Although I grew up swapping my dad’s Chevrolet S-10 truck for the passenger seat, I’m not exactly Chevy’s target market. I prefer hatchbacks to cargo beds. But after working in Detroit all day in the Silverado EV, I realized that Chevy might have the truck guy out of me for now.
The Silverado EV drives, well, almost like a car. But the bed is big, frunk, cavernous. The back seat has enough room for me to cross my surprisingly long legs, and the cabin is quiet. It will power your house in case of a storm, and it will pull, tow, and go down the highway without a finger on the steering wheel. In addition, it travels more than 400 miles per charge. That should be an American pickup lover’s dream combination.
And yet, it didn’t fly out of the showrooms. GM sold about 14,000 last year in the US and Canada. The fossil fuel Silverado sells 10 times a quarter. After my drive, I’m like a wreck. GM may have made the perfect American EV, but no one is buying it.
Maybe the look? At first glance, the Silverado EV resembles the old Chevy Avalanche, and whether that’s a good thing depends on how you felt about the original. Like the Avalanche, the Silverado EV has four doors, a short bed that can be extended into the cabin, and a “sail” between the cabin and the bed, a style flourish that helps reduce drag. I thought the EV looked cool, but then again, I’m not a truck guy.
Getting in requires a big step, but once you’re inside, you’re spacious and comfortable. Press the brake and the Silverado EV springs to life, cool screens dominating the lower third of your view. The seats are great, and like most EVs, it will move forward when prodded with your right foot. At nearly 20 feet long, no one will call the Silverado EV small, but thanks to rear-wheel steering, it will park like a compact hatchback. That is, until you try to fit it into a tight parking space.
The Google-powered infotainment system is clean and clear and admirably responsive. It’s not quite as fast as the iPhone, but it’s close, and voice commands work well. There are volume and temperature buttons as well as some HVAC buttons below the vents, which can also be controlled manually. Chevy still remembers how to do physical control, thankfully.
The nav is a Google service, so it works fine. When I’m talking about my destination, it offers a selection of routes, just like Google Maps does on your phone, but with a twist: Under the usual time-to-destination reading, one estimates how long you’ll be able to use Super Cruise, GM’s hands-free driving option. Don’t feel like driving too much? Choose a route to maximize the time spent on the Super Cruise. Over the years, GM has offered many reasons why it has removed CarPlay from its EVs, and this may be one of its better arguments. However, it does not mean that I fully agree with that decision.
Speaking of Super Cruise, the hands-free, Level 2 advanced-driver-assistance system is as good as they say. In March, I drove the Bolt on a Super Cruise and came away impressed, although my time with it was brief. With the Silverado EV, I traversed the Detroit metro area during long commutes. For a truck this size, Super Cruise is almost a must, making the drive stress-free.
However, it had its problems. Keeping it on track can be a bit of a chore. Similar to my time in the Bolt, Super Cruise can be caught off guard by cars speeding across the right.
There was one shocking Super Cruise moment when a Silverado EV almost plowed into a trailer of dirty paint mix. Maybe the painted taillights throw off the system? Really, though, the radar should have caught it.
Overall, however, Super Cruise helped keep the trip smooth, although much of the credit must go to the 205 kilowatt-hour battery pack sitting amidships. It’s one hell of ballast. But also kudos to the ride and handling engineers, who obviously have their work cut out for them. As trucks go, this one is smooth.
Perhaps even more impressive was the efficiency. I was getting 2.1 miles per kilowatt hour, which is about 10% to 20% less than my average Audi e-tron, a small car with a very small frontal thrust area.
So why the slow sales?
Some observers have blamed the high price of the Silverado EV, but I doubt it. Buyers of the full-size van shell out an average of $66,000, just $5,000 off the list price of the Silverado EV LT Extended Range, which includes 410 miles on a full charge. (The LT Max Range I tested will go another 68 miles but costs $20,000 more.)
People also blame the EV’s average driving range, which is 60% shorter. Again, that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Most full-size truck owners, about 75%, tow once a year, according to Strategic Vision. There must be 400,000 Silverado buyers who use gasoline fuel ready to make the switch. And yet those sales figures!
It appears that GM and other automakers have misjudged the truck market, which often suffers from inertia, not the kind that comes from driving a 4.5 ton vehicle. Buyers may be concerned about range, about charging, and maybe a few other things that I don’t know about. It covers EVs in general – and EV pickups in particular.
Too bad, really. Most of those concerns melt away after you’ve owned an EV for a while, and the Silverado EV is a solid first electric pickup truck. With more engineering, can the automaker take weight off it? That can increase charging capacity and pulling power while also allowing it to shrink the battery, reducing costs.
GM may face a cost crisis sooner rather than later. The automaker has widely revealed that the Silverado EV will get a new battery chemistry, lithium-manganese-rich (LMR), which will cut costs by about $6,000 while maintaining range sometime later in the decade. If those savings are passed on to the consumer, that will bring the EV into price parity with the gasoline version.
If an update like that comes along and lowers the price a bit, I could even see myself considering the Silverado EV. Too bad it’s too big for my 1950s era two car garage. I would need a bigger house to fit my truck. And what could be more American than that?
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