Ford has offered a High-performance Raptor variant of the F-150 pickup truck to one degree or another since 2010. However, Chevrolet, or General Motors as a whole for that matter, has never had a direct rival to the Raptor. But why? General Motors has had the goal of beating Ford towards the top of its priority list since the 1960s. It is the whole reason the Camaro even exists in the first place. The main reason behind the lack of a high-performance Silverado, however, comes down to a simple business claim.

Boring Business Strikes Again

Loading high-performance bits into a Silverado means that GM would have to make it look like a high-performance Silverado, which means making it wider and taller. GM's manufacturing plants are not equipped to handle that at the time of writing, which means that GM would have to make alterations to their factories to produce a high-performance Silverado in the first place.

That is not including the cost of designing and engineering the hot Silverado, and since at the end of the day, it is still just a Chevy Silverado, they can only get away with selling it for so much. The profit margins would be too thin to justify the massive cost. This is why the not-so-competitive Silverado ZR2 exists - it was with the realm of acceptance by the bean counters.

A Future Hot Silverado And Ford's Contribution

And if that did not crush your hopes enough, it is likely there will not be a hot Silverado any time soon, if ever. GM has spent millions upping their EV game over the last few years, building new plants and announcing they will exclusively deal in EVs by 2035.

However, one could argue that Ford has also been dragging its feet in terms of competition. GM currently has the ZR2 Silverado, an off-road-specialized trim of the Silverado, the Escalade-V, and the GMC Hummer EV. Ford does not have a rival to any of those models. The F-150 Tremor has some off-road chops but lacks a good deal of the rugged goodies and the rock-crawling marketing of the ZR2.

The F-150 Lightning is an electric pickup, like the Hummer EV, but is nowhere near it in terms of price, size, power, or potential off-road capability. The $150,000 Escalade-V blows anything Ford has out of the water, at least until the 750-horsepower F-150 Raptor R debuts, but that is a pickup, not an SUV like the Escalade-V.

The classic rivalry between GM and Ford has simmered down in recent years, hence the 10-speed automatic gearbox that was co-developed between Ford and GM that was first offered in the 2017 F-150 Raptor, no less. In terms of performance cars, GM and Ford have always had it out for each other, at least to some degree. Let's hope it doesn't die out altogether, as it has produced some great cars over the years.