Chevy just published a press release showing off an 1,100 horsepower Chevy Silverado EV ZR2 race truck concept meant to get the world excited for the 2026 Chevy Silverado EV Trail Boss — Chevy’s very first off-road-focused electric vehicle. But I’m not excited because I know that the new, more capable Silverado EV is going to be yet another reminder that electric off-roaders are just not ready for primetime in 2025.
I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, here. As an off-road diehard, I think the more capable vehicles hit the market the merrier. And in fact, when I reviewed the Rivian R1T, I had almost entirely nice things to say. I also liked driving the Cybertruck.
But those machines were cool because they were novel, and by 2026 when the new Silverado EV Trail Boss hits the market, the glitz and the glamour associated with new electric pickup trucks will have worn off. In fact, it already has, and now that I’m looking at new electric vehicles through clear lenses with no rose tint, it becomes obvious that they just aren’t suited to be great off-roaders. At least, not right now.
I don’t mean that electric vehicles aren’t good off-roaders from a technical standpoint. No, the torque delivery of an EV, and the granularity with which it can be delivered, are sensational. There’s no doubt about that. No, when I say EVs aren’t suited to be “great off-roaders,” I mean off-road capable vehicles for the masses.
Think about it: It’s 2025, and there’s not a single off-road electric car that even borders on “affordable.” Not one. And the reason for that is simple: off-road vehicles just require too much energy to go down the road, which is something we all intuitively know — it’s a key reason why a Ford Escape gets better fuel economy than, say, a Ford Bronco. And the more energy needed, the bigger the battery needed.
So when I saw Chevy’s press release for the new Silverado EV ZR2 and Trail Boss, I couldn’t help but think about how compromised it’s going to be, especially when it comes to pricing.
Here’s what Chevy has to say about the Trail Boss in the aforementioned press release:
The Silverado ZR2 race truck concept’s reveal comes as Chevy prepares to launch this summer the 2026 Silverado EV Trail Boss, its first off-road oriented EV variant. Trail Boss is a more off-road capable Silverado EV with a factory-installed lift, 18-inch wheels, 35-inch all-terrain tires and red tow hooks. New Terrain Mode gives the truck increased maneuverability in tight spaces.
If this were a gasoline truck, like, say, the Chevy Colorado ZR2, I’d be amped to see this. 35s! A lift kit! Lockers! That’s fantastic. Sure, it’ll hurt fuel economy and ride quality and handling, but those are compromises I’m willing to make. In an EV, though, that first compromise makes the off-road hardware far from worth it in my eyes.
My article last May about how EVs just aren’t suited for serious towing is quite similar to this one in that my main point has to do with Vehicle Demand Energy: The energy needed to propel a vehicle down the road.
With a heavy load hooked to a trailer hitch, getting a reasonable range requires a massive amount of energy onboard the tow vehicle. On a gas or diesel vehicle, you just install a big blow-molded fuel tank for a few bucks more and be done with it. On an EV, you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds worth of curb weight to store the extra energy needed to yield a similar range as an ICE truck.
The good thing about a pickup truck tow vehicle, though, is that it can be fairly efficient when it’s not pulling a trailer. So, an EV pickup could still be an OK daily driver even if it’s not great when the energy demand goes up during towing. But what if that pickup truck has an increased energy demand when not towing?
That’s essentially what Chevy is doing by off-road-ifying its Silverado EV. By installing 35-inch tires and a factory lift kit, it’s going to compromise the vehicle’s range by increasing aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. The only way to even slightly mitigate that is to use air suspension, which allows one to raise the vehicle for off-roading and lower it for highway driving. Even with air suspension (which, by the way, isn’t cheap) 35-inch all-terrain tires alone will significantly reduce range.
The current crop of Chevy Silverado EVs offers ranges between 282 miles and 492 miles, and while that latter figure may sound impressive, it’s just a product of a humongous 205 kWh battery. The vehicle’s efficiency of 50 kWh/100 mi is significantly less than that of, say, a Rivian R1T (which, to be fair, is a bit smaller). The 282-mile vehicle uses a 119 kWh battery, while the 400-ish mile truck has a 170 kWh battery, if you’re curious.
The result of these bigger batteries is a high cost and high weight. Unless you’re a fleet operator who can buy a WT “Work Truck,” buying a Silverado EV will cost you over $75,000. I get that an off-road variant will look cool and be fun, but like an off-road version of a gas truck, this is just going to be a more expensive truck with less range. And when you’re already expensive and range-conscious like the Silverado EV is, I’m not sure those are two areas worth compromising for a bit more off-road capability.
