The SS is the most powerful Blazer EV Chevy offers.
The dual-motor all-wheel drive delivers up to 615 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque
slotting in between Porsche Taycan 4S and GTS.
The motor and back.
This is the primary motor of the SS Blazer.
It is a 250 kilowatt permanent magnet motor.
We've got the integrated power module here with silicon carbide in order to improve switching
losses to maximize the range.
Also, the motor itself has segmented motor magnets which allow for heat dissipation and
reduction of eddy current losses for us to, again, make sure that we get the maximum power
output and also for a range enabler.
It's very low to the floor so this is onto the rear axle.
It's an open diff.
Up front.
This is 180 kilowatt compared to the 250 in the back.
The motor is still permanent magnet.
It's a scaled version of the rear.
It's about 40 millimeters shorter.
Like most EVs, the transmission is single speed.
One pedal driving drag is adjustable and there's the GM toggle switch that adds more, something
that I appreciate.
Drive modes adjust throttle response and steering weight.
Monotube dampers are not adjustable.
Front and rear roll bars are stiffened by 60% and the springs are firmer by 30%.
Up front, standard six-piston Brembo brakes scrub off speed.
The cars on hand get the performance package with summer tires.
Wheels are 22 inches.
I wouldn't describe Blazer's charge speed as blazing.
The max is 190 kilowatts, certainly better than the Bolt's 50 kilowatt rate.
The larger lithium-ion pack is rated at 102 kilowatt hours.
Range is EPA rated at 303 miles.
SS isn't penalized much by the extra scoot like, say, Hyundai Ioniq 5N.
Blazer EV SS is not small, about the same size as sister's Acura ZDX and Cadillac Lyric.
And at 5,700 pounds, no featherweight, that's an issue with all EVs.
Let's get right to the fun stuff and point the SS towards the track.
Hey, Alex.
Hi.
What are you doing, Tom?
Chevy claims this will do the benchmark 0 to 60 run in 3.4 seconds
and the quarter mile in 11.8 seconds, hitting 115 miles per hour.
It's the quickest SS ever when using wow mode.
This is our wide open watts button.
If you want to go in and hit that, that will give us the extra torque that we have.
Air.
Sound effects.
Sound effects.
We like them.
And then the Z mode is going to give us the extra options for competitive mode
that you were briefed on.
So that's going to have our stability control and our traction control changes
that really enable us to perform well on these back roads.
There you go.
So now we're in wide open watts in competitive mode and we're ready to go.
To do launch control, we're actually going to need the left foot on the brake.
And I've heard you have to push really hard.
Well, you're trying to hold back 615 horsepower.
So yes.
And how much torque?
650 foot-pounds.
Wow.
That's a good jolt.
It sure is.
And 60.
And wow.
OK.
3.3, not so bad.
Yeah.
And that's what electric cars are good for.
Sure is.
Yeah, that kind of speed is fun.
I'm more of a curves guy.
The 10 tenths club's compact track is a great place to explore limits that you
really can't do on public roads.
Because of the battery down the bottom, we've got this low center of gravity
and really supports the handling that we wanted to show on this car.
Yeah, that is the great thing about electric vehicles.
Z-Mode loosens the traction control nannies for a very natural dynamic.
I might have missed them, but no artificial performance tones that I found.
And the dampers on this car are fixed, right?
They're a passive damper.
It's a monotube damper.
And that really just supported the car in the way we needed it to.
And it is a specific tune for the SS.
GM says the steering is uniquely calibrated.
There's actually some feel.
And of course, today we're actually driving on the summer only tires.
So that's the concept of summer only tire.
I love that power.
Yeah.
And so we're actually giving you corner exit control and brake torque vectoring
when we're coming off the corners like that.
And so the corner exit control is a preemptive torque cut
because we want to be able to maintain the steerability of the car.
So we're looking at your handwheel angle.
We're looking at the lateral in the car and we're looking at your accelerator
and making sure that we're giving the maximum amount of torque we can give
without forcing it into understeer.
So it's trying to give you everything without having to put the brain power
onto the driver.
It just does it for you.
Interesting that this is handling the track really, really well.
It is.
But it's comfortable.
Very.
Like my wife would be OK with this car.
Maybe not how we're driving it right now.
No, no, that definitely not.
You know my wife.
It's my wife, too.
Yeah.
A little bit of understeer.
Yes.
I think that's probably good for most drivers.
Absolutely.
And as you push it more and more, you're going to notice that.
And this is a car that's super comfortable just right beneath that
ultimate limit.
And it's at that point where it just to me feels like it eggs you on.
It's asking for more.
This is a blast.
But really, few owners will track this car.
The everyday experience is most important.
We get a good couple of hours on civilian roads.
The Stiffer Sports Suspension is fun for the driver.
