The Chevrolet Silverado EV, General Motors' complete redesign of its bread 'n' butter pickup truck, the 3rd most popular pickup in the U.S, is flying off the shelves well before its arrival on dealer lots next year. GM reported this week that it has taken over 110,000 reservations for the EV truck, including orders from more than 240 fleet operators. The truck is the second EV offering the company has unveiled. The first, the GMC Hummer EV pickup, rolled off the line at Factory Zero in Detroit late last year.  

The Silverado EV uses GM’s Ultium battery and will offer a range of up to 400 miles when bought with the largest 200-kWh battery, serving up 664 hp and 780 lbs-ft of torque. This first edition of the Silverado will also offer up to 1,300 lbs of payload capacity and 10,000 lbs towing capacity. The truck goes 0-60 mph in under 4.5 seconds.

The automaker may need to boost production for the Silverado EV, as Ford did when it was inundated with over 200,000 F-150 Lightning reservations and earlier this year had to double the planned annual production capacity.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra unveiled the Silverado EV during a virtual presentation at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. 

Barra’s plan of attack? Go head to head against Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV. The Lightning is based on Ford’s F-150, the most popular vehicle in the U.S. Both EVs have a nearly identical starting price, around $39,000, but the F-150 Lightning entered production a year earlier, and will start rolling off the line in just a couple of months. 

The race is on.  

One of these two trucks will more than likely take top billing as the most popular EV pickup.  

Both vehicles will have stiff competition nipping at their wheels. Ford’s other EV pickup, the new Maverick, the most affordable EV pickup truck to come to market, has already sold out before hitting dealer lots. Stellantis’s Ram brand will bring the Ram 1500 EV to market in 2024 as direct competition to the Silverado EV and the F-150 Lightning, along with Toyota’s Tacoma EV and another GMC offering, the Sierra EV pickup. More expensive models like GM’s Hummer EV pickup, Rivain’s RT1, Tesla’s Cyber truck and Lordstown's Endurance will take a share of the EV pick-up market as well.