The 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST First Edition Is Too Much Truck For Too Much Money

More than four years after General Motors invited media and analysts into its Warren, Michigan design dome to show off the prodigious lineup of battery electric vehicles it was developing, the automaker is still struggling to get market traction with its Ultium platform. For Chevrolet, the Silverado EV was supposed to be key to unlocking EV sales of more than 1 million units per year by 2025. The first Silverado EV variant that regular consumers can buy has finally arrived into an increasingly crowded market of electric pickup trucks, and we’ve finally had the opportunity to drive it. Will this truck turn the tide for GM? Or does it epitomize bigger problems?

Since the debut of the GMC Hummer EV SUT in late 2021, sales of GM’s lineup of Ultium-based have been far more meager than anticipated. There’s a range of reasons behind that including problems with automation equipment for assembling battery modules and continually buggy software. But perhaps the biggest challenges are self-inflicted product-planning issues. 

First, let’s address the real elephant in the room, and I mean that quite literally. Weight. GM’s EVs simply have too much of it. Granted, all battery electric vehicles (BEV) are heavier than internal combustion engine (ICE) equivalents. But GM’s Ultium-based BEVs take this to new heights, especially the full size trucks and SUVs. When I drove a GMC Hummer EV pickup in early 2023, I took it to a weigh-scale and it came in at 9,200-lbs — empty. The Silverado EV 4WT work truck that I briefly sampled in August of last year had a curb weight 8,568-lbs and it lacked many of the customer friendly features found in consumer trucks. This first consumer trim Silverado RST that I just drove has all the goodies including four-wheel-steering, mid-gate, air suspension and other accouterments, bringing the curb weight to a staggering 8,953-lbs.

[Ed Note/Full Disclosure: Chevy invited us out to drive the new Silverado EV near Detroit. Sam, an incredibly talented engineer-turned-journalist whom I’m thrilled to have contributing to The Autopian, lives locally, so he went for us. I assume Chevy paid for some meals, so that’s worth disclosing. Anyway, get excited for more Sam content here on the site! -DT]. 

Weight, Cost, Acceleration, Range: A Vicious Cycle

That’s more than twice the weight of a base-model regular cab gasoline Silverado, and not far from twice the weight of a base crew-cab gasoline Silverado. To be a bit fairer, let’s look at some other similarly-sized luxury EV trucks: the Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum has a curb weight of 6,893-lbs, a three-motor Tesla Cybertruck tips the scales at 6,884 lbs and a four-motor Rivian R1T 6,918-lbs with its mid-size “Large” battery pack. Each of these competitors has a rated range of about 300 miles.

The Silverado, like the Hummer I previously drove, has substantially more battery capacity than the others. The gross capacity is estimated at nearly 250-kWh, with about 210-kWh usable. The other trucks range from 123 to 131-kWh usable. As a result, the Silverado has significantly more range than the competition, but it’s also less energy efficient because of all the mass it has to lug around. We’ll delve further into the weight issue later on.

Another major issue that has hurt adoption of GM’s EVs is cost. When surveyed over the past decade, consumers have consistently cited affordability, availability of charging and time to charge as the biggest barriers to adoption. The Silverado EV RST is a prime example of this. When it was originally shown in mid-2022, Chevrolet announced a projected price of $107,000, a number that would have been unfathomable for a pickup truck not so long ago. Even the work truck that was launched last fall for fleet customers was priced at nearly $80,000 initially. Recently, like many other BEV manufacturers, Chevrolet announced a price cut, with the RST’s new price at $96,500 — still very expensive, but moving in the right direction at least. 

Cost and weight aren’t unrelated. The excess weight of the Ultium BEVs means they require more battery to achieve similar or better ranges than the competition. More capacity adds cost, with the current cost of EV battery packs running in the range of $100 to $150 per kWh. At somewhere between 250 and 275 Wh/kg, increasing the battery by 10 kWh adds about 36 to 40 kg (about 79-88 lbs) of mass that in turns reduces efficiency and requires more battery to reach that range. It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s part of why the launch edition Hummer needed well over 200 kWh to get a range of 329 miles, barely more than a dual motor Cybertruck gets with 123-kWh. 

