Chevy teases the electric Silverado pickup with a range-busting promise
The 400-mile EV truck is the first mainstream electric pickup from General Motors
Chevrolet has a new entrant to the electric vehicle market and it’s a big deal — literally.
General Motors announced on Tuesday that Chevrolet is building an electric Silverado pickup truck. The news of the hefty new EV came at an event revealing the “Factory ZERO” retooling of Chevrolet’s existing Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center.
What’s new — The company didn’t give much detail on the electric Silverado aside from the fact that it exists, but at the live stream event, General Motors’ President Mark Reuss promised that the truck would — in theory — manage more than 400 miles of electric range when it does go on sale.
He also hinted that the Silverado EV would come in versions built specifically for the fleet and commercial truck customers which comprise a huge part of the country’s pickup truck market.
Chevrolet Silverado EV release date
Reuss didn’t share any details about when the electric Silverado might actually hit dealer lots for sale, but a Chevrolet spokesperson tells Inverse that the company will release more details “in the months ahead.”
The new Silverado will be built on the same Ultium electric vehicle platform that GM is using for the previously announced Hummer EV pickup truck and SUV, the Cadillac Lyriq, and countless other electric vehicles yet to come. All of these electric trucks — the ones we know about and the ones we don’t — are not yet for sale, although some have been in the public eye for years, like the Tesla Cybertruck.
Chevrolet EV updates calendar
For those wondering, Chevrolet is not giving up on the traditional combustion engine trucks any time soon. The Silverado EV announcement “does not impact our current Silverado and commitment to ICEs (internal combustion engines) in the near term,” the spokesperson tells Inverse. Rather, they tease a full slate of updates and other reveals through 2021.
“We have significant updates in terms of design and capability coming very soon, which we will announce later this year,” they say.
The 2021 Chevrolet Silverado with a conventional engine. The company didn’t reveal design specs for the new EV — only that it’s on the way.
The Inverse analysis — This is not the first electric pickup to debut with great fanfare and no sale date. The OG is the Tesla Cybertruck, expected to begin production late this year or in early 2022, but there’s also a host of other options which should, in theory, hit showrooms over the next few years.
General Motors has the ultra-lux GMC Hummer EV pickup. Ford’s CEO has also promised an electric version of the venerable F-150. And EV startup Rivian has its R1T — also expected later this year.
Being the first EV truck to actually make it to market will be a milestone for the industry, but any first-mover advantage won’t going to last long. The competition in EV pickups will be just as strong as it is today for conventional trucks — and the cutthroat brawling between the big three truckmakers of Ford, GM, and RAM is legendary.
Let the great electric pickup wars begin.
By the way, if you liked this article, you’ll love my weekly car review newsletter PRNDL. Click here to subscribe for free on Substack. I’ll even answer your new car questions!
This article was originally published on
