Power Loss on the Way for GM's Best-selling CUV

Sure, we joke about the Blazer and question the need for tweeners like the Trailblazer (while lamenting what both names have become), but there’s no denying that General Motors’ Chevrolet Equinox is a sales juggernaut, topping all other GM CUVs in sales by a mile. And there’s a lot of CUVs to top.

Customers seem to like what they see in the current-generation Equinox, though one option stands to disappear for 2021. We can now confirm a recent report that Chevy plans to drop the model’s optional turbocharged 2.0-liter engine.

The Equinox furnishes all of its trims with a standard 1.5-liter turbo four, good for 170 horsepower and 203 lb-ft of torque, mated to a six-speed automatic. It’s enough to get the compact crossover through its day just fine; truth be told, power isn’t something that’s all that important in this particular segment.

Available on all-wheel drive versions of the uplevel LT and top-flight Premier is the 2.0L four, capable of a healthy 252 hp and 260 lb-ft, paired with a nine-speed automatic. It’s a decent power boost, and it pushes the model’s towing capacity from 1,500 lbs to 3,500 lbs. However, GM Authority recently cited sources who claimed the 2.0L option will disappear come 2021 — the result of a low take rate of just 7 percent.

Seems not all that many people rank towing and needless expense very highly when shopping for a compact domestic CUV.

When asked about the report, GM confirmed that the 2.0L bites the dust for the 2021 model year — but only for that year.

“Chevrolet’s 1.5L turbo engine is a popular choice for Equinox customers, making up 90 percent of sales volume,” said Rita Kass-Shamoun, assistant communications manager responsible for Chevrolet small- to mid-size SUVs. “Chevrolet will exclusively offer the 2021 Equinox with a 1.5L turbo engine.”

While the move leaves the Equinox without an uplevel engine with which to fight its main domestic rival, the Ford Escape (all-new for 2020, with a turbo 2.0L in top trim), the move heralds other changes coming to the model. The Equinox was originally expected to undergo a refresh for the 2021 model year, but the pandemic pushed these plans back to MY2022. That leaves 2021 as a gap year.

Amid the financial tumult of the pandemic, as well as GM’s preexisting cost-cutting efforts, reducing the Equinox’s build configurations would help the automaker ease itself through a troubled time.

A “new” 2.0L option will return when the 2022 model arrives in the third quarter of next year, GM said.

[Images: General Motors]