I’m saying “a bit,” because just looking at that picture above tells me this thing is going to be far from an off-road beast. That belly looks big, the front overhang looks low, and at about 9,000 pounds it’s likely going to bury itself in loose terrain and be an absolute bear to recover once it’s stuck.
Back in August Lucid’s then-CEO Peter Rawlinson told me it’s not possible to make an affordable EV pickup truck without a gas motor. If you want to be competitive in terms of towing range, you just have to install an absurdly heavy and expensive battery pack.
The same holds true when it comes to off-road capability. To build an off-roader with the right geometry (short overhangs, a short belly), underbody protection (which adds weight), and tires (big all-terrains or mud-terrains), you’ve got to make major compromises to Vehicle Demand Energy. That means you need a big battery to give you a reasonable range.
The Rivian R1S will go 410 miles on a charge, but it does it thanks to a 141.5 kWh battery. And that vehicle doesn’t even have aggressive all-terrain tires. It also costs over $90 grand.
EVs just aren’t ready to be good, affordable off-roaders in 2025. But there is an obvious solution: The range extender.
Adding a small gasoline range extender allows you to install big 35-inch tires and all the skid plates you could want without significantly compromising edge-case driving situations like road trips (this is important because people, whether logically or illogically, buy vehicles based on edge cases). Instead of installing a 200 kWh battery to get 350 miles of range (for example) out of your off-road vehicle, you can just have an 80 kWh battery, get 140 miles of electric range to handle the majority of your daily-driving needs, and when you need to go on your annual road trip, you just fill up.
You’ve now saved $17,000 worth of batteries (but added maybe $7000 back with the range extender, for a net savings of $10,000 to be conservative), and you’ve dropped your curb weight by at least 1,000 pounds.
Range extenders truly are the only way to make electric off-roaders remotely accessible to the masses in 2025. This new Silverado EV Trail Boss doesn’t have one, and the result is almost certainly going to be an expensive, heavy vehicle with only so-so range and off-road capability. I’m sure it’ll be fun to drive, but certainly not fun to pay for or charge up.
People waste a lot of money on features that they hope to use at some point but utlimately never do. Take a look at any work parking lot. It is mostly filled with trucks and SUVs that don’t even have wiring for trailer lights. As surveys have shown, 75% of truck owners tow 1 or less times per year. One or less probably means 0. Nobody on the street I live that has a truck has ever towed anything. They are vehicles used to pick up large TVs from Best Buy and bring things to the dump once a year. That’s why I haven’t bothered to sell our old minivan even though we use our EV for 99% of our driving, including multi-state road trips. None of the serious off-roaders that I know tow anything with their off-road vehicle and they spend a lot of $$$ modifying their vehicles for the single purpose of going off-road.
My little 4×6 bed utility trailer that lives under my back deck, gets more use than the bed of every truck in my neighborhood.
Ooooooh. If I ever move further out of the city, the first thing I will get is a utility trailer. My car can tow 2500lbs which is more than enough for when I go gardening crazy or need materials for renovation work. Trailers for hauling stuff are freaking awesome.
Question. Can you haul 4×8 sheets of drywall/plywood with a 4×6 trailer? Or would you recommend 4×8 bed utility trailer if that is what I will mainly haul? I have no idea and since you have a trailer I aspire to own I thought you might have an idea?
Mine is an old home built thing that is 4×6 and 2ft tall steal walls on 3 sides so one sheet of pressure treated 3/4 plywood is the floor (6 ft) and the 2 ft cutoff is the slide in gate. the trailer is on car tires with coil springs and shocks. It can carry a yard of dirt and has carried all the framing and decking for a 12×23 deck in one go and the framing was 2x12s. If you stick 1 ft over the front and 1 ft over the back a 4×6 can carry 8 ft materials easily.
Ah a picture of a the Scout… the unicorn that does not exist so it impossible to know what it will be capable of. And don’t even get me going on what the actual cost of the Scouts will be — $75,000+ is my best guess.
What we do know, is the towing capacity of the range extender models will be significantly lower than the pure EV. This was announced by Scout rather quietly in the last few weeks,. Here are the towing capacities:
Yup. the EREV Terra loses 5,000 pounds towing capacity. The EREV Traveler loses 2,000 pounds of towing capacity. That seems like quite the hit.
That’s not really an issue with EREV tech. Ramcharger will tow 14,000 pounds.