The Silverado and its GM truck siblings use a dual layer battery which is effectively two of the batteries from a Chevy Blazer EV stacked on top of eachother. The longest-range variants, including the RST, feature a battery with 24 modules in total. Accommodating this massive battery takes some structure.

The Silverado, like the Rivian and Cybertruck, has no separate frame. Frame rails have been integrated into a purpose built unibody structure. The unitized cab and bed are more like the Chevrolet Avalanche of the early 2000s but with an integrated frame to support the battery. Despite being built as an EV from the ground up, it’s not obvious that Chevrolet has done a lot to optimize the weight of this structure, which just makes everything worse. 

The 24-module battery is reported to weigh over 2,900-lbs. The 130-kWh extended range battery in the Lightning is about 1,600-lbs. The Lightning Pro work truck with that larger battery has a curb weight of 6,361-lbs. Removing the batteries from the Silverado work truck and Lightning leaves about 5,635-lbs for the Chevy and 4,761-lbs for the Ford with roughly similar size and features. That’s an 875-lb weight disadvantage for a purpose-built structure compared to a modified ICE truck. However, supporting the bulk of that huge battery requires more structure, which in turn requires bigger heavier brakes, more cooling and then bigger, heavier eight-lug wheels – it’s that vicious cycle I talked about earlier. 

That’s not a great place to start for an EV. So why did GM make these sorts of decisions in planning these vehicles? For the trucks at least, they clearly decided that they needed a lot more range, especially for towing. While the Silverado, R1T, Cybertruck and Lightning are capable of towing at least 10,000-lbs, the problem is: How far can you actually go with that load behind the truck?

With a larger trailer approaching maximum weight, the Ford, Rivian and Tesla can easily grind to a halt after well under 100 miles. Like many truck buyers, GM clearly determined that wasn’t nearly enough. Hence, the Silverado and GMC Sierra needed all that extra battery to be able to go well over 200 miles between charge stops. Just like interest on your credit cards, it all compounds.

How Big Are These Machines?

As mentioned above, the Lightning and Silverado are generally pretty close in size at about 233-inches long and 78.5-inches tall (give or take a tenth or two). Apart from weight, the Chevrolet is also 3.8-inches wider, not including the mirrors. That extra width and the ability to space out the integrated rails near the outer perimeter of the body allowed for a considerably wider battery pack than the Ford can accommodate. At 145.7-inches, the Silverado’s wheelbase is just 0.2-inch more than the Ford. The Tesla and Rivian are considerably smaller, with Rivian really being more of mid-size, virtually the same dimensionally as a Jeep Gladiator.

The unibody structure of the Chevrolet leads to some differences from the Ford. Dimensionally, the cab interiors are very close, with the Chevy having an extra inch of legroom front and back. However, despite being wider, the Chevrolet actually has less 2-inches less shoulder room and 1-inch less hip room. The other major difference is that the Chevrolet’s cab has been shifted forward several inches, and the cowl is a bit lower than the Ford.

As a result, the hood of the Silverado is not quite as long, but forward visibility is improved. Without the need to accommodate a V8 engine, the frame rails up front are moved inboard, which allows for modified suspension with more steering angle. Even on the work truck, which doesn’t have rear wheel steering, the turning circle is ~42-feet – compared to Ford’s ~48-feet, that’s a significant improvement. 

The Frunk And The Midgate

The downside of the revised front suspension is less width for the front trunk. The lockable front storage of the Silverado is narrower and shallower than the Ford, yielding only 10.7 cubic feet compared to just over 14 cubic feet in the Lightning. The Silverado frunk is still much more useful than the Tesla’s, however. 

