Although I grew up swapping my dad’s Chevrolet S-10 pickup from the passenger seat, I’m not Chevy’s target market. I prefer hatchbacks to cargo beds. But after a day of driving around Detroit in the Silverado EV, I realized that Chevy could still make a truck guy out of me.
The Silverado EV drives almost like a car. Again, the bed is large, fragile, cavernous. There’s enough room in the back seat to get my damn long legs through, and the cabin is quiet. It will power your home during a hurricane and tow, tow and drive down the highway without your finger on the wheel. Plus it has a range of 400 miles on a single charge. This should be a dream combination for the American pickup truck enthusiast.
And it hasn’t exactly flown out of showrooms yet. GM is for sale about 14,000 last year In the US and Canada. Silverado sells for 10 times more than that in the fossil fuel quarter. I’m kind of confused after driving. GM could have created the perfect American EV, but no one is buying it.
Maybe it’s the look? At a glance, the Silverado looks like an EV old Chevy Avalancheand whether that’s a good thing depends on how you feel about the original. Like the Avalanche, the Silverado EV has four doors, a short bed that can be extended into the cab, and a “sail” between the cab and the bed, which helps minimize drag. I thought the EV looked good, but then, I’m not a truck guy.
It takes a big step to get inside, but once inside it’s spacious and comfortable. Press it and the Silverado EV comes to life with crisp screens that dominate the lower third of your vision. The seats are great and, like many EVs, will slide forward when nudged with your right foot. At almost 20 feet long, no one would call the Silverado EV small, but thanks to rear-wheel steering, it will pull through a parking lot like a neat hatchback. That is, until you try to squeeze it into a tight parking spot.
The Google-powered infotainment system is crisp and clear and admirably responsive. It’s not as fast as the iPhone, but it’s pretty close, and voice commands work well. Below the vents are the volume and temperature buttons and some HVAC buttons that can also be operated manually. Chevy, thankfully, still remembers how to do physical control.
Navigation is a Google service, so it works fine. When I spoke my destination, it suggested a series of routes, just like Google Maps does on your phone, but with a twist: Below the usual time-to-destination readout, another estimates how much you can use Super Cruise, GM’s silent driving option. Don’t feel like driving too much? Choose the route to maximize the time spent on the Super Cruise. Over the years, GM has offered many reasons for removing CarPlay from its electric vehicles, and this may be one of its better arguments. This does not mean that I fully agree with this decision.
Speaking of Super Cruise, the hands-free, Level 2 advanced driver assistance system is as good as they say. In March, I Drove Bolt on Super Cruise and despite my short time with him, I was impressed. I drove the Silverado EV through metro Detroit during rush hour. Super Cruise is almost a requirement in a truck this size, making the driver relatively stress free.
However, it had its downsides. It can be a little difficult to keep him in his lane. Similar to my time in the Bolt, the Super Cruise could be caught off guard by cars speeding up and coming in from the right.
A particularly nerve-wracking Super Cruise moment happened when the Silverado EV almost drove into the trailer of a dirty paint mixer. Maybe the paint splattered taillights threw the system? Indeed, the radar should have picked it up.
Overall, Super Cruise helped keep the ride smooth, though a lot of credit must go to the 205-kilowatt-hour battery pack sitting in the middle. This hell is ballast. Also thanks to the drivers and control engineers who tried to cope with their work. As trucks go, it’s smooth.
Perhaps more impressive was efficiency. I got about 2.1 mph, which is about 10% to 20% less than the average in my Audi e-tron, a smaller car with less frontal area against the wind.
So why the slow sales?
Some observers have blamed the Silverado EV’s high price, but I doubt it. A shell of full-size pickup buyers an average of $66,000It’s just $5,000 shy of the list price of the Silverado EV LT Extended Range, which has a range of 410 miles on a full charge. (The LT Max Range I tested will go 68 more miles, but will cost $20,000 more.)
People also blame the EV’s mediocre towing distance, which is 60% shorter. Again, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The vast majority of full-size truck owners, about 75%Backup at most once a year according to Strategic Vision. 400,000 fossil fuel Silverado buyers should be ready to make the switch. And yet those sales figures!
It appears that GM and other automakers have misjudged the truck market, which suffers from inertia, not the kind that comes from driving a 4.5 ton. Potential buyers are concerned about range, charging and probably a few other things I don’t know about. It saved EVs in general and EV pickups in particular.
Too bad, really. Most of these concerns melt away after you’ve owned an EV for a while, and the Silverado EV is a solid first draft of an electric truck. With a little more engineering, could the automaker shave some weight off of it? This will increase payload and towing capacity, while allowing you to reduce battery life and reduce costs.
GM can fix the cost problem sooner rather than later. The automaker has strongly hinted that the Silverado EV will get an all-new battery chemistry. lithium-manganese rich (LMR)that will cut costs by about $6,000 while maintaining range sometime later this decade. If this savings is passed on to the consumer, it will bring the EV to price parity with the fossil fuel version.
If such revisions come and bring the price down a bit, I could see myself considering the Silverado EV. Too bad two 1950s cars are too big for my garage. I need a bigger house to fit my truck. What could be more American than that?
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