I’m curious if the Scout thing is a vehicle dynamics thing (the EREV will be lighter) or something to do with the range extender sizing not keeping up at 10k pounds.
I’d guess the latter.
I’m curious. Has Scout confirmed that the EREV will be lighter or is that just speculation on your part?
Here are the specs that Scout has confirmed is various interviews:
15 gallon tank for EREV
150 mile EV only range for EREV
350 mile EV range for EV.
4 cylinder engine for EREV. Not turbocharged.
NMC battery for EV
LFP battery for EREV.
So the weight savings of the EREV having a smaller battery is not as big as you might expect since you need more LFP cells than you would with an equivalent capacity NMC.
Lets assume the Scout EV has a 100kwh NMC battery. That will weigh approximately 1100lbs.
The Scout EREV is supposed to get 150miles range in electric. That would require a 40kwh battery. (150mile/350 mile times 100kwh.) A LFP battery of that size weighs approximately 650lbs.
So battery weight reduction of 550lbs.
Now lets look at the motor. The VW 2.5L weights 365lbs fully dressed. (This seems like the likely engine as it is not turbocharged.) 15 gallons of fuel is 90 lbs. So 455lbs for fuel and engine. I’m ignoring the weight of the generator required here.
So maybe a 100lbs lighter for the EREV. If the battery has to be more than 100kwh for 350miles range, then the weight differential actually becomes even smaller!
I’m not seeing the EREV being much lighter than the EV given the performance specs they have provided.
Ooops. Math mistake. Battery weight savings for EREV is only 450lbs. So the EREV and EV look like they will actually be about the same weight.
5000 pounds is still more than most will ever tow. I would imagine the loss is because the small gas motor will need to do all the work for an undetermined time once the battery is drained far from a charger.
Oh absolutely most will not tow more than 5000lbs. However, everyone keeps talking about how folks buy based on edge theoretical use cases. Which is absolutely bonkers but the reason we have such ridiculously large SUVs and pickup trucks being used to go to an from the grocery store most of the time. The lower towing capacity of the EREV will be a big turnoff for a lot of folks.
I think “edge case scenarios” is true and is also performative masculinity.
I rented a Silverado EV from Hertz last summer for a fishing trip in a very rural part of my state. My own vehicle was having some downtime, so I actually reserved a regular gas powered truck from Hertz but someone totaled it the day before I was supposed to pick it up and the only other option was the Silverado EV. Since it had 400 miles of range, I figured I could probably make it work. Honestly, it did pretty well off-road on some pretty rough roads. The instant torque and ability to adjust output instantly helped it crawl up hills that in my truck I typically get a lot of wheel spin on. But there was no hiding that weight at higher speeds. Going over any sort of whoop revealed the 9000 pounds of mass. And range anxiety crept in towards the end of the day because I didn’t know exactly how much energy it was going to take to get back to a charger. So I probably wouldn’t buy an electric truck for purposes of going off-road, especially not if it cost $100,000.
“GM’s very first off-road-focused electric vehicle”
David, did you mean to say Chevy’s first off-road vehicle here or is the Hummer not off-roady enough for you?
The irony of a more enviromentally-friendly EV being used for a non-enviromentally friendly activity is amusing.
Perception is actually more important than reality.
I could argue that done right and done well, “off roading” can actually be an environmentally friendly activity in that it should be done on trail, tread lightly ethos, and preserving the natural environment that these trails are in. It can be actually pro environmental even though it does burn a lot of gas.
Especially when you park the truck, pull on your boots and take a hike.
Yes that is why I switched to more overlanding than off road mud/rocks parks. I get to camp, hike, and canoe, and prove recreational use of national forests and public lands that are not extractive use.
A primary reason to do environment friendly things is to preserve the environment for us to use and enjoy.
I’m not sure I’d want to be on loose, uneven ground with a 5tonne EV and trying to stop it from doing things I don’t want it to. And then trying to recover said vehicle from whatever predicament that resulted.
It’s one thing, say, to have a Wrangler or old Suzuki SUV sliding into a rock with it’s full weight than to think of what one of these would accomplish doing so – and then imagine the damage, repair costs, and attempts at recovery.
Now, admittedly I’m not an offroader, so I may not be in the know, but do people even take expensive vehicles (ICE, BEV, whatever) offroading? The times I have seen people tackling serious trails, the vehicles more closely resemble something from Mad Max than a $90K pickup.
