GM's Electric Pickups Head On: Comparing the Sierra EV to the Silverado EV

Speaker 1: Just when you thought you'd figured out the full size pickup truck wars, the things go get electric, and now we got a whole new set of sad battles. Nevermind F-150 Lightning. That was a big headline, but now we've got the twins from gm. Sierra is going electric and Silverado is as well. Let me show you how these two are often quite the same but in a few key ways, radically different [00:00:30] Now the Silverado's gonna arrive first. Chevy's gonna get the first version out in spring of 2023. That'll be the work truck, I believe. Kind of a basic model. And then in fall of 23, they show how they can flex with an RST version that's gonna have everything and be over a hundred thousand dollars. That's the blue one. You've been seeing all the images of the GMC Sierra Electric pickup doesn't arrive [00:01:00] until early 2024. What's with the big difference in timing there? Well, part of it might be that GMC from where the Sierra Hails already got General Motors attention to launch the electric Hummer pickup an suv. Sounds like some of the loves being spread over Chevy's way. Now Speaker 1: These trucks look pretty much the same, but then in a few details, really different. You can see they've got some of the basic kind of bulges around the haunches [00:01:30] and the front fenders and the cab lines and all that are about the same. Taillights are very similar, but check out the side and Threequarter view of the Sierra. It's got a lot more of these muscular sort of cutlines here and there, and the Silverado tends to be a little smoother, a little cleaner looking. It's just a matter of taste of course, but you can tell these two apart pretty quickly, side by side on the road. That job gets even easier if you look at their faces. The Sierra's got this big bold brand [00:02:00] plate where the grill used to be, right? Look at the Silverado that's got this nice elegant horizontal light line. Again, it's a matter of taste, but one looks real chunky and rugged. The other one looks like it's ready to do some work in the day and then take you to the opera at night. And both of them will offer a panoramic fixed glass roof pretty slick in a truck. Speaker 1: Now both these trucks are rated to get 400 miles [00:02:30] in their top range trim. There'll be many versions and trims as there always are with full size pickups and that same range. Makes sense because they're gonna share an Otium battery platform. In this case, it's a huge underbody pan full of battery modules and this is using the LTM technology that GM is banking their future on to fill that big battery. Both trucks will support DC fast charging and [00:03:00] in this case that's gonna put a hundred miles back in the battery in 10 minutes as long as the charger you pull up to is able to support the truck's. Full throughput of 350 kilowatts, a little bit of numbers and technicality there, but pull up to a good modern fast charger and you've got a lot of mileage in a short amount of time. But another way that's 25% in 10 minutes, which is roughly in the same realm as many other EVs that will say they can get 80% [00:03:30] of their charge in 30 minutes. Physics is physics vehicles charge at about the same rates if they're on the same kind of charger. Now this one's interesting. You may have seen some early specs that show that the top end Sierra was gonna have 90 more horsepower and about five pound feet more torque than a top end Silverado. Since then, Chevy has revised their predicted figures and now the two were equal, specifically 754 [00:04:00] horsepower and 785 pound feet of torque getting each of these big boys up to 60 in four and a half seconds. And that's using a special power mode that Chevy calls. Wow, wide open watts. And GMC has a more pedestrian name for maximum power mode. Speaker 1: Okay, subtle but important difference here. The Sierra has four wheels steering, which radically shortens turning. Radis great for a full size truck and [00:04:30] it also has crab walk mode. That's where all the wheels can turn one diagonal direction and the vehicle can move diagonally while still being pointed straight ahead. The Chevy doesn't have Crabwalk, but it has four wheel steering in the big picture. That's the most important feature to have. I don't think you're gonna use Crabwalk all that often, but four wheel steering you're gonna love every time you turn and both trucks will offer it. Small difference [00:05:00] here on the towing ratings, unless you're right at the limit of one of them, the Silverado's gonna have a 10,000 pound towing limit max at launch and higher limits with later models. But I'm talking about the first generation. The Sierra comes in a little lower at 9,500 pounds. Just fyi, if you're working the ragged edge of capacity, Speaker 1: Now both trucks offer interesting tailgates and mid gates. It's not too exotic these days to see a tailgate that can be [00:05:30] a tailgate or a step or a work table or an extender that holds things in the bed or two or three other configurations. However, the mid gate thing is really interesting. This takes a page out of the 2002 Chevy Avalanche, which was able to take kind of the back wall of the cab and move that as a gate to create a much longer bed that sticks in to the seating area of the back of the cab. Again, Avalanche had it, a lot of folks didn't really get it. Now both of [00:06:00] these new electric full size pickup trucks are gonna offer it. I think it makes more sense at a time when we are now obsessed with utility vehicles. When this was first done on the avalanche, I think a lot of folks thought it was just weird. Speaker 1: Once you sit behind the wheel, you're gonna see one of the real stark differences between these two. The Sierra has a 16.8 inch central screen in portrait mode and a much smaller horizontal squared off screen in front of the driver as the instrument [00:06:30] panel. And both are mounted on the dash in a way that says I'm a tablet, but I'd prefer the Silverados cabin with a much more integrated and organically shaped set of screens. 17 inch in the center, 11 inch in front of the driver, but all mostly landscape oriented and creating almost an uninterrupted band of wide lcd. And fortunately they didn't go full Tesla. Each of these trucks has a nice array of large buttons and knobs for things that you're gonna use a lot and [00:07:00] should not be buried in a menu. Speaker 1: And when you're underway behind that dashboard, you're gonna have driver assist available in the form of GM Super Crews. It's one of the best systems out there. I've always been impressed by it. And the version that'll go on these two trucks is super crew with trailering ability. That means it can compensate and calibrate itself for the weight of trailer you may or may not be pulling. That's critical because a driver assist system that isn't [00:07:30] perfectly calibrated is a hindrance, not a benefit. Also know that Super Crews was recently given a big mileage upgrade. It now can operate on 400,000 miles of roads in the US and Canada, a doubling of the previous 200,000 miles. Okay, now that you think you've got the electric full size truck space figured out, don't forget the wild card. The electric Ram is coming to join the GM twins and F-150 [00:08:00] Lightning. It was supposed to be unveiled at the LA Auto Show November of 22, depending on when you've seen this. That's not happening. And instead it's gonna have its big debut at ces the first week of January, 2023. And I'll report back to you on that.