Comfortable for the family.
Much more impressive than Tesla Model Y.
They always have us pair up with people.
I get to drive with Tedward today.
Hi, guys.
Here's our stream of consciousness take on Blazer EVSS
in real world conditions.
We've covered that this is a pretty comfortable car,
good for road tripping.
It's also pretty darn quiet.
Yeah, road noise and insulation is pretty decent.
And NVH and EVs is always a tricky thing because you don't have any engine
to cover up some of the little sounds.
Yeah.
So, you know, this is where a good old fashioned long term test
can do us some good where you can find out what happens over 30,
40, 50,000 miles.
There are going to be dash rattles and things like that.
But so far, so good.
So far, this is a really quiet interior in terms of actual build quality.
But also, I'm not getting a whole lot of wind noise at 50, 60 miles an hour out here.
Range.
General Motors says this is what rated at 303 miles.
That's the number.
Was not going to happen yesterday on the track.
Not a chance.
No, no, no, no.
But I'm doing this, you know, the math here.
It looks like at, you know, 45, 50 miles an hour average.
What's the ambient temperature?
Seventy degrees today.
It's today, honestly, we're in like those ideal
conditions where they can this cannot be faulted.
We're not going to we're trick the car.
Yeah.
Yeah, it looks like we're going to get around 300 miles, not bad.
And that's the magic number, right?
People need 300 miles.
People think they need 400 or 500.
You don't need it.
The problem is you end up sacrificing weight for all that range.
And this is already a fairly large battery pack at something like 102
kilowatt hours, I think.
So it's larger than the other variants of the Blazer EV.
But, you know, if you want that four or 500 miles of range,
that's when you start adding tons of battery, because there's no magic here.
We have not physically figured out how to make these like 789
10 miles per kilowatt cars.
They don't exist yet.
I mean, Lucid's doing maybe five and that's great.
If you're not used to EVs, you'll quickly find out that 300 miles is really pretty good.
Most people aren't traveling that far on a day to day basis.
And if you're able to do your home charging and actually get realistic
about how you're using a vehicle, that's all you need.
OK, so I'm doing one pedal breaking for this Ultima that's in front of us.
We're watching the level of dangerous kindness that occurs in beautiful North Carolina.
One pedal driving works really well.
I have it on the most aggressive region.
They had us do acceleration at the track.
But the one thing that I actually forgot to do was emergency breaking.
And this thing has giant brakes.
Let's see what happens.
OK, stops right now, very controlled.
Hope I didn't surprise you.
No, no, you're good.
It feels overbraked.
I don't know what that means for repeated stops to heavy vehicle.
It is a heavy vehicle.
But you're not going to feel like, oh, no, they gave it all this power.
And then you can't bring it back down.
So, you know, they gave us the confidence in the brakes.
And let's make one thing very clear.
This is not a Hyundai Ioniq five and that is much more athletic.
But in the real world, this would serve a family pretty well.
It's a very reasonable size vehicle.
This is this is the size vehicle that I think we should be focusing on more
in the regular market.
I mean, I still would like to champion a nice sedan.
But those days are maybe a little long gone and it'll be another generation
before those come back, if ever.
We've got to talk about supercruise that standard.
The SS gets a three year subscription and it works quite well on roads like this,
not just for divided highways anymore.
You might notice the different cabin colorways.
Tedward and I drove the red interior with black.
There's orange seat belts that would run 600 dollars in a tycon.
Materials and build quality are good with microfiber suede accents.
Vent pods get an interesting translucent treatment.
There's adjustable ambient lighting.
I'm happy to see GM upping its interior game.
I would expect the seats to get more aggressive side bull string,
considering the sport mission, at least the fabric is grippy.
These chairs are powered, heated and vented.
Blazer is a larger vehicle.
It's roomy and has loads of places to stash things away.
This also has a digital rear view mirror that I forgot to shoot and a phone
charge pad.
Early Blazer EVs had software issues that gave it a black eye.
In two days with this vehicle, I saw no glitches at all.
In fact, the interface has been noticeably improved since I drove Equinox EV.
You'll get a default layout, but customers can add and move these around.
You know, you can even bring in icons from here up into this little tray.
So you can really have, you know, some of your favorites, you know,
docked up there so they'll be at your use at all times.
Blazer EV SS will be the first Blazer EV that gets access to some of the streaming
apps through the Google Play Store.
So now you can download and install apps like Amazon Prime Video, HBO,
Peacock. Let's not forget that GM EVs do not support Android Auto and Apple
CarPlay. We want to bring a seamless experience for our EV customers that the
phone projection really doesn't have capabilities right now.
We can't really provide that data to those phones for use and we can really
integrate that into the system for use here right in our infotainment system.
You can't do that with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Not right now.
