2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST: The Fast and the Functional
The pickup is purpose-built to provide the functions of a truck – and it has a propulsion system that can provide more than a little fun.
YPSILANTI, MI – The American Center for Mobility (ACM) is a 500-acre (202-ha) site with a series of different types of roadways that OEMs and suppliers use for the testing and development of vehicles and systems.
Because it is a secure site – both in terms of getting through the gate and as a safe place to test vehicles at their limits – Chevrolet arranged a section of the grounds (grounds where General Motors used to produce Hydra-Matic transmissions) to demonstrate a capability of the 2024 Silverado EV RST.
First, you access drive settings through the 17.7-in. (45-cm) color touchscreen in the instrument panel. Select the Sport settings for the steering and the chassis setup. You could also select a sporty “exhaust” note, but that’s not required. Then you push a button on the IP to the left of the steering wheel that controls the ride height of the vehicle; it can be raised or lowered – the pickup has adaptive air suspension – by 2 ins. (51 mm) up or down from nominal. You lower the vehicle.
Then, back on the touchscreen you touch a virtual button that features an image that could be a line drawing of a Transformers toy. It activates the “Wide Open Watts” mode.
You push the accelerator to the floor. The 24-in. wheels, the largest on a Chevy production vehicle, are then propelled by the motors – one in front, one in the rear – that produce 754 hp and 785 lb.-ft. (1,064 Nm) of torque. And you work to keep the steering wheel straight because there is a whole lot of power on that pavement.
Chevy says the 0-60 mph (97 km/h) time for the truck is less than 4.5 seconds. You have no reason to doubt that.
Two things that should be mentioned:
The Silverado EV RST is the upper-level trim for the truck, as there is the fleet vehicle (the WT) that already has been brought to market.
This is a truck that can be used for towing (10,000 lbs. [4,536 kg]), hauling (1,500 lbs. [680 kg]) of payload) and even carrying 4 x 8-ft. (1.2 x 2.4 m) sheets of plywood in the 5-ft., 9-in. (1.75-m) bed with the tailgate up (the bed can go to even greater lengths, extended to 10-ft., 10 ins. [3.3 m] when the second-row seats are folded and the Midgate opened). And while on the subject of cargo, yes, it has a frunk, or what Chevy calls an “eTrunk,” that provides 10.7 cu.-ft. (303 L) of storage.
Features & Functions
The truck features four-wheel steering, which makes it much more maneuverable – especially in places like parking lots – than you might imagine it could be, given its size (it features a 145.7-in. [3,701-mm] wheelbase and is 233.1 ins. [5,921 mm] long, 78.7 ins. [1,999 mm] high and 94.3 ins. [2,395 mm] wide with mirrors).
It has a fixed-glass roof that lends a feel of openness, as well as providing more headroom.
While it isn’t particularly surprising that the truck has GM’s Super Cruise driver assistance system, what is surprising is that this system offers trailering capability (i.e., there is an automatic adjustment between the truck and the vehicle in front, with the size of the gap calibrated for necessary stopping distance).
Chief engineer Cathy Gillispie says the truck was purposefully designed and engineered to be a fully functioning, no-compromise pickup truck.
While it might not be for everyone – for one thing, the MSRP is $94,500, so that certainly limits the breadth of buyers – compared to the offerings from Ford, Rivian and, yes, Tesla, the Silverado EV RST checks the necessary boxes – and then some.
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