RYAN ZUMMALLEN: Hey, everybody.
It's the Chevrolet Silverado EV, the latest electric pickup
in the EV truck race that is suddenly all the rage.
Of course, we've already driven both the Rivian R1T
and the Ford Lightning.
In fact, we already bought a Rivian R1T.
And we won't be buying the Silverado or driving it today,
but we do get to check it out and spend a little bit
more time with the electric truck that
could send both of those other ones home crying
to their electric moms.
Anyway, today we're going to find out
what exactly makes the Silverado EV stand out
from those other electric competitors.
But then again, the Silverado EV is
going to be a little bit later to the party than those rivals,
so we'll have to see if some of the more
emphatic features in here are enough to help it stand out.
So let's find out what it's all about right now.
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The Chevy Silverado EV is a full-size electric pickup
truck.
And like all EVs, it has a battery pack,
providing juice to electric motors that power the wheels.
But unlike most other EVs, Silverado EV
is promising a lot of power.
In this trim, it makes 664 horsepower
and will have around 400 miles of range.
Both of those figures are a lot more than the Ford Lightning
at its most capable trim.
And speaking of that, the Silverado EV
is going to be available at first in two trims.
There will be the WT, which is for fleets and construction,
and this, the RST, meant for more street daily driving.
Now, if you're looking at this and thinking,
hey, it looks more like a Hummer than a regular Silverado,
you are right.
Silverado EV and the Hummer EV share a lot
in common underneath the skin.
So think of it more as a Silverado version of the Hummer
and less of an electric version of the Silverado.
Now, what does it cost?
Well, for the WT, those are going to start around
$42,000 including destination.
And for ones like this, the RST, it's
going to be a whopping $107,000.
Now that's more than most versions of the Hummer EV.
Also, when is it going to actually be available?
For the WT, Chevrolet is saying spring of 2023,
and for the RST, we're looking at fall of 2023,
so still about a year away.
Let's poke around and see what else we can find out.
Here's some important things to know about the Silverado EV
from the outside.
First of all, Silverado EV is kind of in a middle ground.
It's neither body on frame, nor is it a unibody.
Instead, it uses the same Ultium platform
as the Hummer, which is kind of a middle ground.
So the protective frame around the battery
actually makes up the frame of the truck.
It's an interesting approach.
Now, because it's an EV, of course, there's no engine,
so in the front, you do have space for a frunk, which
is very cool.
And then in the back, you get a pretty wide bed
with impressive space and some cool functionality,
very reminiscent of the old Chevrolet Avalanche,
if you remember that.
And speaking of the Avalanche, you
also get this cool multi-flex midgate that's configurable
and can move around into all kinds of different shapes
depending on what you need to load inside.
I'll show you more on that later.
Now, as far as the tough stuff, the Silverado EV
matches the Ford Lightning when it comes to towing capacity.
Both models are maxing out at around 10,000 pounds
for these initial versions.
There will be a Silverado EV coming around 2025 model
year that can do up to 20,000.
But in terms of payload, the Silverado
is a little bit down compared to the Lightning.
It maxes out at just over 1,300 pounds.
Lightning is over 2,000.
Just to keep the comparison going,
let's talk about exportable outbound power now.
Inside of the Silverado, you can get up to 10.2 kilowatts
to send out to whatever tools or lights you want to run out
of the bed of the truck.
That's more than the Lightning at 9.6 kilowatts.
And finally, the last few things I want to show you,
these giant 24-inch wheels that you get on the RST,
and there are some cool innovations
for a full-size pickup truck.
For one thing, there's independent rear suspension,
and the Silverado EV gets coil springs
too with an optional air suspension at all four corners,
so some pretty cool things going on under here.
OK.
As you can see, we are inside the Silverado EV
with a very commanding view of the road.
But a couple of things that I'd like to point out in here.
Now, Chevy is calling this production intent,
which means it's not quite up to production
level of quality and everything, so I don't
want to poke and prod too much.
Something might get shaken out of place.
But there is a lot that we can learn here.
First of all, the size of the screens is very impressive.
Right in front of you, there's an 11-inch display
for your speed and different power gauges and things
like that and then a 17-inch touch
screen to control lots of vehicle functions.
It must, anyway, because there's not very many
physical buttons down here.
And then you also get a heads up display in front of you that
is 14 inches and has color, so pretty much everything you
could want in terms of tech.
And speaking of tech, this model is
also equipped with Super Cruise, which is,
of course, General Motors's hands-free driving technology.
You can tell because first of all,
it's got this cool digital light bar up here that changes color
based on the status of using Super Cruise,
and it's got this little driver attention monitor here too so
that it can scream at you if you're not looking at the road.
