We’ve all been patiently waiting for Chevrolet to finally list the Silverado EV’s driving range. The cheapest WT (Work Truck) variant is the first out of the gate, and even in its low-spec guise, this electric Silverado is apparently going to deliver some big-time range. (The WT is the first Silverado EV to go on sale, followed later by pricier trims.) How decent? Well, try class-leading. The Chevy Silverado EV WT, the least-expensive version, beats out every electric pickup truck on the market today.
During a virtual media call, General Motors president of North America, Rory Harvey, finally let us all in on this entry level truck’s range. According to the Detroit Free Press, Harvey stated that the 2024 Silverado EV WT will get an EPA-estimated 450 miles on a single charge. That’s an impressive number when you consider the Ford F-150 Lightning’s best of 320 miles, the Rivian R1T’s 314 miles, the GMC Hummer EV pickup’s 329 miles, and the estimated mileage of the upcoming Ram 1500 Rev coming in around 350 miles.
Harvey reiterated that the WT model is aimed at fleet customers and that “gives [GM] a competitive advantage” in terms of those buyers. With an extra 130 miles of range over the big-battery F-150 Lightning (which starts at about $80,000) and 100 miles over the Ram 1500 Rev, we’d have to agree. Could the real-world figure disappoint, just as it often does with large EVs? Sure. But it’d need to be way, way off the EPA figure to even come close to other trucks’ ranges.
Where did GM’s engineers find additional range for the Silverado EV WT? Harvey didn’t go into details, according to the Detroit Free Press story, but said it wasn’t a single factor that attributed to this number. “We look at refinements, we look at aero, we look at the way the vehicle is calibrated, the way the vehicle is set up,” said Harvey when asked, “There are so many factors that go into it. The team was able to refine it.” A humongous battery is likely a contributor, too—the mechanically related Hummer EV pickup uses a massive 212-kWh pack.
Harvey also stated that the 2024 Silverado EV WT will be offered in two range specifications, and the 450-mile version represents the longer-range option. Yes, that means the most basic Silverado EV WT won’t be a 450-mile upset on wheels, necessarily, but we’ll withhold judgment until the least-expensive version’s EPA estimates come out.
For now, only the 450 mile range option will be available during launch, suggestive that at first, you won’t be able to buy a Silverado EV with the claimed $41,000-ish base price. (The RST version of the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV is also on schedule for production this fall.) How much more the 450-mile version will cost is a mystery, for now, but Ford has left a yawning window of price opportunity with its year of steady MSRP hikes on Lightnings. An entry-level Lightning Pro, equivalent to the WT spec, now costs just over $61,000. And that version gets a mere 220 miles of EPA-estimated driving range. Again, to get the bigger battery with up to 320 miles of range, one must spend at least $80K and move beyond the Pro trim to an XLT.
So, unless Chevy plans to charge double the base MSRP for a Silverado EV WT with the bigger, 450-mile battery, it seems the company will easily be able to undercut its crosstown rival’s electric truck, while still taking all comers in the space when it comes to range.
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