A Moonshot That Hits And Misses

The electric pickup segment is getting a new entrant as the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV hits dealers this year. This is not the first electric truck from General Motors – that honor belong to the GMC Hummer EV Pickup – nor is it the very first with a Chevy Bowtie. The Silverado EV WT (Work Truck) has been on sale for several months, albeit only for fleet customers. Now, regular truck buyers can get in on the action.

Arriving in a single RST First Edition trim for the 2024 model year, the Silverado EV touts impressive specs that outclass anything else with a battery and a bed. A massive 215 kWh battery pack enables a GM-estimated 440-mile driving range for the RST, which would put the Silverado EV at the top of the class against the GMC Hummer EV Pickup, Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and the Tesla Cybertruck. It also boasts over 750 horsepower, making it the most powerful Silverado ever made.

Chevy brought CarBuzz out to Detroit, Michigan, to drive the Silverado EV RST, and find out if the impressive range is enough to worry Ford, Rivian, and Tesla, and to finally make internal combustion engine truck owners consider going electric. Or does its steep price tag make it a tough sell to EV skeptics and truck lovers alike?

Exterior: Truck Meets Future

Unlike the Lightning, which rides on the same platform as the ICE F-150, the Silverado EV was built from the ground-up to be electric and doesn’t share anything visually with the gas-powered Silverado 1500. The EV is a few inches longer overall, but its wheelbase is slightly shorter.

Visually, the EV has a smoother front end with shorter overhangs, meaning you won’t soon mistake it for the ICE Silverado. That front end styling makes the EV more aerodynamic, as do the sail panels behind the cab, a slight nod to the now-discontinued Chevy Avalanche. A futuristic LED light bar at the front makes the Silverado EV look imposing in a rearview mirror.

Chevy says more Silverado EV trims are coming, but the RST First Edition is the only one for the 2024 model year. It comes in only one color – black – taking a page from Henry Ford’s playbook. The RST rides on available 24-inch wheels. Amazingly, these massive wheels don’t even look that big in person because of the truck’s sizable proportions.

Interior: Big Screens, Hard Surfaces

Stepping into the Silverado EV presents a mixed bag: you get impressive technology but disappointing build quality. Starting on a positive note, though, is the gigantic 17.7-inch dispay that comes standard with tons of screen real estate for maps, audio information, and more. On the downside, Chevy EVs will no longer include Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, so you’d better get used to the built-in Google infrastructure. Aside from a few oddly arranged menus, the Google-powered system is easy to use and features voice commands that rival CarPlay.

Related Read

GM Blames Safety For Getting Rid Of Apple CarPlay And Android Auto

Vehicles like the new Chevy Blazer EV have a new built-in infotainment system that isn’t compatible with these popular screen-mirroring apps.

The RST does boast an impressive roster of standard features, including:

• Heated and ventilated front seats
• Heated rear seats
• 11-inch configurable digital driver’s display
• Multi-color head-up display
• Super Cruise
• Advanced Trailering System
• 360-degree camera
• Fixed glass roof

Less impressive are the interior materials used overall, which feel like they belong in a mid-level Silverado, not a flagship model. As with the exterior, the RST First Edition offers a single color option: black with red and blue stitching. The red and blue combination looks a bit childish and some of the stitching on the dash looked crooked to us.

Speaking of the dash, it’s lined with the same durable textured stuff you find in the Hummer, which feels cheap and not at all premium. We could forgive the Silverado EV for having some hard surfaces, but the gas-powered truck does a more admirable job covering or hiding the plastic areas that are seldom touched. The interior quality becomes even less excusable when you hear how much the RST costs.

Practicality: Return Of The Avalanche

Building the Silverado EV from the ground up freed the engineers to provide more space for passengers and for cargo. Rear legroom is slightly higher than in the Silverado 1500, though headroom is a bit reduced. In terms of cargo, the EV outmatches almost any other pickup truck thanks to its clever Multi-flex Midgate feature, another piece of inspiration from the old Avalanche. The Midgate lets owners fold down the rear seats and remove the rear glass, merging the cab and bed into one storage space. This process is fairly intuitive, and we figured out how to do it with no assistance in under a few minutes. After a few tries, it will likely take under two minutes to complete.

The five-foot-eleven-inch bed expands to over nine feet when the tailgate is dropped and the Midgate is open. This is carrying capacity that few trucks can match, regardless of their powertrain. The available Multi-Flex Tailgate can fold into six different configurations. In addition to all the tailgate features, the Silverado EV also boasts a front “eTrunk” with an additional 10.7 cubic feet of enclosed storage. The frunk is larger on the Lightning, but Ford can’t match Chevy’s clever Midgate feature.

