- One Equinox EV was bricked after its state of charge dropped from 46% to 0% and it lost all power.
- The car’s app warned of a high-voltage battery fault a week earlier and suggested a dealer visit.
- Others report similar high-voltage battery issues; the NHTSA cites a software error as a potential cause.
Even though electric vehicles have far fewer moving parts than combustion cars and are generally pretty reliable, they can still break down without notice. Tom Moloughney’s Chevrolet Equinox EV unexpectedly bricked itself a few days ago, even though it had been running problem-free until then and it’s only done around 9,500 miles since new.
Tom posted a video on his channel, State of Charge, explaining what happened. He started up the Equinox after it had been sitting for about six days and it showed that it had 46% battery remaining. He began driving the car, but it suddenly dropped to 0% and lost all power. The steering didn’t lock up and Tom was able to slide down the road and back into his driveway before calling a tow truck to pick the car up and take it to the dealer.
When the truck arrived an hour later, they started the car back up again and it was again showing 46%, and they were able to drive it under its own power onto the flatbed.
Tom notes that while the car had not previously exhibited any issues, the myChevrolet app on his phone alerted him a week earlier that there was a problem with the high-voltage battery. He made an appointment with his local Chevy dealer but couldn’t keep it for obvious reasons.
The car sat for six days before Tom drove it and it failed. When he parked it, it had 58% in the battery and on the day it failed, it showed 46%. Tom says that losing 12% while sitting is a bit excessive and this too could indicate a problem with the battery pack.
He hasn’t heard back from the dealer yet, but Tom suggests the problem could even be something as simple as a faulty 12-volt battery. Even though EVs have a huge battery that takes up their entire floor, all still have a traditional 12-volt battery to power ancillaries and when it fails, it can make the car think it has a bigger problem. If the 12-volt battery fails, it could disrupt the battery monitoring system and lead the car to think the high-voltage battery is at fault.
Digging around, I found several reports from Equinox EV owners who said they got the same high-voltage battery error message, but I didn’t find one that also correlated with the car suddenly bricking. I did find a document from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stating that this error also occurs in the Blazer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq, Optiq and Vistiq, and that it’s usually just a software error that can be fixed by clearing error codes.
One Equinox EV owner posted in a Facebook owners’ group to describe an issue very similar to what Tom described. They describe the state of charge suddenly going from 65% to 0% and losing power while in traffic, followed by a message telling them to “service the lithium-ion battery immediately.” That Equinox also ended up on the back of a flatbed truck on its way to a dealer, and more users in the comments said they had experienced it as well.
Only one of the commenters said they heard back from the dealer after experiencing the same thing and the issue stemmed from “a corroded pin on one of the battery cables.” Tom’s car could have the same issue or it could really be something as simple as the 12-volt battery acting up.