Chevrolet makes up for this deficit in the most important part of a pickup truck — the bed. Eliminating the gap between the traditionally separate cab and bed and shifting the cab forward allows for a 5-foot, 11-inch bed – 6-inches more than the Ford and five more cubic feet of bed volume at 57.7 cubic feet. 

In addition to the unibody, the RST inherited another important feature from the Avalanche: the fold-down Midgate.

With the rear seats and the Midgate folded down, the Silverado can accommodate objects up to 9-feet long with the tailgate closed. The high-end RST also gets GM’s multi-flex tailgate, and with the gate down and the rear stop raised, 10-foot-10-inch items can be carried. Unlike the Avalanche mid-gate, the new version in the Silverado is split 60/40 so a rear passenger can still be carried. 

Slicker Than A Hummer

Design-wise, the Silverado EV falls in between the Cybertruck and Lightning, and in some respects is closest to the Rivian, although it is significantly larger. It looks much more like a traditional pickup truck than the Tesla, but the Chevrolet design team has clearly put a lot of work into the aerodynamics. That’s one of the major reasons for the flying buttresses angling down from the rear edge of the roof to the bedside. They’re nowhere near as extreme as the Tesla, allowing much better access to the bed from the side of the truck. 

Compared to the Hummer, the Chevrolet is about five-inches narrower, which significantly reduces the frontal area. Combined with a much smoother front end, more angled windshield and the sleeker flanks, the Silverado has to do significantly less work against the atmosphere. Along with about 200-lbs less weight and street-friendly tires, the Silverado EV RST gets an estimated range rating of 440-miles, over 100-miles more than the Hummer.

Where People Spend Their Time

As a very expensive, premium truck, the Silverado EV RST has a high-bar to live up to. While the work truck has the typical hard plastic interior built for durability, the RST looks and feels more premium, although still not really befitting of a nearly $100,000 price tag.

The first edition RST comes standard with leather seats with heating and ventilation, but no massaging like the Lightning Platinum. Much of the dashboard is covered in an interesting textured, synthetic material that looks nice enough, but doesn’t feel like luxury. Chevrolet also made the odd choice to add two rows of stitching in red and blue across this material purely for aesthetics. Unfortunately, the stitching doesn’t correspond to a seam and when the material is stretched over the underlying structure, it is often uneven and wavy. 

As expected, there’s also lots of screen space. The Silverado has the same screens found in the Blazer EV and Equinox EV, with a 17-inch central touch screen that is tilted slightly toward the driver. Directly in front of the driver is an 11-inch digital instrument cluster display. Thankfully, GM’s interior designers have realized that the most commonly used interior controls should be operated by physical knobs and switches. Temperature, fan speed and defrost switches and knobs are just below the center vents but also duplicated on the screen. 

Like all but GM’s entry level models now, infotainment is an Android Automotive system with Google Automotive Services built in. That means it’s got Google Maps, Assistant and the Play store for downloading more apps. There’s a variety of media streaming apps available including Spotify, Youtube Music, NPR, PocketCasts and more. For those that prefer Waze, that’s also available to download. All you need to do is login to a Google account and then load up the apps you want. 

At the recent Google I/O developer conference, Google also announced updates to the app policies for Android Automotive, which will allow a lot more types of apps such as video streaming and games to be available in the car. However, those apps will only be accessible when the vehicle is in park, but you’ll be able to watch Youtube videos and probably Netflix while you wait for the battery to charge. 

One thing you can’t do, however, is utilize Apple Carplay. About a year ago, GM announced that it would no longer support smartphone projection in its new EVs. The goal is to provide EV customers with a more consistent and enhanced user experience. For example, the embedded Google Maps now has access to a variety of real-time vehicle data like battery state of charge and speed along with the traffic and terrain information to provide more accurate driving range estimation. 

If you select a destination that is beyond the driving range of the vehicle, Maps will automatically pull up information about charging stations along the route including available charging speed, and then recommend where to stop for a charge and how long to charge at that location in order to minimize the trip time or to get the most efficient trip.

