A few years ago, GM announced a plan to begin phasing out CarPlay support in select vehicles. GM’s decision naturally generated a lot of pushback from iPhone owners who have become accustomed to the seamless user experience CarPlay provides. GM’s decision isn’t exactly user friendly and, unsurprisingly, is designed to make GM more money via subscription revenue as opposed to creating a stellar user experience.
GM’s decision to phase out CarPlay support is part of a multi-year plan. In other words, the transition away from CarPlay isn’t happening instantaneously and will be a gradual evolution until the feature is completely phased out by 2028. For the time being, GM’s phasing out of CarPlay has only impacted electric vehicles. Eventually, GM’s plan to remove CarPlay will expand to include gas-powered vehicles as well.
This strategy was confirmed by GM CEO Mary Barra who, during a podcast interview, said the following: “We made a decision to prioritize our EV vehicles during this timeframe, and as we go forward, we’ll continue across the portfolio.” As it stands now, GM has yet to disclose a timeframe for when gas-powered GM vehicles will ship without CarPlay. Suffice it to say, if CarPlay is a feature you’ve grown accustomed to or is a must-have, you might want to steer clear of GM vehicles altogether. Meanwhile, below is a list of three popular car models from GM that will not ship with CarPlay support.
Chevy Bolt
The Chevy Bolt has long been one of the more iconic EVs on the market. Of course, this isn’t because the Chevy Bolt offers jaw-dropping features, but rather because it’s one of the more affordable EV options on sale from any manufacturer. As a quick illustration, note that the Chevy Bolt starts at $26,500 while the entry-level Tesla Model 3 starts at $36,990. What’s more, the Chevy Bolt has been around for nearly 10 years, making it one of the more recognizable EV models despite an underwhelming design and feature set.
All that said, the 2027 Chevy Bolt is dropping CarPlay support after years of supporting the feature. In its place will be a GM-branded infotainment system built with help from Google. Chevy Bolt owners have long prioritized value and simplicity, which is to say that the abrupt removal of CarPlay support might make existing Bolt owners reluctant to upgrade to newer models years down the line.
Chevy Blazer
The all-electric version of the Chevy Blazer offered CarPlay support in the past, but you won’t find the feature on newer models or even the 2025 version. This is worth mentioning because if you’re in the market for a used Chevy Blazer and consider lack of CarPlay to be a dealbreaker, you’ll want to make sure that you’re looking at older models that still have CarPlay support.
Notably, the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV was one of the first GM vehicles to drop support for CarPlay. When it became known that the Chevy Blazer EV was losing support for CarPlay, GM executive Mike Hichme explained to Reuters that the company wants to avoid situations where important features like driver assist are “dependent on a person having a cellphone.” All in all, it’s a questionable explanation from GM given that it’s increasingly unlikely that anyone driving a car today doesn’t own a smartphone.
Cadillac Vistiq
Another notable EV being sold without CarPlay support is the well-reviewed Cadillac Vistiq. Incidentally, the Vistiq is a relatively new EV model and never shipped with CarPlay to begin with. What makes the Vistiq’s lack of CarPlay support somewhat interesting is that the car is designed to be a luxury SUV. To this point, the Vistiq is particularly pricey for an EV, with the entry-level model starting at $77,395. If you start adding premium features, the price of a new Vistiq can quickly jump up to about $99,000.
This is notable because luxury car owners tend to own luxury smartphones. It’s fair to say that if you’re buying a luxury SUV like the Cadillac Vistiq, you probably own an iPhone or an high-end Android device. That being the case, spending nearly $100,000 on a fancy new SUV only to find out that you can’t use CarPlay might be jarring for some buyers.
GM cars with CarPlay support will keep it
The good news is that if you have a GM car that already has CarPlay support, it’s not going anywhere. GM executives have gone on the record and said that older cars with CarPlay support will retain it. That’s certainly one way to ensure your customers never want to upgrade.
“We are not making any changes to existing vehicles,” a GM spokesperson said not too long ago. “If your car supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, that will continue. Both will remain available in all GM gas-powered vehicles for the foreseeable future. As we advance toward our centralized computing platform, we’ll gradually move to a better, more deeply integrated experience…”
Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how GM’s CarPlay gambit plays out, especially given that GM’s current homegrown infotainment system offers a subpar user experience compared to what is currently available with CarPlay and Android Auto. GM will undoubtedly refine its own offering, but the simple reality is that many car owners view CarPlay and Android Auto as a necessity. To this point, a survey from McKinsey & Co. found that approximately 33% of car owners view the lack of CarPlay or Android Auto as a dealbreaker.
