Chevy built an all-American EV truck — why isn’t anyone buying it?

Even though I grew up hauling my dad’s Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck from the passenger seat, I’m not exactly Chevy’s target market. I prefer hatchbacks to cargo beds. But after cruising around Detroit for a day in a Silverado EV, I realized that Chevy might yet make a truck guy out of me.

The Silverado EV drives almost as good as a car. However, the bed is huge, wooden, and cavernous. The back seat has enough room for me to fit my damn long legs, and the cabin is quiet. It will power your home in the event of a hurricane, and it will tow, haul, and navigate the highway without a finger on the wheel. Plus it travels over 400 miles on a charge. This should be a great combination for American pickup fans.

However, it never left the showrooms. GM sold about 14,000 vehicles last year in the United States and Canada. The fossil fuel Silverado sells for 10 times that amount in a quarter. After my drive, I’m confused. GM may have created the ultimate American electric car, but no one is buying it.

Maybe it’s the appearance? At a glance, the Silverado EV resembles an old Chevy Avalanche, and whether that’s a good thing depends on how you feel about the original. Like the Avalanche, the Silverado EV has four doors, a short bed that can be extended into the cabin, and a “sail” between the cabin and bed, a decorative design that helps reduce drag. I thought an electric car sounded good, but then, I’m not a truck guy.

It requires a big step to enter, but once inside, the place is spacious and comfortable. Hit the brakes and the Silverado EV comes to life, with crisp displays dominating the lower third of your vision. The seats are great, and as with many EVs, they push forward when pressed with your right foot. At nearly 20 feet long, no one would call the Silverado EV small, but thanks to rear-wheel steering, it’ll make its way through a parking lot like a sleek hatchback. That is, until you try to cram it into a tight parking spot.

The Google-powered infotainment system is clear, crisp and commendably responsive. It’s not quite as fast as the iPhone, but it’s pretty close, and voice commands work well. There are volume and temperature control knobs and some HVAC buttons below the air vents, which can also be manually directed. Chevy still remembers how to do the physical controls, thank goodness.

Navigation is a Google service, so it works well. When I selected my destination, it displayed a selection of routes, just like Google Maps does on your phone, but with a new twist: Below the usual time-to-destination readout, there’s another estimate of how long you’ll be able to use Super Cruise, GM’s hands-free driving option. Don’t feel like driving much? Choose the route to maximize your time in Super Cruise. Over the years, GM has given many reasons for excluding CarPlay from its electric vehicles, and this may be one of its best arguments. But this does not mean that I completely agree with this decision.

Speaking of Super Cruise, the hands-free Level 2 advanced driver assistance system is as good as they say. In March, I drove a Bolt with Super Cruise and came away impressed, even though my time with it was brief. With the Silverado EV, I crossed the Detroit metro area during peak commute hours. In a truck this size, Super Cruise is almost a requirement, making driving relatively stress-free.

However, it had its negative sides. Keeping it on track can be a bit of a chore. Similar to my time with the Bolt, Super Cruise can be surprised by cars accelerating and crossing the road from the right.

There was an unnerving Super Cruise moment when a Silverado EV nearly collided with a dirty paint mixer trailer. Maybe the paint-splattered taillights have thrown the system? But in reality, radar should have picked it up.

Overall, though, Super Cruise helped keep the ride smooth, though much of the credit should go to the 205-kilowatt-hour battery pack located amidships. It’s one hell of a ballast. But also kudos to the ride and handling engineers, who clearly have their work cut out for them. As trucks go, this one is smooth.

Perhaps most impressive is the efficiency. I recorded a speed of about 2.1 miles per kilowatt-hour, which is about 10% to 20% lower than the average of my Audi e-tron, a smaller vehicle with much less frontal area to push into the wind.

Why slow sales?

Some observers have blamed the Silverado EV’s high price, but I doubt it. Full-size pickup buyers pay an average of $66,000, just $5,000 less than the list price of the Silverado EV LT Extended Range, which gets 410 miles on a full charge. (The LT Max range I tested will go another 68 miles but costs an additional $20,000.)

People also blame the electric car’s modest towing range, which is 60% shorter. Again, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The vast majority of full-size truck owners, about 75%, tow at most once a year, according to Strategic Vision. Presumably there will be 400,000 fossil fuel-powered Silverado buyers ready to make the switch. And after those sales numbers!

GM and other automakers appear to have misjudged the truck market, which tends to suffer from inertia, not the kind that comes from driving a 4.5-ton vehicle. Potential buyers are worried about range, shipping and probably some other things I’m not aware of. It has hampered electric vehicles in general – and pickup trucks in particular.

It’s very bad, really. Most of these concerns go away after owning an electric vehicle for a while, and the Silverado EV is a solid first draft of an electric pickup truck. With a little engineering, could the automaker squeeze some weight out of it? This would enhance payload and towing capacity while also allowing them to reduce battery size and reduce costs.

GM may address the cost issue sooner rather than later. The automaker has strongly hinted that the Silverado EV will receive an all-new, lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) battery chemistry, which will cut costs by about $6,000 while maintaining range later this decade. If these savings were passed on to the consumer, it would bring the price of an electric car on par with the fossil fuel version.

If reviews like this come along and lower the price a bit, I can see myself considering the Silverado EV. Too bad it’s too big for my 1950s-era garage. I will need a bigger house that will fit my truck. What could be more American than that?