General Motors said it has secured more than 110,000 reservations for its new all-electric Chevrolet Silverado, which includes reservations from more than 240 fleet operators, Chair and CEO Mary Barra said in the company’s full-year and fourth quarter earnings letter to shareholders.
The fresh reservations details on Chevy Silverado EV comes just a few weeks after the RST First Edition variant of the all-electric pickup truck sold out in 12 minutes. The figures also illustrate the seemingly insatiable appetite among U.S. consumers for trucks.
Ford, GM’s biggest rival, announced in early January that it will nearly double production capacity of its upcoming electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck to 150,000 vehicles a year by mid-2023 in response to customer demand.
The Silverado reservations signal future demand, which should have pleased investors, but wasn’t enough to keep GM’s stock price from initially falling after the market closed Tuesday. Shares have since rebounded and are up 2.54% to $54.07.
The automaker reported that it earned $1.74 billion, or $1.16 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared to $2.85 billion, or $1.93 a share, in the same quarter last year. The company also reported that it generated $33.6 billion in the fourth quarter, slightly under the $34 billion that analysts had expected and 10.4% lower than the $37.5 billion in sales from same year-ago period.
Sales and earnings were squeezed by the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage. However, GM sees rosier skies ahead. The company provided updated guidance for 2022: The company expects to generate an operating profit of between $13 billion and $15 billion.
Its electric vehicle ramp-up is a key piece of its 2022 and 2023 plans.
Last April, GM revealed it would produce an electric version of the Silverado pickup truck as part of its plan to deliver more than 1 million EVs globally by 2025. The Silverado will be GM’s third electric truck, following the GMC Hummer EV and the Sierra Denali. Production is expected to begin on the vehicle in early 2023, in time for first deliveries later that same year.
Last month, at CES, the automaker displayed the new Silverado for the first time. The EV truck, which will have a range of 400 miles, will start at $39,900 for the basic work truck (WT) edition. A fully loaded, four-wheel-steering RST First Edition, which we know has now been snapped up by customers, will cost $105,000. Both are supposed to hit production lines in 2023.
The work truck will be slightly less powerful, with 510 horsepower and 615 lb-ft of torque compared to the RST’s 664 HP and 780 lb-ft of torque. The WT will also feature a towing capacity of 8,000 pounds, down from RST’s 10,000 pounds. The RST edition will also have a range of technological advancements, such as a 17-inch LCD screen in the center of the vehicle and an additional 11-inch screen for the driver, coupled with a huge heads-up display.
Similar to Ford’s F-150 Lightning, the Silverado’s biggest competition, both the WT and RST editions can act as a 110v generator, with the Chevy’s max output of 10.2 kW, up from Ford’s 9.6 kW.