As someone who offroaded my Jeeps for years, I can say that, yes, some people buy a $75k-$100k vehicle and take it out and thrash on it. But it’s like 5% of buyers (made up, obviously), though and you can always spot the guy who took their fancy new truck out and flips out when it gets some dents or pin striping from tree branches on the side of the trail. But of that tiny percent, there are a few who stick with it after those first dents because they are into it regardless of cost and damage.
I’m sure there are a few, but like you say, a tiny percentage. I wouldn’t have the testicular fortitude to spend that money and trash it and I don’t think many others would either, especially when you can build a more capable rig for less.
Yeah, for me it was a slow evolution. I started pooring more energy into making the Jeep comfortable so it was a decent drive to the trail. By the time I stopped, the Jeep was spartan and money had gone into a decent tow rig and trailer instead. Plus, when I broke the Jeep, I didn’t have a problem getting to work as I had a cheap Saturn to drive instead. I have long maintained that getting that Saturn was the best Jeep mod I ever did.
I still off road my daily driver jeep wrangler. I bought it new 13 years and 170000 miles ago and it was a $30K sport S not rubicon and I have upgraded it as I broke/wore out stuff off roading. I am rather careful off road and do not do stupid and dangerous stuff but wheel within my limits. I have off roaded it in like 10 states and lots of off road parks.
There’s also another subset starting with a $50-100k rig that add another $50k into it – before they’ve ever taken it out onto a trail. (as well as those who spend that, but never take to a trail)
I am an avid offroader who tries to spend at least 1-2 days a week on the trails, weather dependent of course, and like the others have said, there are people who take their expensive rigs off-road. With that said, the vast majority of those that I see are kitted out in all the overland recovery gear and then never venture further than level 1-2 (out of 10) trails. There are exceptions to that, of course, but when I am on the level 5-8 trails in my area, if I encounter anyone, it is someone with a built-and-beat Jeep like me or an 80s Toyota.
I get to 4-5 off road parks a year, belong to a club and spend about 2-3 weeks a year in overlanding in the national forests. I never see $90K pick up truck on the hard trails but Do see very Expensive Wranglers/Gladiators rubicons that people have put very large ammounts of money to make them very capable off road. Those are the family’s (usually the husbands) entire hobby and all the family hobby money is in that rig. The expensive pick up trucks are in the parking lots with flat bed ATV/SXS trailers behind them. At least in the midwest off roading is now nearly all side by sides, with some exceptions like me and my friends.
I am really torn and may not totally agree with what I am about to type:
Ev pickup trucks are fine in that not everyone with a truck tows 10,000 pounds 1000 miles every day up hill both ways. Trucks are family sedans with fabric covered big trunks for rural identifying suburbanites that may need a truck to hauls stuff “someday”. So making them EVs for their daily commutes is fine. Just make ICE or Diesel-Electric series hybirds for towing and actual work.
People buy trucks for the possibilities they represent. So you need to build for that.
No notes. No one is actually going to off road the thing anyway, but they want to want to and that’s fine. I mean, it’s overall probably not fine and we’re a bit too much “me and my needs are all that matter and damn the consequences” but that ain’t changin’, so it’s fine! I would never buy this to off road it, but if that’s the image a buyer wants, good for them.
I agree (ish); pickup trucks can be slippery (ish)! Just look at how many 30 MPG trucks Ram and Ford and Chevy have.
It’s when you task them with pickup-truck things like towing and off-roading that they become less suitable as EVs. Of course, some people buy trucks for their capabilities, so this could be an issue, but hey, we’ll see if people buy these things.
EREVs are such a no-brainer for this segment it’s ridiculous there hasn’t been one yet.
Thanks, that is why I prefaced my statement with I’m not wholeheartedly agreeing with my own statement.
Imagine the advertising that could be done for extended range EV’s with cool pictures of locomotives and diesel submarines and all kinds of other cool advertising images.
This is for the soft roader crowd that thinks EVs are good for virtu signalling. 99% of these won’t see real off road use. Fire roads are not real off roading. Driving in your yard is not real off roading. This is cosplay for cars.
This is the my simple understanding of it. The best tow rigs are heavy. 3/4 and one ton trucks. They have heavier frames, engines, and running gear. This is completely the opposite of what you need to get decent range on an electric vehicle. And when you look at it these EV trucks are still just 1/4 ton trucks that can only tow 10k lbs. max. That’s not even what the gas versions can tow. I really don’t see this changing anytime soon unless we can figure out a way to break the laws of physics. A range extender would help but I also would really like to know who is actually purchasing these things. I’ve seen a couple of lightening’s on the road but no EV silverado’s yet.
