Detroit: General Motors is making great progress in the field of electric vehicles. GM’s efforts to go electric, from the EV1 in the late 1990s to the Chevrolet Volt a decade later, either set new standards or failed horribly. They do both sometimes. The 2024 Chevy Silverado EV RST is now on sale. It is a strong, well-equipped technological marvel that will put Chevrolet at the top of the electric truck market.
When it was first released for company use last year, the 4WT—Chevrolet’s name for the cheaper, lower-spec work truck we looked at eleven months before—wowed us with its impressive power and range, but the RST is better for truck buyers who want more comfort.
Each has a range of about 450 miles, which is about the same as the WT’s range of 440 miles. The WT is a reliable truck for corporate use that won’t cost too much. Customers will be able to buy it this summer. The RST, on the other hand, shows how Chevy might develop the idea of an electric truck with its 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque.
Ford made the F-150 Lightning before Chevy, but Chevy’s response has more power and range, making it the best in its class. This makes the vehicle bolder and more similar in specs to the GMC Hummer EV Pickup.
The Silverado EV RST is the best in every number-based area except for power and range. The back wheels have 68 PSI, and the front wheels have 61 PSI. Its 4.5-second sprint to 60 mph is even more impressive when you consider that it weighs 9,119 pounds at its curb weight. But when you compare this to how fast the Tesla Cybertruck, Lightning, and Rivian R1T are, it’s pretty good for a racing EV.
The most important thing for people who are thinking about buying something with a bowtie on it is the price of the Silverado EV RST First Edition, which is $96,495 and more than most Corvette and Suburban models. For the future, you need money. Also, the Silverado EV still needs to qualify for federal tax credits, but Chevy plans to change that this year. The RST First Edition is the top-of-the-line Silvio EV right now, and it costs $77,000 more than the $47,905 4WT. Late this year, the LT and 3WT models will go into production. The Trail Boss will come out in 2025.
As an electric truck, it’s clear that it needs to be able to tow and charge. For 10 minutes, DC fast charging can give the Silverado a range of 100 miles. The fastest charge rate is 350 kilowatts. In the home, charging is harder to do. The Silverado EV RST can go 34 miles per hour on Level 2, charging for 13 hours, according to Chevy. This can be done with GM’s PowerShift Charger, which can produce an amazing 19.2 kW. When you plug the truck into a 240-volt outlet, you won’t even come close to that 11 kW that most home chargers can handle. To put it another way, 13 hours is the best-case situation. The problem with making a battery so big that it can power a 9,119-pound car for 440 kilometers is this.
Of course, if you have the right tools, it can also be used as a generator to make up to 10.2 kW of energy for different purposes. That is, the Silverado EV can help other EVs and even your house, just like the Lightning. The Lightning and the RST can both pull up to 10,000 pounds. Both the Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T say they weigh 11 tons.
But pulling something behind us wouldn’t be the best idea for our first time driving. No, it would be to try Wide Open Watts, which is often thought to be the truck’s least useful feature. It’s mostly used for launch control and gives the driver access to the full horsepower and torque rating (GM doesn’t say what the motors’ highest output is, maybe when they’re running normally). It takes about five seconds for the touchscreen to wake up. Then, hold on and press the gas. This is a fun party trick.
After the winter, when spring came, our trip took us through rural Michigan, which is definitely a truck country. And because it has four-wheel drive, the Silverado is very light and easy to turn and park. When it comes to how it moves, the column-mounted electronic power steering is light at first but gets heavy as you speed up. Even though Super Cruise is available and works as it should, the huge truck tried to overcorrect its lane position several times while on the highway. When taken as a whole, the Silverado EV is a pleasant and enjoyable truck to operate. This is because it has an adaptive air suspension that is more comfy than the Lightning and R1T.
It’s easy to see out of the Silverado. The brakes work well enough; they can be set up so that you only need to use one button, and they’re not too annoying for an EV. Because the WOW tests had a short flow, we had lots of chances to step on them, which is why the brakes were needed. In the late afternoon, we were driving on I-94 when we hit a backup around a bend. We were going about 70 miles per hour, but we had to slow down.
At a stop sign, a cement mixer came up behind us from the left. “Is that electric?” the driver asked as he leaned out. Yes, of course!
But he had to leave before the light changed and fit in with the lunchtime traffic. This story shows how the Chevy makers were able to meet a need. The guy who was driving the Silverado knew that it was an electric mix. Even though everyone has their sense of style, the RST takes the Silverado from its basic role as an electric truck (which was first shown in the WT) to something that stands out on the street. Air dams and splitters are used to carefully bend and shape the front end to reduce drag and increase range. For a more high-end look, the car has thin LED lights, and the hood is tucked over and merged into the grille to seal the “drunk.” When you look back, the EV can be told apart from the gas-powered Silverado by the Chevy Avalanche-style bent wheel wells and flying buttresses on the sides.
He said, “The Silverado EV has a different persona from the ICE Silverado.” Chip Thole is in charge of exterior design.
That came with some risk. Chevy could upset current customers by picturing the electric Silverado as a curvy option to the standard truck. In addition, it will bring in new ones. The Silverado RST looks different and ambitious from the outside, which lets it live with the Rivian R1T while still being competitively built. In contrast, the Lightning is hard to tell apart from a gas-powered F-150. It’s true that for some truck buyers, it will be the best mix. Chevy will likely win the design contest, but we’ll know for sure in a year or two when we look at sales data.
Chevy may have done better in the cabin because they were too cautious. The huge 17.7-inch tablet with lots of colors is simple to use, and it looks great with the 11-inch digital instrument display. To spice things up, there is red and blue stitching and red accenting on the vents. However, the materials feel cheap for a car that costs more than $96,000, especially the door panels. It also needs to be fixed. You can fit a big purse or baseball mitt in the center console, which has up to seven gallons of room. However, Ram and Ford show that there are better ways to use this space. See the First Edition from the inside out by watching my movie.
Even though the body is fine, Chevy has used a lot of new ideas to make the bed features. The Silverado EV not only has bed buttresses that look like those on the Avalanche, but it also has the innovative MidGate back, which is now called the Multi-Flex Midgate and has two uses. Similar to a car, it has a 60/40 split pass-through that lets you move longer items like the kayak shown above. This is the best choice if you also want to use the extra bed tonneau cover. The cabin will be sealed, and the RST will look leaner and more modern. For the second Midgate way, you take out the window, move it inside the pass-through panel, and then lower both of them on top of the back seats. In this way, the RST’s regular 5-foot-11-inch bed can be made 9 feet long. It’s clever. It depends on having a bed and body in one, as the Silverado EV does, but more trucks should be able to do this.
The Silverado EV RST comes out at a very important time for electric cars: right before a national election, people are arguing more about their pros and cons. This pricey, powerful, and comfortable American-made truck might be a perfect example of all the problems that electric cars are having right now. Perhaps. However, it’s also a great truck and an electric car. In the coming years, Ford will definitely make the Lightning faster and have a longer range. Also, the Ram 1500 REV will do amazing things. At the moment, the Silverado is the best electric car on the market.
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