Let’s address one thing right off the bat: If you’re a budget-constrained shopper looking for a new electric car that’s perfectly pleasant to drive and will help save on gas and maintenance, you could do worse than the $34,995 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV LT. In other words, this Equinox is popular for a reason. However, things get more interesting if you’re looking for the best value and can afford a couple hundred dollars more per month. Is the Equinox’s larger brother, the Blazer EV (or its Honda Prologue cousin) worth considering? Or the Tesla Model Y? And how about the updated-for-2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E?
Yes, how about that Mustang Mach-E. While GM has launched an onslaught of electric SUVs for its Cadillac, Chevy, and GMC brands, Ford quietly refined its lone electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E, since 2021. Prices for the latter start at about $42,000, but unlike the Equinox, few buy the base versions of the Mach-E. Instead, many shoppers step a trim up to the Mustang Mach-E Premium for its creature comforts, its available dual-motor all-wheel-drive performance, and a 300-mile EPA range rating from Ford’s optional extended-range battery.
But is the Mustang Mach-E—or any of the similarly priced SUVs from GM, Tesla, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, or others—worth the price premium over the lowly Equinox EV LT if you have more cash to spend but are reluctant to part with it without good reason?
Spec Showdown
With truly “cheap” EVs from Ford or Slate still some time away, and the Nissan Leaf bound to get a price increase for 2026, the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV LT is effectively the entry-level electric car in our market at $34,995.
You get a lot of vehicle for your money. Under the hood, the Equinox EV features a single permanent-magnet motor that produces 220 hp and 243 lb-ft of torque. It’s paired with an 85-kWh battery pack good for a peak charge rate of 150 kW on a 350-kW charger (more on that later) and up to 11.5 kW at home. The Feds say the front-wheel-drive Equinox EV LT can clear 319 miles on a full charge (in fact, every Equinox EV is EPA-rated for at least 300 miles of range, even AWD models). Inside, you get room for five, the same fancy-looking 17.7-inch Google OS infotainment system from more expensive Equinoxes, and not much else beyond the essentials like single-zone A/C and the active safety equipment necessary to top industry crash tests. Standout features available on other Equinox EVs, like GM’s award-winning Super Cruise hands-free driving aid aren’t available on the LT. Neither are Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which GM doesn’t offer on most of its cars.
Many base compact electric SUVs don’t stack up particularly well to the Equinox EV LT. The starter Mustang Mach-E Select, for instance, largely matches the Chevy in creature comforts and sports a more powerful but less efficient rear-mounted permanent-magnet motor good for 264 hp and 387 lb-ft of torque. But it uses a smaller 73-kWh battery pack, giving it just 260 miles of EPA-estimated range. Stepping up to the Mustang Mach-E Premium ($44,490 to start) unlocks the ability to upgrade to Ford’s larger 88.0-kWh battery pack (a $4,250 extra), giving single-motor Mach-Es up to 320 miles of range. Once you’ve already justified the range upgrade, it’s easy to see how Mustang Mach-E owners might justify spending another $3,250 to add another permanent-magnet motor up front, giving the fastback EV a healthy 370 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque while still clearing 300 miles in EPA testing.
It easily snowballs from there. In addition to the long list of standard features that come on all Mach-E Premiums (exterior and interior trim upgrades, heated and cooled front power seats, heated steering, a B&O audio system, and a phone-mirroring-friendly infotainment system), our Mustang Mach-E test SUV came with Ford’s latest BlueCruise 1.5 hands-free Level 2 driver assist system ($2,495) and a handful of style upgrades, bringing its as-tested price to $58,670.
Chevy vs. Ford: Range and Charging Results
With range such a primary concern for EV drivers, we’ll start our Equinox EV LT and Mustang Mach-E Premium comparison test by answering the big worry on EV shoppers’ minds: The Feds say both can clear 300 miles on a charge, but can they really do so when it’s time for a road trip? Our 70-mph real-world Road-Trip Range test is designed to answer that question.
We begin with each battery at 100 percent and run them at a steady 70 mph down the highway until we hit 5 percent to see how far we can travel. The 319-mile-rated Equinox EV ended up traveling 262 miles, while the 300-mile rated Mustang Mach-E covered 252 miles, both perfectly average results for the segment.
Our fast-charging test results, on the other hand, are barely average for the segment. Both manufacturers claim an unimpressive 150-kW peak charge rate for their EVs (the Hyundai Ioniq 5, for example, can hit 257 kW), but due to the voltage of the Chevy’s battery pack it can only hit that rate when hooked up to a 350-kW charger. Thus, the Equinox adds only 94 miles of range in 15 minutes, 157 miles in 30 minutes, and needs a leisurely 48 minutes to go from 5 to 80 percent charge—the point at which most EV drivers continue with their journeys. The Mustang Mach-E isn’t much better, adding 95 miles in 15 minutes, 158 in 30, and needing 43 minutes to reach 80 percent. The Ioniq 5, on the other hand, achieves that threshold in just 24 minutes.
Both vehicles recharge easily overnight from the average household Level 2 charger, and both can recharge from Tesla-style NACS chargers with an adapter.
With neither offering a particularly noteworthy charging experience, the Mustang Mach-E gets the slight edge here by virtue of being able to charge just as quickly on 150-kW chargers as it can on 350-kW (and quicker) chargers, but it is notable that the cheaper Chevy doesn’t offer a worse charging experience than the Ford—that certainly wasn’t always the case with EVs.
The Drive Experience
You’re correct if you set your eyes on these two vehicles and think the Mustang Mach-E just looks sportier. In nearly every acceleration and handling test we performed (though notably not in our 60–0-mph braking test), the Ford outperformed the Chevy. You can see the full breakdown in the chart below.
The Ford certainly feels sportier in the real world, too. Its dual-motor all-wheel-drive system has enough power to throw you back in your seat and allow the Mach-E to keep up with V-8-powered Mustang GTs (and, more practically, accelerate to pass slower traffic) without hesitation. Its steering is direct and has satisfying weight to it too, which, combined with its firm yet comfortable ride, makes the Mach-E genuinely fun to drive. “The Mach-E has a ton of character and athleticism, which isn’t easy to pull off with EVs,” senior features editor Kristen Lee said. The Mach-E’s BlueCruise 1.5 system also works wonderfully; it clearly signals to the driver when you can and can’t take your hands off the wheel, can automatically change lanes, and just drives in a predictable, humanlike manner.
That’s not to say the Mach-E lacks flaws. Some editors wished for more adjustability from the Mach-E’s one-pedal drive mode, and better feel from the mushy brake pedal with the system turned off. We also clocked wind and tire noise in the cabin at freeway speeds—mostly because the Chevrolet is so serenely quiet.