“The best tow rigs are heavy.”
To paraphrase Regular Car Reviews, when all the trucks break down, a superheavy tow rig will bring you all to safety.
(Smash cut to Mercedes Streeter pulling a mile-long train of bricked Cybertrucks and Hummer EVs in her Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy.)
well, if it has red tow hooks, count me in.
I was looking for this comment.
Diesel Electric hybrids are the way to go. Eagerly waiting for them to be 20 years old so I can afford one.
Eh, Edison motors is working on a kit for older trucks that uses the Cummins 4BT. I bet you’ll be able to afford that.
THIS!
I’ve been chomping at the bit to see this in the wild. Current truck has 280k on the clock and van has 200k. (AWD Transit though so might not be a candidate for the swap)
I’m rooting for them so hard.
Of all the vehicles to electrify the truck is the dumbest one to do. What do people buy them to do?
Long road trips. Tow. Remote adventures. All things an EV is not good at.
Is the truck market even ASKING for EV trucks?
My snarky, source-less answer is that car companies only make money on trucks, they want or need to make EVs, so the EV truck is born. All the while ignoring the fact that the Venn diagram of people who want trucks and people who want EVs barely overlaps and is mostly captured by Rivian anyway.
Delivery vans and shuttle buses, on the other hand, are nearly ideal to electrify since so many ot them follow fixed routes with multiple drop-off stops in city traffic.
We procured one more round of ICE powered vans for our Handicap on-demand transit vehicles, as the current EV offerings couldn’t quite make the day.
Once you add that coach-built body, the efficiency plummets.
I buy trucks as a daily cause I regularly haul all manners of stuff that doesn’t belong in a hatchback (unless you want to completely wreck your interior) and occasionally tow a project home or a camper trailer.
I can tell you I ABSOLUTELY want an EV truck with a range extender. 100miles of range would suit my monday-to-friday gig and the extender would take care of my weekend needs.
Perfect reason to buy two vehicles. A true EV and a beater truck.
You find me a truck that isn’t completely fucked for under 10k up here in salt belt Ontario, then lend me that 10k, then pay the licensing and insurance on that additional truck.
While you’re at it, I could use a place to park it.
No. One daily that does everything I need.
I’m not asking to antagonize, I’m asking out of real curiosity. What are you hauling in the truck that can’t go inside (I could make it up, but that’s kind of silly, we’re here to talk, right?) and how much weight are you towing?
Gravel, dirt, oily/greasy car parts, waste oil, patio stones, objects too big to fit in a hatch (appliances, furniture).
With the truck, I can just pressure wash the bed when I’m done, fold the tonneau back down, and use it as normal clean dry storage.
And towing I realistically need 6500lbs to have a margin of safety. My Benz weighs 4000lbs and an empty Uhaul Auto Transport weighs 2300lbs empty.
Also, if I get a camper trailer, I’d like to be able to put the family in the tow vehicle, not take two vehicles.
Agreed!
Two supporting points:
Bbbbuuuut – They make pretty tire tracks when they go sideways in the snow!
Isn’t that why you buy an $80,000 truck?
*facepalm*
Seriously. That alone tell me EV trucks are just a mans version of a fancy purse.
All of the fancy pickups on the market are just a mans version of a purse.
“Look at that brown leather!” “Yeah and check out the silver badging”
Shoes, purse, pickup truck interior? Who knows?
Shut up and take my money already.
A Chanel Purse and a Ford Lighting XLT would be cheaper, and be just as useful.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I’m sure the “let me like what I want” crowd will soon come yell at us though.
I have no problem with people liking it, but when they act like it isn’t a fashion accessory for them, they’re just being fragile in their masculinity lol
I know, they don’t like that we pick up on that. They want us to cosplay with them.
Anime wraps should be required in that case.
Going electric always seemed like the perfect reason to bring back the high performance street truck. Lowered ride heights and less rolling resistance from road focused tires would benefit an EV greatly.
An electric Ariel Nomad is where electric off roading needs to start.
I’d say electric off roading should have started with Alta Motors. Their dirt bikes were great, but the company went bankrupt.
Sure, an electric dirt bike isn’t going to replace all gas powered ones, but their are plenty of scenarios where they did fantastically.
The few other electric dirt bikes offered now aren’t bad, but I still mourn Alta.
