Motor Trend supplied the photo. I haven’t seen an official name yet, but what happened to Chevy Thunder of the eighties and nineties? There was even a monster truck with that name. It’s perfect for taking on the Ford Lightning, despite the fact that it will be silent.
It topped popular news feeds, but that was a few days ago now. The new Ford Lightning was something I covered a few weeks back. It had good points and bad points, but all in all, after owning my last Ford, a truck with a 5.4 Triton under the hood, I welcome them trying something different. The Mustang crew cab wagon that no longer sounds like a Mustang? Well, that’s just blasphemy. Anyways, GM is promoting their electric Silverado now and promoting it hard. It’s popping up everywhere, and I guess if you’re into that sort of thing, it’s impressive.
The new electric Silverado will debut at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January. Details are pretty vague so far, but there is a shortlist. First off, it will be produced alongside the new electric Hummer using the Ultium electric platform, but it reportedly will not share as much with the Hummer as one might think. Being the company that had reasonable success using the same engine platform for the better half of a century, I’ll have to see it to believe it. It’s got a few neat features, such as the all-glass roof, four-hundred-mile range on a charge, and four-wheel steering. There are rumours that it can crab-walk, and there are even rumours that it can turn around on itself like a skid steer. I can’t wait for the first YouTube video fail of someone accidentally using that feature with a trailer hooked up. If it’s anything like the Hummer, and it sounds like it is, it could have upwards of one thousand horsepower. That’s pretty cool, but I bet that takes away from the four-hundred-mile range.
I’ve been fairly vocal about my lack of interest, enthusiasm, and faith in the big push for gadget-filled electric vehicles, but I always research with an open mind. I owned a Corvette with a glass roof. It was hot, or it was cold, depending on the weather. It didn’t leak; it just so happens that a single piece of glass doesn’t insulate. Is this roof double-pane or even triple-pane? If not, that heater or air conditioner will have to step up, meaning more juice is taken away from the electric motors. If it’s a single-pane, it better have some accordion-style cover to deal with passenger comfort in extreme temperatures. “EV’s for all by 2025”. I read that right on the GM website. Say someone bought a new pickup recently; what does that mean for the devoted GM customer when it’s considered obsolete, and they’ve still got four years of payments left? I’ve got many questions, and with a cold winter coming up, I’ll continue to hunt for answers to them. I don’t have to be too concerned about being alone in this, though. It will really hit the fan if Harley Davidson decides to sell a silent motorcycle, as that’s a sound that their customers absolutely cannot live without.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
