The Joys and Woes of Charging Our 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS RWD

Motor Trend

2 days ago

Daily driving an EV and relying exclusively on public charging is getting easier with each passing year. Not only has the number of stations continued to increase, but widespread Supercharger access is becoming a reality as automakers begin to offer North American Charging System (NACS) compatibility with their vehicles.
The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS RWD offers convenient charging via Tesla's Supercharger network, but faces challenges like awkward charge port placement and power-off alerts during charging. It's mostly stress-free, with good range and a useful app, despite needing improvements in charging speed.
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Such is the case with our yearlong review 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV, which arrived with a NACS adapter when we took delivery five months ago. Our SUV's ability to use Superchargers came in handy as early as our first road trip, when we drove from Los Angeles to East Tucson and back. Now that we've spent more time commuting, shopping, and transporting friends in the Blazer EV, we're happy to report that solely utilizing public charging has been a happy affair. Until it wasn't. The Pros
One of the biggest advantages to driving the Blazer EV daily is that it can fast-charge with a Tesla Supercharger whenever we need to quickly juice up the battery. Hooked up to a Tesla V3 Supercharger, which dispenses a maximum of 250 kW, we come close to the Blazer EV's peak charge rate of 190 kW—that's better than vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which plateaued at 126 kW using the latest 325-kW Tesla V4 Supercharger cabinet in our testing.
During our most recent Supercharging session at Tesla's Culver City, California, location, the Blazer EV capped out at 181 kW before dropping off. Perhaps more impressively, we averaged over 100 kW of charging power from the Supercharger between the start at 21 percent until the battery hit the 65 percent mark. To our surprise, the Blazer was still accepting 88 kW when the battery was at an 80 percent state of charge. In total, charging from 21 to 91 percent took 47 minutes, longer than getting gas but swifter than using a lower-output Level 3 charger. What's more, there wasn't a line when we arrived at the Supercharger station in the middle of the day. We'll have to do a complete charging test for an apples-to-apples comparison with the Hyundai Ioniq 5, but our initial impressions have been positive.
Level 3 fast charging isn't always the best way to put more electrons into our Blazer EV's battery, though. We've come to rely on Level 2 charging from the ChargePoint stations at MotorTrend 's office in El Segundo. When we pop into the building for a day of productivity, the Blazer EV sips electricity from a J-1772 plug. A typical eight-hour charge provides as much as 41.82 kW, which translates to 136 miles of range, just over 40 percent of its battery capacity. The charge would be even quicker with upgraded hardware; the Blazer EV is plumbed to accept up to 11.5 kW from a Level 2 charger, and our office Level 2s max out at just 6.1 kW.
Going to the office once or twice a week gives me more than enough range to keep the Blazer EV on the road. Our car's EPA-rated range of 334 miles and real-world road trip range of 275 miles gives us the flexibility to add only as much charge as needed to get around.
Beyond as-needed road trip charging at Level 3 stations and regularly scheduled stops at ChargePoint's Level 2 stalls, we've enjoyed using streetside charging whenever convenient. Flo, a charging network with curbside EV chargers, has continued to install units throughout the greater Los Angeles area. My gym, for example, has a Flo right around the corner. Whenever it's available, I hook up the Blazer EV and get some extra range while I work out. It's cheap, too, costing just $3.31 for my most recent session of an hour and 39 minutes. A short stint like that gets 11.6 kW of electricity and 33 miles of range, much more than I used getting to the gym.
All the while, the myChevrolet app has been a useful tool for keeping track of the Blazer EV while it charges. The interface gives a readout of the vehicle's current state of charge and range in addition to providing an estimate of when the charge will complete. You can see your vehicle's location on the map, too, in case you left your car charging on the street and can't remember how to get back to it.
We've finally had a chance to initiate charges on Tesla Supercharges with Chevy's app, as well. It essentially loads up a browser version of Tesla's own app within the myChevrolet interface, serving as convenient shortcut if you only want to use one app.
Although having Tesla Supercharger access is an overall convenience, especially since they tend to have fewer lines than Electrify America fast chargers, Tesla's existing V3 cabinets have their disadvantages.
These prior-generation Superchargers are the most common variant we've encountered with the Blazer EV throughout California and Arizona. Stations with V3s were designed exclusively with Tesla cars in mind, from the positioning of the cabinets, to the short length of the charging cables. Usually, they're placed side by side in banks of parking spots that run perpendicular to the curb so Teslas can back in to recharge.
Unless I can find an end spot or get lucky with Superchargers that have been placed with a parking space in between cabinets, the Blazer EV almost always takes up two spots due to the positioning of the charging port between the front wheel and the driver's door. Newer V3 Superchargers are occasionally positioned beside a parallel parking spot, which I always choose over a perpendicular space, but these have been rare in my experience.
Tesla owners must be used to seeing cars from other automakers parked haphazardly at Supercharger stations because no one has asked me to stop blocking a charging stall since the trip to Arizona four months ago. Still, the anxiety of being in that position is something I deal with every time I use one of Tesla's chargers.
From an objective perspective, the Blazer EV has a slower average charge rate than rivals like the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Our 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS averaged 111 kW as it charged from 5 to 80 percent on a 350-kW Electrify America Level 3 charger. That pales in comparison to the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, which maintains an incredible average of 186 kW from 5 to 80 percent. Using a Tesla Supercharger, the Ioniq 5 still sustains 125 kW from 5 to 80 percent. In subsequent iterations of the Blazer EV, average charging speed is one of the most crucial areas Chevrolet can improve.
Our final complaint is a bit more trivial. The Blazer EV threatens to power off unless you intervene when it's hooked up to a fast charger. During our most recent session at the Culver City Tesla Supercharger, the Blazer EV alerted us twice over 47 minutes that it would power off and disable the air conditioning unless we hit a button or the brake pedal to keep it running. I was using that time on the charger to get some work done on my laptop using the rather excellent Wi-Fi hot spot, so it was frustrating being interrupted when I wasn't planning to leave the car during the duration of the charge. Great to Charge With a Few Exceptions
The 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS RWD has turned out to be one of the more stress-free EVs to charge in our long-term fleet, with Tesla's Supercharger network playing no small role in its ease of use. Our SUV's charging performance is serviceable, its driving range is excellent, and Chevy's supporting mobile app has proven to be very useful. Still, a few cumbersome design elements oversights—like the awkward charge port placement and the need to keep the car awake during longer sessions—remind us that EV refinement is still a moving target. Fortunately, the Blazer gets most of the fundamentals right. More on Our Long-Term 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS RWD: 2025 Chevrolet Blazer EV Yearlong Review Arrival: Stress-Testing a MotorTrend SUV of the Year
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