General Motors is doubling down on its electric pickup efforts by announcing plans for a zero-emissions variant of the Chevrolet Silverado to complement the GMC Hummer EV truck. It will be developed from the ground up as an EV rather than being an electric adaptation of the existing Silverado powered by combustion engines.
According to an early estimation made by GM, the electric Silverado will be able to travel for more than 400 miles between charges. Much like the GMC Hummer EV pickup truck and the recently unveiled SUV version, the Silverado EV will be based on the Ultium platform shared with the Cadillac Lyriq and the fancy Celestiq large sedan.
The Ultium architecture is the backbone of GM’s electrification agenda, with plans to deliver more than one million EVs all over the world by the middle of the decade. Vehicle development has been cut down almost in half to only 26 months by making use of virtual development tools and technology, with the Silverado EV being engineered in both retail and fleet versions.
The newly announced electric pickup truck will be built together with the GMC Hummer EV SUV and pickup at the Factory ZERO assembly plant in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. It’s unclear at this point when the electric Silverado will enter production and go on sale, but it will take a while considering the pickup version of the reborn Hummer won’t hit the assembly line until towards the end of 2021.
When it does eventually arrive, the Silverado EV, or whatever its official name is going to be, will have to face some stiff competition coming from the fully electric F-150 that Ford has been working on for a while. It is believed the Blue Oval will have the green truck on sale for the 2023 model year, which would mean a market launch due in roughly a year from now.
Source: General Motors
