2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV Brake Problems

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

Traveling down a gravel road, down hill with security gate at bottom of hill. Traveled 100's of times. starting going down hill and used brakes to slow, no slowing. Pushed harder and still no slowing. As hard as possible and hit the gate lots of damage to car. It was as if there were no brakes. In fact I think the car speeded up and the brakes released all the way.

On two occasions as I have pulled in to park this vehicle, while pressing brake the car lurched forward. The first time no damage happened however the second time damage occurred. While pressing the brake as hard as I could would not stop the lurching car. None of the avoidance warnings helped either.

When you hit the brakes on hurry car don't stop it rolls and take longer to engage. Was involved on a rear end accident because of saw the car in front stop press the brake and suv just slow down but keep rolling forward.

BRAKING FAILURE on 2025 Equinox EV LT model - my car has had two separate brake failures going down a steep dry rocky road in clear weather, once with one pedal driving on and once without, on July 21st, 2025 and August 11th, 2025 respectively. It doesn't happen every time going down this road and each time at no more than 5 - 10 miles per hour, with the brake pedal to the floor the car was not slowing down and the weight of the car on the steep track made it speed up considerably which made it dangerous due to the steepness of the hill and turns in the road. The first time I drove off the road onto flat grass and the car came to a stop, the last time it happened I pumped the brakes until the car stopped and the "ABS engaged" light came on the dashboard above the steering wheel. It happened twice on the road that time. There were no prior alerts or warning lights. …

I experienced a brake failure this past weekend in my 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV LT while descending a dirt/stone road. The moment we started descending, the ABS system engaged and did not brake the car adequately. In my opinion, the ABS system should not have engaged in this terrain. The ABS, would not shut off for our entire descent, which lasted for about two full minutes. During this time, we could not stop the car and were accelerating out of control. We got going far faster than I was comfortable with, and my passenger & I thought we were going to end up crashing. After about a minute of inability to brake properly or stop, we ended up getting a flat tire. The flat tire, combined with the terrain flattening, eventually helped us come to a complete stop. …

On September 2, 2026, at approximately 3:19 PM, my 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV unexpectedly applied hard automatic braking while I was proceeding through a green intersection. A white SUV ahead of me was moving to the left and clearing my travel path. There was no vehicle, pedestrian, bicycle, or other obstacle directly blocking my lane that required emergency braking. At the exact moment the vehicle applied the brakes, a Forward Collision Warning appeared on the driver display. Based on the warning and the braking response, I believe the Forward Collision Alert/Automatic Emergency Braking system falsely detected an imminent collision and activated unnecessarily. The unexpected braking created a risk that a vehicle behind me could rear-end my vehicle. My two children were passengers and were frightened by the sudden braking. No collision or injury occurred. …

Yesterday while approaching a hairpin exit, all of a sudden lights went on for the Stabilitrack, Collision alert and a number of other lights. Messages popped up saying braking assist was not available, cruise control was not available. Basically, the braking assist was gone and I had to press REALLY hard on the brake pedal to get any slowdown. All regen was gone and it was like driving a car without power brakes. I also got a message saying it would not go faster than 62mph. There was no indication of any issues prior to the Brake assist failure. This put me at extreme risk because it was essentially a power braking failure and it was extremely difficult to slow down. I had to really push hard on the brake pedal. I was able to drive my car back to the dealership where it is sitting now, waiting to be looked at in the morning of 3/24/25. …

References: [redacted] the Equinox EV is currently giving me issues with the brake system. This inconvenience is extremely annoying, frustrating, and most importantly, very dangerous. I'm forced to repeatedly turn my vehicle off and back on, while attempting to re-engage the one-pedal driving. This is a cornerstone advantage of the EV in general, and needs to work 100% of the time, just as my money is taken every month 100% of the time. This also results in other critical features being disabled, such as the auto-hold and forward collision systems. I believe it also impacts the cruise control as well. I am greatly displeased with this and now want to give the vehicle back. My lessor, GM Financial, has specific guidelines in place that make this difficult. What can Chevrolet do to address this? …

I was pulling into the parking lot of my job. The one pedal driving mode was on, and my vehicle was not slowing down like it generally does. So, I immediately stepped on the brake, and it still didn't slow down, it felt like a brick, I stepped on it harder. It still did not stop! I ran into the barn/building I work in. I was terrified!! What if there was a person there, or another car, or kids playing, etc. I immediately called the Chevy Dealership in Woodland at 8am, they had me tow the 2025 Equinox to them. I just talked to them at 4:30pm. They said there were no messages with regard to the braking system. They said they would install the update, and would continue to diagnose the problem. I do not feel safe in this vehicle, it poses a significant risk as a driver!

Front automatic emergency braking has activated abruptly three times in routine following traffic while I was already braking behind a slowing vehicle. It caused a very hard stop and nearly led to a rear-end collision from the vehicle behind me. Please inspect the forward camera/sensors, calibration, AEB settings, and check for any related fault codes or software issues." This happened on 3/18 while I was getting ready to go onto the freeway and the cars in front of me slowed down I applied the brakes to slow down and the ABS brakes abruptly and strongly I was almost rear ended. There was another passenger that felt the same thing and commented on what happened.

Related recalls

NHTSA investigations

Brake complaints in other Equinox EV years