Between excellent natural noise commands and hard buttons,
it's easy to focus on driving and not get distracted by screens.
And eight years of free connectivity is better than nearly every
automaker other than Hyundai.
Sorry, didn't even turn the sound system on.
So no evaluation there.
Blazer EV is not a small vehicle.
I'm five foot nine and sitting behind myself.
I have a lot of space back here.
Headroom that much, knee, leg and footroom.
Very generous.
The cushions are high and long enough for very good thigh support.
Door openings are on the average side.
It's easy to get in and out.
Pucked in the doors.
Yes, pocket on the driver's seat back.
No adjustable vents.
Yes, separate climate zone.
No charging for phones and heated seats back here.
That's nice.
The floor is electric vehicle flat because hey, this is an electric vehicle.
If you want cupholders, this needs to be flipped down, you know, kind of standard.
The bench is wide enough so three average sized adults can actually be
comfortable back here.
So not only is Blazer EV SS a lot of fun, it's practical.
Blazer EV SS does not get front storage and generally that doesn't bother me.
GM often carves out more room in the cabin, but not here.
No room for a purse or backpack between the front seats like Lyric has.
I'm at a raceway, not a Costco.
Unfortunately, there will be no TP trunk test this time.
But hey, we can take a look at the cargo hold.
Here are the basics.
There's a good amount of room underneath the load floor,
the portable charge cord and a good divot to store stuff.
But there is no spare tire.
Pretty common these days, actually.
No remote releases either, but it is easy to drop the seats.
Seats up, there's nearly 26 cubic feet of storage.
A couple less than Lyric that scored eight packs in my TP trunk test.
In max cargo mode, Blazer takes on close to 60 cubic feet of stuff.
I'll point out that there's no power port back here.
And the lack of bag hooks just molded into the plastic is a swing, not even taken.
Blazer EV SS hits a sweet spot.
It does double duty, ring it out on a winding country road,
then pick the kids up at school.
Everyone's happy.
Quick story, I was at an event.
This guy recognized me and he was talking about he bought his new car,
a Porsche GT3 911.
And you could tell he wasn't really all that thrilled with it.
And I asked him about it and he said, it's so uncomfortable,
but I wanted the best Porsche.
And it was like, dude, no, the best Porsche is for you.
Right. Right.
And so people who buy extremely high performance vehicles
end up with something that they really don't like.
But it's just been told, this is the best one you should have.
This is not a hardcore ZR1.
It could easily wear an FF badge, fun with function.
Happy to see Chevy doesn't dilute the SS heritage.
It's just juicing it up for modern times.
As you can see, Chevrolet brought a lot of cars to support this program.
Very cool stuff.
One of them was this year's pace car for the Daytona 500,
the first EV to pace the race, fully stock.
It's been great having Ted Word along for the ride.
Watch his channel. You probably do.
It can be really risky getting in a car with a stranger you don't know.
And today is a good day because the stranger was all right.
So thank you, Tom.
You really don't know who I am.
I need to tell you, General Motors brought me to Charlotte, North Carolina,
fed me and housed me.
But it's important to me to give you accurate information.
OK, these programs give me the opportunity to talk to engineers and designers.
Got it? Good.
Well, if you got something out of my look at the Chevrolet Blazer EV SS
and a reminder, electric vehicles can actually work better
for some people than gas powered cars.
You don't have to go to the gas station.
You don't have to get your brakes changed as much.
No oil changes. You just need to know your needs. All right.
Thanks for watching.
Remember, subscribe to the channel, click notifications.
Follow me on social media.
I'm on all the major platforms.
And if you have a question, leave it in the comments.
That's driven. I'm Tom Volk.
About this episode
Experience the 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV SS as host Tom takes this 615-horsepower electric SUV to the track and public roads. Joined by automotive creator Tedward, the review dives into the vehicle's "Wide Open Watts" launch mode, upgraded suspension, and real-world range. While it is not a track monster like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, the Blazer EV SS shines as a highly comfortable, fast, and practical family hauler. The discussion covers everything from its 303-mile range and Super Cruise capabilities to its premium interior and heavy curb weight.
Some sporty vehicles are more show than go. The 2025 Chevy Blazer EV SS earns its performance letters but stays chill. With dual motor AWD, it delivers up to 615 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque. That should get the kids to school. And the enhanced suspension keeps it under control without a punishing ride.
Tom Voelk travels to North Carolina and the Ten Tenths Motor Club in the shadow of Charlotte Motor Speedway to check out the SS on road and track. And welcome Tedward to the drive!
CORRECTION- The Blazer EV SS Tedward and I drove retails for $62,490 with destination and Performance Package before any tax incentives. Not sure why I gave it a $10K discount while reading my notes. Tom attended a General Motors program to produce this review. Opinions remain his own.