Now, the Silverado EV is going to get Super Cruise that
is towing-enabled, which is a very cool feature,
and I got to test it out a few weeks ago on the new GMC
Sierra, so go take a look at that video
if you want to see how that went.
Spoiler alert, it was very cool.
As far as the rest of the interior,
I don't want to judge too much about what we're
seeing and feeling here because I
think some changes will be made before we get to production,
but there are a couple of cool things.
For one, the center console storage area is massive.
It's very deep, and you can move around this sliding cupholder
system to make it whatever size and space that you need.
And then up front, on where is what
I assume will become a smartphone charging station,
there's a really cool Easter egg with what
looks like a very early Chevy truck
leading all the way up to Silverado EV
that we're in now, signifying how far things
have come in the last 100 years-plus of Chevy trucks.
And come a long way, I would say.
OK.
Let's spend some time talking about one
of the Silverado EV's especially cool features,
that multi-flex midgate reminiscent of the Chevrolet
Avalanche that I was talking about earlier.
Now, just in its standard configuration,
the bed of the Silverado EV is about 5 feet 11 inches.
However, with a little bit of wizardry,
folding the seats down and putting them up this way,
using the multi-flex midgate, that all of a sudden
turns into 9 feet from here all the way to the tailgate.
And if you fold down the tailgate
and use the multi-flex tailgate, pop up and give you a barrier
back there.
Now, all of a sudden, you've got 10 feet and 10 inches from here
to the propped up tailgate.
That's a lot of space.
And not only that, but this whole area with the window
glass and this construction zone here can all come out,
so you essentially, if you want to,
basically have a cargo van version of the Silverado EV
for whatever kind of loading you need to do.
You also get different storage spaces.
So if the seats are up in a normal position,
there are passthrough areas under them
and little hidden cubbies down there as well.
Now, the Silverado is big.
I mean, undeniably big, big, big.
And one of the ways you can tell is from here,
if you try to reach into the bed--
I mean, I'm 6 feet tall with pretty gangly, long arms--
I can't even get anywhere close to touching
the floor of the bed.
And even if I come around here, where
it's a little bit thinner, I can barely scrape it.
That's because this flat surface on top is pretty long.
And so the actual bed gives you much more room,
but it makes it difficult to reach over.
Now, Chevrolet says that the RST gets that air suspension
standard.
And what that will be able to do is lower about two inches
when the truck is parked, so it will be easier to reach inside.
Still, this is pretty clunky on the usability side,
but I guess that's part of the price you
pay for having this all configuration and usability
in other ways.
Now, we were also talking about exportable outbound power
earlier.
Here's where you can do that with a couple of plugs
and then three more on the other side as well.
So conceivably, you can not only send power
to tools and lights and things like that,
but you can even charge another electric vehicle or hook
the truck up to your house and run power that way too.
So the charge port is right back here.
You can see, there's the plug on top for standard charging,
like a level 2, and then the additional area
for level 3 fast charging.
Now, one of the cool things about the Silverado EV
is it runs on 800-volt architecture.
So that means it can handle more of a peak charging rate
than other EVs that run on the 400-volt architecture.
So that 800-volt capability means
that the Silverado EV can charge on 350-kilowatt charging
stations.
Now, those chargers at the moment are pretty hard to find,
but if you are able to get to one,
the charging capability here is really impressive.
Chevy says that in just 10 minutes,
you can get up to 100 miles of range, which
is a lot more than a Ford Lightning can do
with its 400-volt architecture.
Chevy also built in a handy little cubby for your charging
cord that's right under the floor of the rear passenger
on the driver's side.
I have to admit, the Chevy Silverado EV
is pretty impressive in the flesh,
but there are still a few hurdles for this EV truck
to overcome.
First of all, in sports, they say
the greatest ability is availability,
and this thing ain't available, at least not yet.
And even when the RST does come out,
it will be priced at over $105,000.
Yeesh.
But there are some undeniable strengths.
For one thing, the configurable bed and midgate,
very, very cool.
There's also loads of power and tow rating and range.
And finally, the addition of Super Cruise
with towing capability is just downright cool.
And that's just to name a few.
I also like that Chevrolet is starting with the work truck
version instead of the really, really pricey RST.
That shows a commitment to real truck people doing real truck
stuff.
Still, I'm worried a little bit about it
being late to the party.
While Chevy is getting ready to ramp up and bring
this thing out, Rivian and Ford will be putting electric trucks
in garages.
That said, the Silverado EV has a very intriguing frame
that it shares with the Hummer, and there are
a lot of splashy features here.
So while it may be too soon to call it a winner just yet,
it may be worth waiting for.
Thanks for watching, and don't forget
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tuned to all of our coverage while we wait for the Silverado
EV to hit the streets.