Enlarge / The new Chevrolet Blazer EV is the latest electric vehicle to use General Motors’ Ultium battery platform. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

DEL MAR, Calif.—Americans love midsize SUVs—American automotive product planners, at any rate. These SUVs have supplanted sedans and station wagons as the family-mobile of choice, offering all the advantages of a hatchback with a lofty driving position. Now there’s a new one in town, an all-electric version of the Chevrolet Blazer. It’s not an EV conversion of the existing Blazer but a new model built on the same dedicated platform as the Cadillac Lyriq. After a few hours driving the new Blazer EV around the outskirts of San Diego, here’s what we’ve learned.

In time, the Blazer EV will be available in three trims (LT, RS, and SS) and in front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive configurations. But for now, Chevy is starting with the Blazer EV RS, available with either a single motor driving the rear wheels and a larger-capacity battery or an all-wheel drive variant with a smaller-capacity battery pack.

Chevy arranged for us to drive the $57,200 Blazer EV RS RWD first, so let’s start there. It uses a 102 kWh battery pack to achieve an EPA range of 324 miles (521 km), sending that energy to a 340 hp (254 kW), 325 lb-ft (440 Nm) permanent magnet electric motor.