Maps will show the expected state of charge when you arrive at each waypoint. This is similar to the functionality provided by A Better Route Planner, the app that was acquired by Rivian last year. While GM publicly says the decision to drop Carplay support was to provide that improved experience to drivers, GM personnel have acknowledged off the record that at the time, GM was reluctant to share much of this vehicle information with Apple because it was still a potential competitor. With Apple having since canceled its car project, GM hasn’t reversed course, but there’s no technical reason it couldn’t depending on consumer response to the absence of the feature. 

For what it’s worth, iPhones can still be connected to the Silverado via Bluetooth, and music can be streamed from the device or various apps on the phone, and they show up in a similar interface to apps running natively on the system. The same goes for making calls and sending messages as well as using Siri pass-through. I didn’t have time to connect an iPhone during the drive, but I’ve previously used one in other GM EVs and the interface works well enough. 

As part of the decision to rely on Google services and Android apps, GM also committed to providing eight years of complimentary connectivity for these services with the purchase of the vehicle. Thus owners won’t have to sign up for an OnStar subscription to use their infotainment. 

Cabin Comfort

Despite the slightly reduced shoulder room compared to the Ford, there is no lack of space in the Silverado. Like all other full-size crew-cab trucks, regardless of propulsion, the back seat is absolutely limo-level cavernous. There’s plenty of room in the front as well. The RST has power front seats with heating and ventilation, but surprisingly for a near six-figure truck, there is no massage function in the seats, something Ford does offer in the Lightning Platinum. The seats were reasonably comfortable over several hours of driving and riding shotgun. 

Like the rest of GM’s new BEVs and many other EVs, the gear selector is back to being column mounted, leaving plenty of space on the console for cup holders, wireless charging and big storage bin under the armrest. Compared to a Cybertruck, visibility out of the cab is outstanding, and even the rear buttresses don’t intrude much.

Forward visibility is better than the Ford thanks to the shorter hood and lower cowl. For those who prefer optical rather than digital rearview mirrors, the Silverado has a reasonably sized window, although like all modern trucks, it is high enough to restrict the view of smaller vehicles or pedestrians directly behind, so I highly recommend using the digital mirror. 

Going Hands-Off

The first edition RST also comes standard with Super Cruise hands-off driver assist. This system uses a combination of four surround cameras, five radar sensors (one long range on the front, and four short-range at the corners to detect blindspots and cut-ins) and high-resolution maps of over 400,000 miles of highways and secondary rural roads. Earlier this year, GM announced that over the next 18 months it would push out quarterly updates to the maps that will expand the available roads for Super Cruise use to over 750,000 miles.

Super Cruise was the first hands-off driver assist system on the market, and having tried all of the currently available systems, it’s still the best and most consistent in its performance. When active, the light bar on the steering wheel is always visible in your peripheral vision, and makes it very clear what state the system is in. When the bar is blue, the system is ready to go active once the driver centers the vehicle in the lane. When green, the system is working, and the driver can release the wheel and must keep eyes on the road and be ready to take control at any moment such as when the bar goes red. The light bar goes red if the driver monitor camera detects the driver isn’t paying attention to the road or if the maps indicate that the current road is no longer approved for hands-off operation. 

As on other GM vehicles, Super Cruise locks on to the center of the lane keeps the vehicle there. If the vehicle ahead is going slower than the current set speed, the sensors will check the lane to the left when it’s all clear, an auto lane change indication will appear on the instrument cluster and the turn signal will turn on. If the driver doesn’t want to change lanes, they can tap the turn signal stalk to cancel the maneuver. It all works smoothly and seamlessly, and I’ve never had Super Cruise try to change lanes where there wasn’t enough of a gap to safely complete the maneuver. 

Since this is a truck, Super Cruise also works when towing a trailer. Auto lane changing doesn’t work with a trailer connected, but the system will estimate the trailer weight based on how fast the vehicle accelerates or decelerates for a given amount of torque output. This trailer weight estimate will be used to adjust the following gaps to ensure enough room is left to be able to stop safely. We didn’t get a chance to test this with the Silverado, but I’ve previously tried the system with a gas Silverado at the GM proving ground and it works as well as other Super Cruise functions. 

