Why Are Truck Buyers Skipping The Silverado EV? How I’d Fix That. – CleanTechnica

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

When it comes to GM’s approach to electric trucks, there was a lot for people on the environmental side not to like. The Hummer EV and the Silverado EV are big, heavy, and have giant battery packs. This means they’re more impactful than other electric trucks in just about every way. Plus, limited battery supplies mean that each truck is taking up what 3-4 cars would use, and even double what some other electric trucks offer.

But, when Out of Spec took the Silverado EV out for serious testing, it became clear that the GM way of building trucks has a serious upside: the ability to do serious truck stuff without a painful charging experience. For example, a Silverado EV was able to drive from the Front Range in Colorado all the way across the Rockies without need to stop and charge, and it did the drive without any degraded performance. While towing with a Silverado EV is still going to take longer than towing with an ICE vehicle, being able to go hundreds of miles while towing means a lot less delay.

You’d think that with this kind of range and performance that truck buyers would be all over it. With the possible exception of the upcoming Rivian with the largest pack optioned, it’s the truck most capable of doing the things people expect a truck to be able to do. But, the truck isn’t exactly flying off dealer lots. In some places, work truck versions of the vehicle have been cleared for non-fleet sales, given fairly low MSRPs, and at least one is now available for under $60,000!

How did the truck go from something GM was going to sell for over $100,000 to needing such steep discounts to get sold?

One writer over at The Drive has some theories worth sharing first. It could be that the truck isn’t being pushed toward a definitive target market at this point. It’s nothing like ICE Silverados, has Avalanche styling, and doesn’t seem to be geared to get any kind of truck buyer excited the way ICE trucks do. These all make sense, but I don’t think they really explain it all.

My Theory On This

I think the idea of target marketing is on the right track, but I think the latter part of that (the marketing) isn’t where it needs to be. The truck is plenty capable, and there are plenty of people willing to buy ugly doorstops from Tesla for $100,000. Avalanche styling is also not really a problem in today’s market. It’s just that few people know about the truck and what it can do.

For those of us who are big EV fans, we know all about the truck. Not only did several prominent YouTubers test the truck, but it romped the competition. The top videos showing what the truck can do only have around 1 million views, but the ones that cover towing have closer to 250-500k views. The word just isn’t getting out enough for people to know that the truck is a top performer.

Let’s compare this to the Cybertruck. Instead of getting around a million views, Tesla’s getting videos with hundreds of millions of views. A dumb video about “will it break my hand” got 128 million, for example. Instead of showing people doing important things that real truck buyers want to do, we have people shooting at it and whacking it with hammers (when they’re not smashing their appendages, of course).

I can understand that GM doesn’t want to follow Elon Musk into Crazyville and produce an odd truck with real-world features most people don’t find important. Instead, GM’s faced with the challenge of showing that it’s a truck that can do anything an ICE half-ton truck does without doing any ridiculous antics to get attention.

How I’d Do It

To really get the trucks selling, GM is going to need to make sure regular content is coming out that appeals to the different segments of truck buyers who might want it. For this truck, the company is going to need to appeal to working professionals, people who need to tow equipment long distances, and people who tow for recreational purposes. And, the idea of the truck doing those normal truck things will need to get out there over and over for it to have any impact.

When it comes to job sites and construction-type work, GM has already sold the vehicle to a number of real buyers. The key there is going to be regular interviews of real-world users doing that kind of work. Someone from the company needs to be getting out there and regularly collecting the experiences of people doing different kinds of work so that potential work truck buyers can see people like them using the truck to its fullest.

The same is true for long-distance equipment and goods towing. There are a few relevant YouTube videos, but again, the information needs to be getting out there over and over with people doing different kinds of loads. I’d imagine that few people are buying an EV truck to do something like hotshot work, so the company may need to find someone to give one to and regularly interview them and do ride-alongs to get that content out there.

Finally, this truck (especially its more luxurious trims) is going to be a hit with RVers—but people need to know that it can do the job and well enough to not ruin a vacation. This will mean a longer-term project with several people who will regularly travel that way and share the experience with the audience.

But, really selling the public on a truck that can mostly go toe to toe with an ICE pickup is going to require a departure from normal press car procedure. In a week nobody’s going to be able to tell you whether it made a good work truck, a good hauling truck, or a good RV tow vehicle. So, GM will need to find the right people to do either long-term loans with or a cheap/free transfer of ownership.

GM, if you’re reading this and think I’m right, keep us at CleanTechnica in mind. If I got a Silverado EV, I’d end up picking up a travel trailer for it and living in the rig about half time, maybe a little more. After a couple of years of making that content, there’d be no doubt that the truck does the job for people and has advantages (like battery storage) over ICE.

Featured image provided by GM.