Range is the most crucial weapon in the electrified pickup wars, and the longest-range Chevrolet Silverado EV has reportedly smashed its distance estimates out of the park. As incoming GM North America president Rory Harvey told Automotive News, “We previously announced that it was going to be a 400-mile target, so the team did just an exceptional job in terms of being able to extend that up to 450 miles.” While that’s not as far as the 500 miles the Ram 1500 REV touts on its 229 kWh battery pack, it’s still good enough to run with the leaders of the electric pickup truck pack.
According to the report, the first long-range Silverado EV will be a work truck that stickers for $79,800 including freight, which is expensive compared to entry-level competitors but doesn’t seem like a terrible deal for companies that need the range. While groundskeeping duties probably won’t require 450 miles of range, a line of work like rural utility services might. Automotive News also reports that a Silverado work truck with 350 miles of estimated range and a starting price of $74,800 “will follow,” but even the 450-mile version doesn’t seem horrendously-expensive when you see what’s on the market right now.
For context, the fleet-spec Ford F-150 Lightning Pro is sold-out for 2023 and the current cheapest XLT model with the extended-range battery offers 320 miles of range for $81,269 due to current package bundling. What’s more, Ford’s website claims that F-150 Lightning XLT orders placed today won’t result in actual trucks turning up at dealerships until October or November, months after the Silverado EV work truck’s alleged arrival this Spring. As for the Ram 1500 REV, it’s not actually launching until the fourth quarter of this year, which leaves the field wide-open for Chevrolet to play ball.
Such close delivery timing made me wonder: If I pop into Chevrolet’s publicly-visible online fleet ordering guide, what will show up? It turns out that information on two fleet-spec Silverado EVs is already in the system – trims marked 3WT and 4WT, both with different battery pack option codes. This seems to line up well with Chevrolet’s talk of the 450-mile version coming available first, with a 350-mile truck up next, and lower trims coming later down the line.
Impressively, the currently-listed Silverado work truck variants seem very well-equipped for fleet-duty trucks. They both come standard with a 360-degree camera system, dual-zone automatic climate control, satellite radio, push-to-start, four USB ports, 7.2 kW of onboard power for plugging in tools and stuff, a bed-mounted 240-volt outlet, a power tilt-and-telescoping steering column, a full litany of advanced driver assistance systems, and 18-inch alloy wheels. Granted, color choices of white or black aren’t the most inspiring and the only upholstery choice is vinyl, but if these are the 350-mile and 450-mile variants, they seem to pack enough toys to justify their price tags.
However, for those willing to wait who are okay with sacrificing range, Chevrolet has another trick up its sleeve: It plans to launch a really basic Silverado EV work truck with a claimed sticker price of $41,595 including freight. When you look at what that sort of money buys you in combustion-powered crew cab half-ton trucks, the Silverado EV’s purported base price seems incredibly inexpensive. Even the most penny-pinching crew cab Silverado 1500 with two-wheel-drive and a four-cylinder engine stickers for $43,895 without any discounts or COVID-related credit options, so saving $2,300 and getting an EV sounds like it could be a good deal. Of course, we’ll have to see how that claimed sticker price translates to the showroom.
(Photo credits: Chevrolet)
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Good gravy, how much is this thing going to weigh? The parking garage where I work was designed and built in the era of lightweight coups and sedans, long before the SUV craze. Now in the brodozer stage of automobiles, it is hard to maneuver in the garage as the trucks are much larger than the original design point and there just isn’t as much room to get around. Now let’s balloon the weight of each vehicle… is the structure going to still be sound?
At least its inherent gravity well can keep your items in the bed secure.
Me, reading the Autopian while eating lunch on a Sunday: hmmm 450 miles is pretty damn interesting in a pickup
*looks at $75,000+ starting price*
Ah. Nevermind.
Yeah everyone somehow got rich except me and you. It’s nuts
Or more likely other people are far more comfortable with being up to their eyeballs in debt.
for a depreciating asset.
yeah, that sort of sobers me up a little. Guess I’d better start saving my quarters.
I’d considered paying more for such a truck, but the thing is, I want to tow with it. So it will be you know ~200 miles between charges., and that will be a lot of money for that particular “privilege”…given that EV charging with trailers is not even really a thing at the moment. Oh well.