Updated: Test Drive a New Chevy Equinox EV in Los Angeles and Get a Free Erewhon Smoothie

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

Social media is packed with people showing off their luxurious lives in coastal California, and the ridiculously overpriced Erewhon grocery store chain has become a darling of people with cash to burn. Chevy seems to think those people are the perfect target for its latest Equinox EV marketing ploy, with the automaker giving free bottles of Erewhon’s viral almost-$20 smoothie to anyone who test drives the new vehicle at one of the chain’s L.A.-area stores.


Erewhon created a “limited-edition wellness beverage” called Equinox EV Electric Juice for the promotion. It joins the store’s other smoothie flavors, such as Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smooth, Coconut Cloud Smooth, and Malibu Mango. While we’re down the rabbit hole of health foods, we should note that the Electric Juice smoothie has chocho from the Andes Mountains, a nutrient-rich legume, and blue spirulina, giving the beverage its electric-blue color.


Chevy rightfully believes that Southern California is an important market for its EVs, and targeting buyers at the region’s highest-end grocery stores is a smart move that will likely reach the right people. That said, the move won’t do much to dispel perceptions that EVs are elitists’ vehicles, primarily purchased by better-than-thee nose-thumbing finance bros.

Despite that, the Equinox EV’s price tag is more aligned with the middle class. It currently starts at around $35,000, including destination, as the long-promised affordable base model landed for the 2025 model year, making it one of the cheapest new EVs on sale today. Saving that much money on an EV purchase might be the only way most people would consider spending $20 on a smoothie.


[Images: Chevrolet]


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Chris Teague
Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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  • Jalop1991 Jalop1991 on Sep 27, 2024
    EVs are dropping off everyone's radar: h**ps://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/harris-tiptoes-away-from-electric-vehicle-stance-as-trump-seizes-an-opening-in-michigan-dd52d03d?mod=hp_lead_pos6
  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Sep 27, 2024
    Test drive a car in Los Angeles traffic? Is somebody making a "Death Wish" movie and looking for despondent volunteers?
  • KOKing I owned a Paul Bracq-penned BMW E24 some time ago, and I recently started considering getting Sacco's contemporary, the W124 coupe.
  • Bob The answer is partially that stupid manufacturers stopped producing desirable PHEVs.I bought my older kid a beautiful 2011 Volt, #584 off the assembly line and #000007 for HOV exemption in MD. We love the car. It was clearly an old guy's car, and his kids took away his license.It's a perfect car for a high school kid, really. 35 miles battery range gets her to high school, job, practice, and all her friend's houses with a trickle charge from the 120V outlet. In one year (~7k miles), I have put about 10 gallons of gas in her car, and most of that was for the required VA emissions check minimum engine runtime.But -- most importantly -- that gas tank will let her make the 300-mile trip to college in one shot so that when she is allowed to bring her car on campus, she will actually get there!I'm so impressed with the drivetrain that I have active price alerts for the Cadillac CT6 2.0e PHEV on about 12 different marketplaces to replace my BMW. Would I actually trade in my 3GT for a CT6? Well, it depends on what broke in German that week....
  • ToolGuy Different vehicle of mine: A truck. 'Example' driving pattern: 3/3/4 miles. 9/12/12/9 miles. 1/1/3/3 miles. 5/5 miles. Call that a 'typical' week. Would I ever replace the ICE powertrain in that truck? No, not now. Would I ever convert that truck to EV? Yes, very possibly. Would I ever convert it to a hybrid or PHEV? No, that would be goofy and pointless. 🙂
  • ChristianWimmer Took my ‘89 500SL R129 out for a spin in his honor (not a recent photo).Other great Mercedes’ designers were Friedrich Geiger, who styled the 1930s 500K/540K Roadsters and my favorite S-Class - the W116 - among others. Paul Bracq is also a legend.RIP, Bruno.
  • ToolGuy Currently my drives tend to be either extra short or fairly long. (We'll pick that vehicle over there and figure in the last month, 5 miles round trip 3 times a week, plus 1,000 miles round trip once.) The short trips are torture for the internal combustion powertrain, the long trips are (relative) torture for my wallet. There is no possible way that the math works to justify an 'upgrade' to a more efficient ICE, or an EV, or a hybrid, or a PHEV. Plus my long trips tend to include (very) out of the way places. One day the math will work and the range will work and the infrastructure will work (if the range works) and it will work in favor of a straight EV (purchased used). At that point the short trips won't be torture for the EV components and the long trips shouldn't hurt my wallet. What we will have at that point is the steady drip-drip-drip of long-term battery degradation. (I always pictured myself buying generic modular replacement cells at Harbor Freight or its future equivalent, but who knows if that will be possible). The other option that would almost possibly work math-wise would be to lease a new EV at some future point (but the payment would need to be really right). TL;DR: ICE now, EV later, Hybrid maybe, PHEV probably never.
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