2024 Chevy Silverado EV is ready to ride the Lightning
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Speaker 1: The stakes couldn't be higher for GM. The Silverado is the company's cash cow. The lion share of its profits. General motors has one chance not to mess this up unless they end up poisoning their most profitable watering hole. So that all being said, let's take a look at what they've cooked up. This is the 2020 Chevy Silverado EV let's get right to the meat and potatoes of the Chevy Silverado, EV the powertrain specs under [00:00:30] the body here is a battery. The capacity of which GM is not saying at the moment, but it will provide a GM estimated range of approximately 400 miles on a single charge. So what can you do with all those electrons? Well, at the bare minimum, you can warp some pavement because according to GM in its RST trim, the Silverado EV will produce at least 664 horsepower and 780 pound feet of torque in its wide open Watts mode.
Speaker 1: Yes, that does spell wow mode. I don't believe [00:01:00] GM is contractually to include all these cutey acronyms, nor do I believe it's a world Warcraft reference, but yeah, never know truck stuff should come pretty easily to the Silverado EV and its RST trim as well. GM's internal estimates currently project up to 10,000 pounds of towing capacity and 1300 pounds of payload. Despite the truck size, it should handle pretty well too. Thanks to the inclusion of four or real steering. Sadly though, that does not include the neat crab walking trick that the GMC Hummer EV has. Now let's talk charging [00:01:30] to get those 400 miles back after doing all that truck stuff. The Silverado EV boasts charging capabilities up to 350 kilowats, which is about the most you can get from a charger right now that allowed about a hundred miles a range in roughly 10 minutes.
Speaker 1: If you can find a working charger that powerful power delivery can go the other way too, the Silverado EV offers up to 10 outlets that can provide a net 10.2 kilowats of electric power for camp sites, job sites, you name it, but power tools. Aren't all the Silverado EV can power. [00:02:00] In fact, this truck is capable of charging an entire different electric vehicle using an available accessory charging cord. As you might expect from an electric pickup truck with a 2024 model year, there is quite a bit of tech sandwich in this thing. The first thing your eyes will probably notice is you move through the interior is the honk and 17 inch OCD infotainment screen. But if that's not enough real estate for you, don't worry. There's another 11 inches of screen just under the horizon by way of a driver information display. [00:02:30] When it comes to safety systems, both variants of Silverado EV will get Chevy safety assist standard.
Speaker 1: The suite of active and passive driver aids includes automatic emergency braking forward collision warning, pedestrian detection lane, keep assist lane depart warning and automatic high beams. Now you might be saying to yourself, self that list. Sure. Doesn't have adaptive cruise control on it, and you'd be right, but also wrong. Don't fret because the Silverado EV also comes packing super crews. If you haven't become [00:03:00] familiar with the system which permits hands-free operation on Prema stretches of American highway, it really knocks the TM out of a long road trip. And I think Silverado EV owners will be happy to have it. Now that we've taken you through some of the more granular details of the 24 Silverado, EV let's take a step back and zoom out and discuss design. Now it is pretty clear where the front end draws a little bit of its inspiration from if you've ever seen a bull TV, you'd recognize this full width L E D bar in truck form.
Speaker 1: I actually think it accentuates the width pretty well and [00:03:30] gives you a hint along this cut line here, that there is in fact, a front and that has a nice low opening to make it easy to kinda load stuff in coming around to the side here, you, you might now notice that the proportions aren't exactly what you'd expect from a modern pickup truck owing to the fact that there is no 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 liter engine under the hood. The overhang is about as short as it can be, which will probably make it a little easier to park at the mall. Now, as you're going along, you may not get an idea of the scale of this truck, but it is large. I'm not feet tall, [00:04:00] I'm six feet tall. And these are 24 inch wheels here to kind of give you an idea of just the sheer girth of this thing.
Speaker 1: Moving along the side. I actually really like the design. It's not very over Roth. There is a little bit of kind of subtlety along the door panels there. And I kind of like the way the window moves up on the back door, but really there's nothing to you crazy along here. Although my favorite part, this is my favorite part is the way the DPI kind of cascades down. Some people might say, hum, EV I personally [00:04:30] think Chevy. The avalanche, you be the judge moving around to the back. We get to pick up just a few more elements of the GM family design language here in the tail. You may see a little bit of Silverado, especially in the way the element is shaped as you're looking at it directly from the back. Yeah, the clear lens and construction is a little different, but this is kind of one of the ways to let you know that that this is in fact part of the Silverado family moving further back.
Speaker 1: It's no surprise that GM's multi flex tailgate is present and accounted for on the RST. [00:05:00] But what is perhaps the single most interesting part of the entire exterior of the 2024 Silverado EV is actually in the bed. Multiflex mid gate is the newest creation on the Silverado. EV available only on the RST trim. It is basically a back door between the bed and the cabin. The second row inside has a 40 60 split. At which point you can fold the seat up, fold the door down and get a heck of a lot more space. Now, how much space [00:05:30] am I talking? All right, let's go through some numbers. If everything is clothed the tailgate and the mid gate, you get about five feet, 11 inches of storage. If you open the mid gate and keep the tailgate, it close that number expands to a hair over nine feet.