How About Normal Driving?

All Silverado EVs right now are equipped with two permanent magnet electric motors. Like the Hummer EV’s “watts to freedom” mode, Chevrolet offers a wide-open-watts (WOW) mode for the RST that provides bursts of up to 754-hp and 785 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to move this 4.5-ton behemoth to 60 mph in about 4.5-seconds. Even the slightly lighter WT we drove last summer with just 510-hp felt plenty quick enough, and while the RST isn’t going to win any drag races with a Cybertruck, it has more than enough grunt to shred its costly 24-inch tires as fast as any other BEV. 

Unlike the Hummer WTF, WOW can actually be engaged anytime, and left on all the time for maximum power. WOW is limited to short bursts of 1,000-hp because of heating the battery, motor and electronics. However, you probably won’t want to engage WOW full-time, because the truck makes a very loud and frankly rather unpleasant sound when WOW is active.

I spoke with Chevrolet engineers about both this and the low speed pedestrian warning sound, and there are currently no options to use a different sound although that could potentially be updated sometime in the future. 

Chevrolet won’t actually say what the peak power and torque are when WOW is off, saying only that it depends on the driving modes, slip detection, cornering forces, etc. We’re guessing it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of the 510-hp of the 4WT work truck. We had a chance to do a short drive loop on some rural roads in a 4WT, and it actually felt quicker than the RST without WOW, which would be expected given it has a 400-lb weight advantage. 

Physics being what it is, a 9,000-lb truck is never going to handle like a Miata. But the combination of four-corner, independent air suspension and four-wheel steering make this beast reasonably comfortable and maneuverable in most normal driving. The tighter-than-normal turning circle makes parking relatively straightforward without having to go back and forth multiple times.  

When we took the RST out on the same country road loop as the 4WT back to back, the RST felt far more ponderous than the work truck. Even with taller sidewall tires on 18-inch wheels which howled around the corners, it felt easier to toss the work truck around, at least to the degree you would want to do that with a truck weighing over 8,500-lbs. Even at these weights, shedding 400-lbs does make a noticeable difference in driving dynamics.  

Speaking of the tires, the RST comes standard with attractive-looking, but large 24-inch alloy wheels shod with 275/50R24 Michelin Primacy all-season tires. Given its weight and torque output, it’s no surprise that the Silverado uses eight-lug wheels similar to those on heavy duty pickups. 

We noticed another dynamic anomaly as well. Part of the drive route from Detroit included a stop at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti, where we would have the opportunity to try out the WOW mode in a safe environment. After lowering the air suspension to the entry level and engaging WOW, we did sprint down the ACM test strip.

As expected, there was some squat with that much torque. But on the slightly uneven pavement, the RST seemed to be constantly twitching back and forth as though the slip control system was applying brakes on one side and the other to try to grab grip where it could.

It wasn’t a particularly confidence-inspiring experience and demonstrated why automakers need to end this absurd race to put more and more power in EVs that aren’t performance vehicles. 

Another use case the RST isn’t suited for is going off-road. With those big wheels and low-profile street tires this is absolutely an on-road truck, more like the Lightning than the Rivian or Tesla. The off-road mode adds 2-inches of ground clearance, but realistically this should only be used on an unpaved trail to a cabin, not for a trip to Moab. For next year, Chevrolet is promising a Trail Boss variant that should provide even more ground clearance, taller tires with significantly more sidewall and tread suited to working on dirt and rocks and some additional underbody armor. 

Setting aside the suitability of a 4.5-ton truck as a sports car or trail hound, the Silverado was otherwise quite pleasant to drive. Aside from its large frontal area, GM has done a lot of work on the aerodynamics to help maximize the opportunity for regenerative braking and maximizing the range. The front end is very much the opposite of a Cybertruck with relatively smooth, rounded contours. The absence of a gap between the cab and bed and sail panels behind the cab all work to manage the airflow and keep wind noise to a minimum. 

