A black Chevrolet Silverado EV RST First Edition. Nora Naughton, Business Insider
The Silverado EV has finally hit the market.
I drove the $96K First Edition RST, and it surprised me in a few ways.
This is an electric truck made with truck drivers in mind.
After a long wait, the Chevrolet Silverado EV has officially entered the electric truck wars.
I got the chance to take the First Edition RST for a short drive at a press event last week on a pre-selected route that included surface roads and highway driving.
On this first drive with the truck, two things struck me immediately: its size and handling. But first, let’s go over the specs.
The version I drove starts at an eye-popping $96,395, including destination fees. For all that cash, you’ll get access to the Wide Open Watts (WOW) mode, which can deliver up to 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque.
Silverado EV is also built on GM’s new Ultium platform, which the company engineered to underpin their next generation of electric vehicles. The RST’s roughly 200 kWh battery has an estimated range of 440 miles, which is yet to be confirmed by the EPA, while the 4WT work truck variant has EPA-estimated 450 miles of range.
When it comes to towing, Chevy took advantage of its late arrival to the segment to achieve some classic one-upmanship on the competition. Chevy says the RST can tow more than 10,000 pounds, which would outdo the F-150 Lightning Lariat’s 10,000-pound maximum.
Rivian and Tesla still have Detroit beat, though. The R1T and Cybertruck both boast a maximum towing capacity of 11,000 pounds.
Ultimately, I came away with the impression that the Silverado EV is built for people who love trucks — because of course it is. Trucks have always been Detroit’s crown jewel, but big trucks and SUVs are going out of style in the EV segment.
In the end, the Silverado EV was fun to drive and handled well, but it’s just too beefy for my taste.
The Silverado EV felt bigger on the inside than when I stood next to it.
A side view of the Silverado EV Nora Naughton, Business Insider
From the outside, the Silverado EV is massive but its trapezoidal cab shortens the look of the bed and creates a bit of an optical illusion that makes the truck feel smaller on the outside than when you’re behind the wheel.
I’ll admit, at 5’4″ (when I stand up straight), most trucks and SUVs feel massive to me. But I was somewhat unprepared for how swallowed up I felt when I first settled into the driver’s seat. Once I spent some time adjusting the seat so I could see over the dash, I was ready to hit the road.
I got off to a jerky start in the massive truck
A view showing the driver using the Super Cruise hands-free system on the 2024 Silverado EV RST. General Motors
Before I even left the driveway, I hit my first snag. I wanted to drive the electric Silverado with one-pedal driving turned on, especially since most EV owners take advantage of regenerative braking to maximize range.
But I underestimated the reactiveness and when I first took my foot off the accelerator to stop at the end of the driveway, all 8,500 pounds of truck flung forward.
I readjusted my sunglasses, which had wiggled down my nose in the jerky immediate stop, and let off the accelerator a bit slower to creep out of the driveway and turn left out onto the open road.
After a few stops and turns, I basically had it down. One-pedal driving always takes a little bit of adjustment, but it felt even more hard to manage in the massive truck.
The Silverado EV’s handling was impressive
A close-up of the Silverado EV badge Nora Naughton, Business Insider
Once out on the road, I got to experience the Silverado EV’s nimble handling. It was a little disorienting how responsive the steering was at first, as the size of the truck didn’t quite match up with the way it moved on the road.
Ultimately this benefited someone like me who’s not used to driving anything bigger than my Subaru Ascent (which I’ve still managed to sideswipe on the way up a narrow Detroit parking garage ramp).
I noticed this most as I nearly missed a hard right turn while I was messing around with the infotainment system. I took a hairpin turn at close to 30-miles-per-hour without incident and managed to stay on Chevy‘s provided route.
SuperCruise made for a stress-free ride on the highway
My view behind the wheel of a Silverado EV driving I-75 for me with SuperCruise. I’m using both hands to take this photo. Nora Naughton, Business Insider
Anyone who has driven on Metro Detroit’s highways knows how harrowing it can be to maneuver a large, unfamiliar car through four lanes of traffic among our, shall we say, offensive drivers here in Michigan.
But the latest version of SuperCruise, which has automatic lane-changing, did all the work for me after I merged onto I-75.
I set the automatic cruise speed to 73 miles-per-hour, and the truck maneuvered itself from lane to lane to pass slower cars and maintain my preferred speed.
Not everyone is comfortable handing over control to a system like SuperCruise, but I found it a relief not to have to swivel around checking my blind spot for the entire drive.
I’m still not on board with the choice to ditch CarPlay
The 2024 Silverado EV RST’s 17-inch-diagonal infotainment screen showcasing the native home screen. General Motors
I’ve been an iPhone user since 2011, but I’ve been using the Google Suite for longer, which makes me a bit of a dual loyalist.
My familiarity with Google products (my partner is a Pixel user) made it easier for me to navigate GM’s new Google-based infotainment system. But it still lacks the seamlessness of simple phone mirroring.
GM made the controversial choice to ditch the largely standardized Apple CarPlay and Android Auto systems for its own Google-powered system. GM has given a few reasons for this change, ranging from encouraging drivers to stay off their phones while behind the wheel to offering a more curated experience in GM’s electric vehicles.
But it’s hard to ignore the influence Tesla might have had. Elon Musk‘s automaker has never offered CarPlay or Android Auto, instead keeping drivers on Tesla’s native system where they can access or pay for apps, software updates, and other add-ons.
Overall, the Silverado EV is made for truck drivers.
A straight-on shot of the Chevrolet Silverado EV RST’s front end. Nora Naughton, Business Insider
After my ride in the Silverado EV, I won’t be rushing to my nearest Chevrolet dealer.
But I’m not sure I’m the buyer Chevy is after anyway with this truck. Like Ford with its F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet had a lot to live up to putting an electric engine in a stalwart truck like the Silverado.
First on Chevy’s mind will always be their loyal truck owners, and you can see that in the way they’ve built the Silverado. The best example of that I could find was when I turned off the music to test cabin noise.
While most EVs are very quiet, a fair amount of road noise made its way into the Silverado EV.
At first this annoyed me, but then I thought about it from a truck driver’s perspective. Someone switching out of the current Silverado 1500 with a rumbling 2.7-liter turbo engine isn’t necessarily looking for a quiet ride. They want to feel and hear their rigs out on the road, and the Silverado EV delivers that.
