It was pretty hard to digest that one of the top truck manufacturers in the U.S., Chevrolet, was mum about electric trucks. At a time where every EV manufacturer was coming up with an offering to the open-bed segment, Chevy was out of the limelight for a very long time. Ford, on the other hand, has been active for years now, right from challenging Tesla to making official announcements.

But finally, the Bowtie has stepped up and officially announced its first-ever electric pickup truck in the form of the Silverado EV. And the icing on the cake? A range of 400 miles!

Chevy’s First Electric Truck Will The Silverado

With all the focus on the Hummer electric truck for over a year, GM had completely sidelined its mainstream trucks from Chevrolet and GMC. Electric startups like Tesla, Rivian, Lordstown, and Bollinger were always in the news, but none of the three American companies tried to garner some attention. Ford stepped up when Tesla came up with a ridiculous towing capacity claim on the Cybertruck and that’s when we got to know that an electric F-150 is in the works. The Blue Oval even teased it in September last year. But, there was no word whatsoever from Chevy.

Finally, the company has woken up from its slumber and decided to let people know that they are working on an electric version of the Silverado. Not a lot of details were offered, which means the truck is still quite some time away. However, GM did mention that truck will have a range of 400 miles and will be built alongside the Hummer EV at the company’s ‘Zero Factory’ in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. The range, mind you, is a GM-estimated figure; so take it with a pinch of salt.

GM Still Has A Good Chance At Making A Fantastic EV

While we have criticized GM for being late to the party, it has actually been indirectly involved through other companies. A startup called Lordstown Motors is backed by GM and is building a truck called the Endurance. GM was also trying to get involved with Nikola and Rivian at different points, but both didn’t work out with the former fading away into oblivion and the latter joining hands with Ford.

The company confirmed that the truck won’t be a Silverado plonked with an electric powertrain. It will be built from the ground up and will be based on the Ultium Platform, the architecture that also underpins the new Hummer EV twins. It features an 800-volt architecture that allows for fast charging. On the Hummer EV truck, it supports up to 350 kW of fast charging and up to 300 kW on the Hummer SUV. It also has stuff like the Crab Mode (diagonal walking), which, if GM decided to use on the Silverado, can put it one step ahead of the electric Ford F-150. And, how can we forget the MultiPro tailgate?

Final Thoughts

Since it is built from the scratch, we expect an all-new design with a little resemblance to the Silverado just to let people know of its roots. The range estimated could be for the top models and not entry-level trucks. General Motors has the electric modular platform, battery tech, and of course, experience in the EV market. So, expect it to come hard at Ford.

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