Along a stretch of M-14 across the north side of Ann Arbor that is paved in grooved concrete, there was a significant amount of road noise transmitted to the cabin. With very low profile tires inflated to 61 psi on the front and 68 psi on the rear, it shouldn’t be surprising that they didn’t do much to damp out that surface. Presumably when other trim levels arrive later this year and in 2025 they will have smaller diameter wheels with more rubber that should help. 

Despite the rolling stock, ride quality was overall quite good even on Michigan roads that are far less than ideal. There was surprisingly good steering feedback as well. The combination of big friction brakes and lots of regenerative braking help to ensure confident deceleration capability. GM has worked hard on regenerative braking since it introduced its two-mode hybrid trucks in 2007 it really shows on its BEVs. 

The one-pedal mode can be toggled by tapping an icon on the infotainment screen that is permanently displayed. The amount of regen is selectable between normal and high and for most driving, normal is sufficient to almost never have to touch the brake. I would only use the high regen for stop and go traffic where gaps are small.  GM does a great job managing regen and friction braking so that one-pedal is always available and predictable regardless of the state of charge of the battery and it will bring the vehicle to a full stop just by modulating the accelerator. 

What About Replenishing The Battery?

GM describes its full-size trucks and SUVs as having an 800V architecture, which is actually only partly true. These big vehicles with a dual layer battery can charge at 800V and 350-kW. But the overall electrical architecture is only 400V for current Ultium EVs. The 800V is split, with 400V being fed to each of the two layers of the battery, effectively treating it like 2 batteries being charged simultaneously at 175-kW each. It’s a clever solution that avoided some of the expense of going to 800V across the entire vehicle. 

On the way from ACM to our lunch stop in Chelsea, Michigan, my drive partner and I took a detour to a Meijer store in Ypsilanti that has Tesla Superchargers that were recently upgraded with Magic Docks. These Magic Docks provide an integrated CCS adapter for charging non-Tesla EVs. GM still hasn’t rolled out the software update that will enable Plug&Charge capability on Superchargers or even provided a date for when it will make NACS/J3400 adapters available to customers. But using the Tesla app and the Magic Dock we were able to get the Silverado to charge. Despite the battery being at 75% state of charge and the Superchargers only support 400V, the Silverado still pulled an impressive 130-kW — far higher than any Tesla will do at that charge level. From a 350-kW charger beginning at a relatively low state of charge, the Silverado will add 100 miles of range in about 10 minutes. 

We didn’t have time for a proper range test, but some independent tests of the 4WT with the same battery done last fall showed it could easily match or exceed its 450-mile range estimate so the RST will likely be able to do 440 miles. Towing tests with the work truck also showed that it can haul a trailer for more than 200 miles. 

The Silverado is also the first GM EV with bidirectional capability that will allow you to power your house in the case of an outage. This is similar to the Ford Intelligent Power Backup system. There are also 120 and 240V outlets with 10-kW of exportable power available to do anything from powering a work site to charging a stranded EV. 

First-Drive Verdict

So would I recommend the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado RST First Edition? If you absolutely must have the first of anything regardless of the cost, sure go ahead and get one. It offers a lot of interesting features and capabilities, and it does work at doing the stuff that truck buyers actually expect of a full-size truck, including towing. The Silverado also offers far and away the most range available in an electric truck and the fastest charging capability. Its ability to tow is also unrivaled for an electric truck, at least until the Ram 1500 REV and Ramcharger arrive at the end of this year. 

But for most customers who need a full-size truck, the price tag of the RST probably isn’t worth it. I would recommend waiting for the LT later in the year or the Trail Boss in 2025 if you need some actual off-road capability. The price of at least the LT will probably be a lot more palatable and you’ll be able to select which features you actually need or want. .