A new electric pickup truck is on the way, but this time it's not from a startup company you haven't heard of. GM President Mark Reuss announced the Chevrolet Silverado electric truck today, saying that it would be built alongside the GMC Hummer EV at the automaker's Factory Zero in Michigan.
Reuss announced an estimated a range of 650 km for the electric pickup, which would make the Silverado EV the longest range GM EV to date. Rather than being a conventional Silverado fitted with electric components, the announcement said that the truck would be "designed from the ground up to be an EV." That means using GM's Ultium platform, like the one used in the Hummer EVs, as well as the same battery and motor tech used. That means a Silverado EV could make 1,000 hp or more, like the top version of the Hummer EV pickup.
“The vehicles coming from Factory ZERO will change the world, and how the world views electric vehicles,” Reuss said. “The GMC Hummer EV SUV joins its stablemate in the realm of true supertrucks, and Chevrolet will take everything Chevy’s loyal truck buyers love about Silverado — and more — and put it into an electric pickup that will delight retail and commercial customers alike.”
While we haven't yet seen the electric Silverado, unlike the EV Ford F-150, which has been shown at least in prototype form several times already, this does mark a coup for Chevrolet. It is the first of the Detroit Three pickup truck makers to announce an EV range estimate.
Expect that 650 km range (given as "GM-estimated range of more than 400 miles on a full charge") to fall quickly with payload or towing, as EV rival Rivian has stated previously. General Motors also said as part of the announcement that it has cut development times nearly in half to just 26 months for these EVs. Based on the Hummer EV timelines, we'd expect the Silverado to go on sale in late 2023 or early 2024, but GM is likely to try to accelerate that as part of its goal of delivering more than 1 million EVs by 2025.
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