Two months ago, James Rapp was driving home at dusk when a deer appeared out of nowhere, straight into the path of his spanking-new Chevrolet Equinox EV.
The software engineer escaped unharmed and the deer bolted into the woods, but the car wasn't so lucky. His car hit the deer when he was going at about 40 mph, so the impact left the fascia mangled but thankfully without structural or powertrain damage. The EV drove just fine, so Rapp dashed to a Chevy dealership the next morning for repairs.
After the incident, the Chevy dealership in Gaithersburg, Maryland identified 26 parts that needed replacement, including the headlamps, front camera, parts of the grille and the bumper, registration plate brackets and more. Now his Equinox EV 2LT, draped in the Riptide Blue Metallic paint, has been lying idle at the dealer's body shop for over 60 days.
“I had the car only for three weeks," Rapp said. "It had 400 miles on it. Now it’s been out for eight weeks and is [just] sitting there."
In the meantime, Rapp is back behind the wheel of his 2006 gas-powered Equinox. “What should have been a three-day repair, eight weeks later there's no indication when it’ll be done," he said. "It’s frustrating."
Rapp’s case isn’t unique. A number of Equinox EV owners have posted online or told InsideEVs that they are facing similar delays after relatively minor incidents where gas-powered General Motors cars might've been repaired in days or weeks at most. For Equinox EV owners, repairs are dragging on for months.
Several owners told InsideEVs that they have been left in the dark with no official estimated time of arrival for several collision replacement parts. They added that the dealerships had no clue either, as they await a fix from GM.
Good old GM doing their normal shitty job of taking care of EV drivers.