General Motors unveiled Thursday an all-electric GMC Sierra Denali pickup truck, the latest model in the automaker’s march toward a global annual sales target of 1 million electric vehicles by 2025.
The GMC Sierra Denali EV isn’t the first electric truck or SUV on GM’s new Ultium platform. It’s actually the brand’s third battery-electric truck, following the pickup and SUV versions of the GMC Hummer.
But considering the internal combustion version of the Sierra is GMC’s best-selling model, it could be a standout for the brand.
While the GMC Sierra EV shares the name and some of the looks of its ICE counterpart, this is not just a retrofit.
“It’s not like we’re really taking the truck and putting a battery in it,” Tom Namovich, GMC Sierra product manager told TechCrunch. “Once again, we’re taking the Ultium technology, the integrated cab and box construction much like the Hummer pickup and carrying that on further with additional purposeful technology in the vehicle.”
The full-size pickup is slated to compete with the Ford F-150 Lightning. GMC will kick off the model with a high-end Denali Edition 1 version, which will arrive in early 2024 starting at $107,000. The Sierra Denali will come in two trims — AT4 and Elevation trims — for the 2025 model year. GMC said it will announce other versions of the pickup closer to production starting around $50,000. The F-150 Lightning, which launched in April, starts at $47,000 and tops out at nearly $100,000 for the “Platinum Extended Range” version.
The specs
The Sierra Denali Edition 1 EV delivers an estimated 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque when it’s in Max Power mode. It can travel from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a relatively speedy 4.5 seconds and will have an estimated range of 400 miles. It will also be able tow up to 9,500 pounds; it’s unclear what the range will be when towing at capacity.
The Sierra EV will also come with an onboard power station feature with up to 10.2 kW of power that turns the truck into a mobile power source for a variety of situations. The company said that the pickup can power a home’s “essential necessities” for 21 days when configured with a bi-directional charger and offerings from GM Energy’s new Ultium Home line.
All trims of the Sierra EV will have an 800-volt architecture capable of fast charging up to 350 kilowatts. That means about 100 miles of range can be added to the battery in about 10 minutes when using certain fast chargers.
Just like its Hummer EV cousin, the Sierra EV will have four-wheel steering and “crab walk” capability, Namovich said, adding that the company has also further refined the regen braking on-demand feature.
Inside the Denali Edition 1 is a 16.8-inch touchscreen. The infotainment system will be powered by Google’s Android Automotive operating system, which comes with all the embedded Google services like Assistant.
The Denali Edition will also come standard with GM’s hands-fee advanced driver assistance system called Super Cruise.
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