This is why I just don’t see any reason for these massive EVs to exist. They’re deeply compromised and use a tremendous amount of energy and battery resources for hardly any benefit other than making the vehicle heavy, expensive, and difficult to refuel. Neat.
I want these limited battery resources to be used for the commuters that have a chance of actually reducing consumption. Not these mega fat trucks that I’m not sure anyone really wants.
Seriously hope GM has been working furiously to make an EREV version of these things. Also, I really thought we’d be looking at EV Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon by now. The Escalade is out, the pickups have been out for years, where are the regular SUVs?
Hmm, what if you put one of those 205 kWh battery in a Golf-sized hatchback? 800 miles of range?
Four flat tires.
I’d be more interested in seeing GM build a Bolt that can fast-charge at the same rate as the Hummer EV. It would add 200 miles in the time it takes for the driver to take a leak.
The good thing no one is paying sticker price for these ones. I had a loaner for one month and the thing is insane, the amount of power and towing capacity while using super cruise. People online love these trucks, even if you have a higher electricity bill because of the power demand but you basically can power your house for days, the truck is ready for it.
Work in R&D for a semi-truck manufacturer and can confirm that the EV’s range for something so big and heavy is not great and to top that off with constantly failing e-axles tis not a fun time.
These feel like the Hummer EV so GM is probably thinking that they’ll get some more of that pie.
Yeah, too lazy to look up the specs myself, but, these sound an awful lot like they’re just putting the Hummer stuff on the Silverado. And, wouldn’t the Hummer be GMs first off-road EV?
I think the article had the very specific note “Chevy’s first EV offroader”, which would preclude the Hummer. Pedantic, yes. But also, yes this is most likely just the Hummer EV with a Silverado EV body on top.
I’m pretty sure that said GM when it was first published this morning, but I could be mistaken. In that case, yes, it would be the ‘first’.
I don’t think it’s a very big pie, and I think it’s already been eaten by Hummer EV and Cybertruck owners.
Can confirm EV’s use a lot more energy when towing. My Model Y LR uses about 450-500 watt-hours per mile to tow a 2000 lb Aliner popup. That’s double its EPA rated 250 watt-hours per mile. Towing means lots of stops. Which is fine for me since it’s recreational and allows for lots of family time exploring the different charging stops. Location also helps. Being in the Northeast US, there are fast chargers littering the major highways. Other people’s experience will be very different.
Oh yeah David, then why is the lunar rover electric!?!?! Can’t get any more off-road than that! Checkmate… checkmate.
*insert on snap gif here*
Didn’t that have a range of like 57 miles?
Which far exceeds that of all other moon-based cars.
That is true
Plus, some may say this is disingenuous, but I’m going to credit it an additional 238,900 miles.
I feel like I’m nearly ready to be CEO of some
shadytotally viable EV truck start up. Put me in coach.Gotta pump those numbers; straight shot to the moon is short changing those miles. Apollo missions circled the earth a few times before heading for the moon and then circled the moon multiple times during descent.
So the total distance Apollo 15 traveled was just under 1.3M miles, Apollo 16 just under 1.4M miles, and Apollo 17 just under 1.7M miles. IDK how long each direction was, but if you assume half, you can easily get to a few million miles combined travel by the 3 lunar rovers.
Can I be CTO?
With 1969 technology and lead-acid batteries.
Silver-zinc. Not lead-acid.
Well, it was a 1hp open air go-cart with a top speed of 11mph, that weighed 76lbs on the lunar surface (460 on Earth). Though, it did have seat belts, so there was at least one safety feature
Oh, sure, MSRP $38,000,000. In 1969 dollars.
They just failed to ramp up production. I’m sure prices would have dropped to that of a Chevy C10 if they had made as many…
Yeah, you ain’t gettin those tires from TireRack!
I know a guy…
There’s a good book called “Across the Airless Wilds” that chronicles the creation and development of the lunar rover. My only criticism of the book (as a child of one of the engineers who designed the batteries) is that there’s very little ink spent on how the batteries were developed and an enormous amount of words on how the tires were made. The tire story is fascinating, but I came for the EV on the moon tale.
Agreed, this is a great book and the author is a friend of the site!
Understand and agree.
What blows my mind was that it worked at all up there.
Then I saw a copy of it at NASA, wow!
I was 12 in 1969 and seeing that whole thing was almost beyond belief.
Thanks to you Dad BTW.
It’s so early that I haven’t even logged in to work Slack and there’s already a strong COTD contender! 😀