By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -General Motors said on Friday it is resuming sales and cutting the price of its Chevrolet Blazer EV after software quality issues prompted the largest U.S. automaker to halt deliveries in late December.
GM said it has made significant software updates addressing concerns from early owners including customizable multi-color ambient lighting, revised Driver Information Center graphics with battery percentage display and more. Current Blazer owners will get a software update to address the issues.
GM said it would cut the price of the Blazer by about $5,600 to $6,500 based on the trim level. The automaker also said the Blazer has regained eligibility for a U.S. $7,500 EV tax credit after new battery sourcing rules from the U.S. Treasury on Jan. 1 made many EVs ineligible.
The Blazer price cuts and restored tax credit bring the effective price for qualified buyers down to $42,695 from the original $56,715 for the lowest-priced model. Other automakers, including Ford Motor (NYSE:F), have cut prices of EVs in recent months.
Several EVs have regained eligibility for tax credits since January including the Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p) ID.4, Honda Prologue and Cadillac Lyriq.
Separately, GM on Feb. 26 resumed sales of its 2024 model year Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size trucks after briefly halting them to address intermittent software quality issues.
GM CEO Mary Barra said last month the Detroit automaker has "already revamped the software development process and more importantly the validation process.... Right now, we're going through a little bit of a learning, pain or learning, pains as we make this transition."