The first electric vehicles from General Motors without CarPlay and Android Auto are filtering into car dealers. GM is no longer offering the popular feature on its electric vehicles starting with the 2024 Chevy EV Blazer (but it will continue to include CarPlay/Android Auto on its gas-powered models).
We called a handful of Chevy dealers to ask how customers were reacting to the new Blazer EV. Mainly, salesmen said they are able to sell around the lack of CarPlay/Android Auto by demonstrating GM’s version.
But it’s been a rocky road for GM and its infotainment software called Ultifi, which provides media streaming, navigation, etc. with extra features the driver can purchase via subscription.
Early reviews of Ultifi in the new Blazer EV talked of the screen going blank mid-drive and apps crashing. Bloomberg says GM, which started shipping the Blazer at the end of 2023, halted shipments from December to March to fix the problem.
Some of the dealers we called in late April/early May had just received the 2024 Blazer EV.
A Chevy salesman in VA claimed , “If [customers] are accustomed to CarPlay, we explain that it does everything CarPlay does and you just have to show them.” He said he had sold four or five of the vehicles to date.
We asked a salesman at one of the largest Chevy dealers in Illinois if customers were complaining. The dealer, who had 20 Blazers EVs in stock, said, “I’m not hearing any of that.”
A salesman at Hawthorn Chevrolet has sold one new Blazer EV and said the customer didn’t even ask about CarPlay or Android Auto.
In general it is too soon to tell customer reaction. Three salesmen didn’t know the new model lacked CarPlay and Android Auto or were confused and thought it only supported “Google” or “Android.”
Bloomberg reported that Rivian, which doesn’t offer CarPlay, found that 70 percent of its customers wanted the feature when its EV trucks were first introduced two years ago without it. But Rivan adds features such as rating the EV charging stations so drivers know the best places to stop. It conducted research on buyers and found that once customers were accustomed to the truck, the percentage that still wanted CarPlay dropped to 30 percent.
Of course, Tesla, which sold 670,000 cars in the US last year, does not offer CarPlay or Android Auto.
Bloomberg noted, “GM is now racing to refine its software and convince customers that it’s worth breaking old habits for. If the company can smash through the gates of Apple’s walled garden, GM projects that digital services will bring in as much as $25 billion annually by 2030. Then again, it might end up simply alienating droves of Apple loyalist…”
We’ll know more about customer reaction in a few months.
Yep, Old people love to bitch, and I have been getting calls for the past few years complaining how cds aren’t included anymore…. While you might say they are crazy, I also had a 2024 Express van come in with full cellular control to lock/unlock the doors/remote start/and gps track. but did not come with a remote transmitter. When the customer asked for a transmitter, they were sent to me because they did not offer that feature.
I have been in the industry since cassette tapes were popular. Once CD’s came out, customers complained that cassette tape players were not available without either an absorbent price from a Chinese company like the Sanyo CD/.Cassette unit or others. , or they were only produced by Chinese companies under the usual copied names . Now we are getting yelled at for vehicles not coming with CD players due to the FREE digital infotainment available on even a flip phone. So we have to rely on Chinese companies again to make ancient technology relevant again. Carplay and Android Auto seems to now be the new Cassette Tape Player issues, and unfortunately, the main manufacturers have to keep technology relevant. Carplay and Android Auto was never engineered to wrap the vehicles electrical or data stream into the app for Electric vehicles. It is a hump that they will either need to figure out or re-engineer the software to read more vehicle data to make references more appropriate. Also, if you love Apple products, you will be sad to find that their software will now or shortly be on track to disable features for if the iPad if it is moving or it will block access to the screen…. so even if you cant use carplay, there will be no option to use an iPhone or iPad to over ride the “safety” Apple is putting into their systems.
We as the 12v industry professionals should be seeing this as an opportunity to develop a CarPlay add on module for these vehicles. I know it’s not as easy as that, but surely it can be done with enough time and resources. If CarPlay and Android Auto are going to be missing from more and more EV’s, this could be a huge opportunity to get new customers into 12v shops. Maybe I’m just a glass is half full type guy, but that’s how I try to view any of these “missing feature” situations.
Hooboy, now I’m gonna have old people coming in wanting CD players added, and young folks asking for Carplay to be added.
Ha ha.. Spot on.