General Motors' new evlive offers a one-on-one live video experience that connects the EV-curious with trained EV Specialists in real-time. Participants can then ask their electric vehicle questions and learn everything they need to know to enjoy the EV lifestyle.
We covered the launch of evlive in July of 2022 and now that the site has been up and running for more than half a year, we asked, and were granted permission to be the first news outlet to visit and record video inside the evlive studio on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan.
When GM first told us about evlive, it said the service was one of the three legs to its "holistic approach to EVs" aimed at accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles. The other two are its purpose-built next-generation Ultium Platform which will underpin its new electric offerings with the third being accessible charging for all, via the Ultium Charge 360 network.
We built this studio, the way we designed it, specifically around those pain points, the impediments, or those concerns that people have. So there's a charging zone, a range zone, a battery zone. -Hoss Hassani, GMs VP of EV Ecosystem
Evlive electric vehicle specialists are trained to answer most general EV questions and are capable of providing more detailed information on General Motors-specific products. For instance, they can show the viewer the standard charging equipment that comes with a specific GM electric vehicle, and how to use it. They can then explain the other charging options available and explain why the customer may want to upgrade from the standard charging equipment.
The evlive studio has all of GM's charging equipment offerings on display with the power output listed and the EV specialists can explain how to use them and how much they cost. As for installation, General Motors partnered with Qmerit for home charging equipment installation, and Bolt EV, Bolt EUV, and Cadillac Lyriq customers can choose to have free standard EV charging equipment installed at their home, or get two years of unlimited complimentary charging on the EVgo network.
After taking a walk around the evlive studio, we sat down with GM's VP of EV Ecosystem, Hoss Hassani, to ask him about the new educational service and why it's so important.
Currently, the way evlive is set up, customers can hear and see the EV specialist in the studio. However, it's a one-way video feed so the EV specialists can only hear the customer, they don't have video access. Interestingly, we learned in the interview with Hassani that soon the video stream will have the option of being two-way, with customers having to opt-in and allow the two-way video stream if they choose to let the specialist see them.
They're here to answer any question you have about EVs...This isn't a sales environment. We're not trying to sell an EV; we're trying to sell EV - the concept of EV.
We also conducted a "secret shopper" test and had someone connect with an evlive specialist and ask them a few basic Ev questions. Overall the experience went very well and our EV specialist, Jerrica did an admirable job answering basic EV questions as well as Bolt EV-specific information that our secret shopper was inquiring about.
We make a few recommendations on how the session could have gone even better in the video and hopefully GM is going to take customer feedback from evlive and continue to improve what is already a great resource for EV information.
We're sure this is a topic that the InsideEVs community has a lot of thoughts on. Let us know what you think as well as suggestions to improve evlive in the comment section below and be sure to check out the evlive site and schedule a tour with an EV specialist to see what it's all about.
