An Electric Chevy Equinox?
I almost fell off my chair when I read about the new 100% electric Chevy Equinox! On February 24, 2010 Advanced Mechanical Products, Inc. (AMP), announced their latest 100% all electric conversion vehicle, the hot selling Chevy Equinox by General Motors. That’s right 100% electric, not a Hybrid Chevy Equinox. They unveiled the new electric Chevy Equinox at the grand opening of their very first showroom.
From PRweb AMP News Release
AMP is the first company to sell a 100% electric crossover SUV, and they made the right choice with the Chevy Equinox, Consumer Digest’s Best Buy award winner. With the surging sales of the Equinox, and the increasing interest in electric only vehicles (like the Aptera electric car), this should be a high profile conversion for AMP and huge sales success. The AMP Chevy Equinox specs indicate a top speed of 90 miles per hour, and a 0 -60 time of a respectable 8 seconds. It will charge at either 110 V or 220 volt. AMP says pricing will be under $50,000 (after incentives), making it an affordable choice for SUV lovers looking to save money on gas.
The electric Chevy Equinox will get up to 150 miles on a charge, compared to only 100 miles on it’s closest competitor, the Nissan Leaf. The Nissan Leaf won’t even be available until sometime in early 2011, giving AMP a leg up on the competition. AMP has totally jumped the gun on Nissan, but it will be interesting to see what kind of price the Nissan Leaf comes out at .
AMP opened it’s first showroom and production facility in Cincinnati, with the Ohio Governor Ted Stricklan expected to attend. They are beginning to take orders now and expect the first converted all electric Chevy Equinox to be delivered in June 2010. AMP will formally unveil their AMP’d Chevy Equinox at the New York Auto Show on April 2, 2010. I can’t wait to see it!
Cool Chevy Equinox QA Video
The 2010 Chevy Equinox is well known for it’s superior noise suppression (read: super quiet ride). Here’s a nerdy yet cool and fun video on how Chevy Equinox Engineers test for a quiet ride, by pressurizing a 2010 Chevy Equinox with smoke to ensure it doesn’t have any leaks. They also make a big mess with A LOT of ping pong balls. lol. Check out the video below:
2010 Chevy Equinox Smoke Test
Chevy Equinox Rated Crossover Best Buy
It just gets better and better for the new Chevy Equinox, and for General Motors, the maker of the Equinox. First they announce the good news/bad news scenario of not being able to keep up with demand, as their production of the Equinox is maxed out at their current factory. Now today, Nadaguides.com came out with their annual Best Car Buys for 2010 lists, and the wildly popular Chevy Equinox is ranked the number one best buy in the Crossover division.
While I always chuckle at the number and frequency of these self serving marketing PR’s, it none the less gives me great pride when my favorite car, the 2010 Chevy Equinox, gets mentioned in one of them. And boy has Chevy, and the Equinox in particular been getting a lot of mention in these lists!
The particular model that one first place was the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox 4dr FWD LS . This model has a price of $22,615 and gets a nice 27 MPG. Nadaguides.com states in their release that the Chevy Equinox depreciates 27% after the first year, and that this car is perfect fit for the guidelines used in the survey. I couldn’t agree more!
The Chevy Equinox beat out the Lexus RS450h, the Mazda CX7, the Nissan Rogue, and the VW Tiguan. Some very worthy competitors indeed.
Chevy Equinox Dealer Demand Outpaces Supply
Due to the huge popularity of the 2010 Chevy Equinox, General Motors announced they may have to open previously closed factories, as it struggles to keep up with the massive demand for their popular Equinox crossover SUV. GM said they just can’t make the Chevy Equinox fast enough, in their current open manufacturing plants. According to GM official Mark Reuss, all current Equinox plants are at capacity, as are the plants making the GMC Terrain and the Cadillac SRX Crossover. He announced this at the Detroit Auto Show.
One of the plants GM is considering bringing online again is the Spring Hill, Tennessee, but they have not made any publicly announced decisions yet on which facilities may be reopened. Until a decision is made, GM is looking at short term options to try and raise output of the Chevy Equinox at their Canadian factory in Ingersoll, Ontario.
It’s ironic that GM, coming out of bankruptcy and still trying to get back on solid financial ground, has several new cars (including the Chevy Equinox) that are wildly popular with North American consumers, yet doesn’t have the operating capacity to make and sell those vehicles. Due to the necessary closures of 14 manufacturing facilities while in bankruptcy, GM just can’t take advantage of all this pent up demand for new fuel efficient vehicles. Hopefully GM can find a way to increase it’s capacity to make the Chevy Equinox, as this is one car that is destined to bring GM back to some semblance of it’s previous glory.
Either way, overall, this huge demand is positive for the success of Chevy Equinox as a vehicle, and for GM, as a auto manufacturing company. FYI, GM announced it sold 9,513 Chevy Equinox’s in January, according to Autodata figures. In comparison, Honda CR-V sales were 9,672 and Toyota sold 7,894 RAV4′s. Just imagine how the Chevy Equinox would have sold if they could have been delivered to all the Equinox dealers!
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Chevy Equinox Pictures