Performance: WOW Factor

Sitting at the top of the Silverado EV lineup, the RST First Edition packs two electric motors putting out totals of 754 hp and 785 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers are achieved with Chevy’s Wide Open Watts feature (WOW), which primes the motors to produce their maximum output, although it’ll deplete the battery faster. Chevy wouldn’t quote the figures with WOW mode turned off, but they are significantly lower. With so much juice on tap, Chevy quotes a 4.5-second 0-60 mph time. Using independent recording equipment on a closed test track, we measured the sprint to 60 mph in just 4.32 seconds, beating Chevy’s estimate with two people in the car.

More impressive than the Silverado EV’s pace is its range. According to the automaker, the large 215 kWh battery pack enables the RST to travel 440 miles on a single charge, beating every other electric truck on the market. During our short time behind the wheel, we observed 2.1 miles per kWh, hinting that the Silverado could actually exceed that estimate by around 10 miles. The Silverado EV can tow up to 10,000 pounds and, since the range is so impressive, this might be the first electric truck that’s actually practical for towing.

With such an enormous battery, the Silverado EV charges at up to 350 kW on a DC fast-charger, allowing it to add approximately 100 miles in just 10 minutes and reach an 80% state of charge in around 30 minutes. At home, it can juice up at an impressive 19.2 kW, adding around 34 miles of range per hour. It’s worth noting that these speeds require a separate 100-amp panel at your house, an additional cost that some owners may not be willing to purchase. Without it, the Silverado EV can accept up to 11.2 kW, which may take more than an overnight charging session based on the battery size.

This is also the first GM EV that will offer bidirectional charging, allowing the truck to feed power back to the grid and power a house. The feature requires additional hardware, which costs over $7,000.

Must Read

Chevy Silverado EV RST First Edition Launches GM’s Bidirectional Charging Tech

GM’s energy division has introduced a new bidirectional charger that lets you power your home with certain electric Chevy, Cadillac, or GMC vehicles.

Driving Impressions: Not All EVs Are Silent

When we last drove the Hummer EV Pickup, a truck that rides on the same GM Ultium platform as the new Silverado EV, we noted pretty loud wind and tire noise due to the vehicle’s shape and poorly-insulated removable roof panels. We had hoped the Silverado EV would improve with a quieter cabin, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Add CarBuzz to your Google News feed.

Before setting off, the first thing you will notice in the electric Silverado is a humming noise coming from a speaker. All EVs are mandated to make a sound like this for pedestrian safety, but we’ve never heard one this clearly from inside the vehicle. ICE truck owners may like it, as it kind of mimics the rumble of a V8, but we just found it annoying. The noise becomes less intrusive once you start moving, but the Silverado EV is anything but quiet.

Short highway stints revealed plenty of wind and tire noise from the Silverado’s gargantuan 24-inch wheels. We had to raise our voice to speak to our driving partner, an annoyance that is not present in the Ford F-150 Lightning. Standard air suspension provides a decently supple ride, even with the 24s doing their best to shake up the situation over Detroit’s torn-up pavement.

In normal driving, the dual motors do not output the full 754 hp and 785 lb-ft, meaning the Silverado feels quick but not scary. Unlike GMC’s WTF mode, WOW can be engaged on demand, making it more useful for everyday driving situations, and not just a gimmick to show your friends. To get the quickest launch, Chevy recommends putting the air suspension into entry/exit mode and putting everything else into Sport Mode. It feels a bit like the Mew hidden behind a truck rumor from Pokémon Red & Blue Version; only the cool kids on the playground know all the secret steps to activate the Silverado EV’s launch mode.

With WOW activated, the motors dish out enough power to move the truck laterally, which is alarming if you aren’t ready to compensate with the steering. Unlike the Hummer, the Silverado doesn’t squat and send its front end towards the sky under hard acceleration, but it does feel large and leans into corners like its GMC sibling.

Pricing & Verdict: Sit Down For This

Other Silverado EV trims may be coming, but the RST First Edition arrives fully-loaded for the 2024 model year, starting at $94,500. Among its electric truck contemporaries, that’s a sizable cost, even considering the range and power.

The top F-150 Lightning Platinum costs almost $10k less than the Silverado EV, with an MSRP of $84,995, though its 300-mile range is well below the Chevy’s. A Rivian R1T dual motor with the Max Pack battery has 410 miles of range for under $90,000 with a nicer interior – but it is smaller than the Silverado. There’s also the Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast, which is similarly priced with similarly questionable build quality, offering quicker performance but less range. Within the GM family, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup is actually more expensive, starting at $98,845, but it offers more off-road capability and unique styling.

Chevy has entered the segment with a class-leading range number, which could persuade current EV owners and skeptics alike to finally embrace electrification. However, we weren’t impressed by the Silverado EV’s quality or refinement, two categories where the Ford and Rivian still outshine it. Or if you just want a truck that will get the most attention, the Tesla still wins in that category. The 2024 Silverado EV is certainly worth considering if you want an electric truck, but it’s not the world-beater some shoppers may have been hoping for. At a lower price, we’d be far more likely to recommend it, but nearly six figures feels like way too much for a great battery surrounded by a mediocre truck.