General Motors has been firm in its stance against offering Apple CarPlay. First, the company ditched the feature in its electric vehicles, and then last year announced it would phase out phone mirroring in all its cars. If you don’t like losing that kind of control over your property, there's a solution that adds CarPlay back into certain GM electric vehicles.
It’s called the EV Play LT, and it’s a $199 plug-and-play USB device that offers wired and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability. It does require the owner to install an application on the infotainment system, but the company says the installation should take no more than a few minutes. It also doesn’t require the owner to make any mods to the car.
A dealer previously attempted to retrofit the technology into GM vehicles but was pressured by the automaker to discontinue it. The automaker said the upgrade could interfere with "critical safety features and may also void portions of the vehicle's warranty," which you would think should be a decision the owner has over their vehicle.
EV Play will begin shipping the LT the week of June 8. It is a one-time purchase with no subscriptions, which feels like a win for consumers.
Motor1’s Take: GM’s decision to ditch CarPlay compatibility is a selfish one. It’s an option consumers want, and they should be able to choose it, even if it’s a degraded experience.
The automaker talks a lot about giving consumers a choice with powertrains, but that kind of liberty doesn’t seem to extend to how consumers use their GM vehicles. If GM is confident in its in-house infotainment system, it wouldn’t be worried about consumers choosing to use CarPlay.