Speaker 1: And in its maximum configuration, which is where the mid gate is open. And the tailgate is open and set to its load. Stop. You get 10 feet, 10 inches of stuff back there. That's pretty darn crazy. Now that we've taken you through the exterior of [00:06:00] the Silverado, EV let's slide on inside, but not fully inside because I'm not allowed in there. Now, when GM said that the Silverado EV is all new, they really meant it. There is no carbon copy piece of anything in here, aside from maybe like the trailer brake controller. Otherwise the design is clean sheet other than the two screens in the middle, which kind of joined together. Everything else is nice and low. You have an interesting use of mixed materials. It feels like a good mix of Carish and truckish so to speak. And the cabin should feel a little extra Carish thanks to one [00:06:30] gargantuan, fix the glass roof above which should add a little bit of head space and make the whole cabin feel a little more airy.
Speaker 1: Now it, if you're wondering why I've been referring to the RST trim so much it's because that right now, there are currently two variants of Silverado EV on offer. The RST trim is the consumer focused trim, but there will also be a WT, a work truck aimed at more fleet focused buyers or the Ford lightning pro. And what's funny is that that will actually arrive in the fall of 23. Whereas this guy shows up [00:07:00] in the spring, a lot of things are the same between the two, for example, RST and WT share the same battery pack. And although GM isn't saying how big the pack is, both trucks have an estimated 400 mile range. WT can accept the same fast charging as RST and it too can. Backfeed power to tools are other EVs and there's four wheel steering on offer here as well. So now let's talk about what's different. The WTS output is a little lower promising up to 510 horsepower and 615 [00:07:30] pound feet of torque towing capacity is a little lower to in an estimated 8,000 pounds while payload is about a hundred pounds down at L of hundred. But those of you looking to haul a lot of stuff, shouldn't fret later on GM plans to unveil a model with a maximum towing capacity of 20,000 pounds, usually you'd have to upgrade to a 3,500 model medium duty pickup for that kind of capability,
Speaker 1: Right? It it's comparison time. [00:08:00] I know some of you are eager to hear how the Silverado EV stacks up against a certain rec to linear quote unquote truck from a certain manufacturer. But since its releases still very much up in the air, we'll be focusing on how the Silverado EV stacks up against its hometown competition. The Ford F-150 lightning, GM's internal estimates for the Silverado EV you Trump, the F-150 lightnings estimated specs in both standard range and extended range formats, roughly 30% higher than Ford's best estimates at the moment. The lightning can't charge as [00:08:30] quickly, either as it's limited to just 150 kilowats versus the Chevy's three 50. And when it comes to truck stuff, it's more of a mixed bag while the Silverado EV's 10,000 pound tow rating estimate is in line with the F-150 lightning extended range. The Chevy simply can't put as much in its bed offering 1300 pounds of payload compared to Ford's 2000 pound maximum on the standard range.
Speaker 1: Ford's onboard power delivery does lag behind Chevys though at a net 9.6 kilowats versus big bow ties, 10.2 Chevy also wins [00:09:00] on screen size with its premier and infotainment system offered up on a whopping 17 inch screen. Now the Ford isn't very far behind at 15 and a half inches, and we know Ford's system is great from our experiences with the Mustang Mockey's portrait display. So we'll have to wait until we get some, a time in the Silverado to figure out which system is truly better for the owner. Both trucks offer standard safety suites with largely the same collection of individual components, whether it's automatic, high beams or lane departure warning, but GM can no longer claim outright superiority in the highway road trip game, [00:09:30] because while the Silverado EV does come with super crews. So too, does the F-150 light lightning income with Ford zone blue crews.
Speaker 1: Now, I would say let's compare fronts because both trucks do in fact have them, but Chevy is still hard at work finalizing the design of its funk to maximize interior volume, whether or not it matches up to Ford's 14 cubic foot mega power front has yet to be seen, but they are certainly trying to hit that number that leaves us with the cost. I'm sure you've already figured out that something, this technologically [00:10:00] impressive and physically massive wouldn't be cheap. And you're right. The Silverado EV R S T will start at $105,000 when it goes on sale. The work truck variant, which goes on sale earlier, does not yet have a price. And the first year's allocation already, all but spoken for. So if you're looking for something a bit more pedestrian in the 40 to $50,000 range, you'll have to wait a few years yet. Or you could hop on the Ford lightning reservation list. Since Ford is making affordable electric trucks right off the [00:10:30] bat. It's pretty clear from this price Gulf that GM and Ford are targeting different customers to start.
Speaker 1: So when can all this cool stuff land in your driveway? Well, if you're watching this video on January 5th, the day it came out, the answer is soon-ish not really, but kind of the reservation books are open right now for RST models and both RST and WT will be built at GM's factory zero in Detroit, as for when the car will actually show up work, truck models will be coming out first in the spring of 2023, followed by RST [00:11:00] in the fall. Now that does give 40 year long head start with the F150 lightning. So GM it'd better make it worth it.
