The 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali. In Max Power mode, the vehicle produces 754 horsepower and 785 lb-ft of torque.Doug Firby/The Globe and Mail
The 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, unveiled Thursday, looks like a truck and hauls like a truck, but in critical ways could not be more different from work-and-play vehicles the Detroit Three have been selling for decades.
This battery-electric vehicle joins its siblings from General Motors Co., the Hummer EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV, to be built on the company’s Ultium platform and all three are scheduled hit Canadian dealerships in the coming three years.
This from-the-ground-up rethink of the pickup truck is also a head-on competitor to Ford’s F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup and upstart Rivian’s R1T pickup.
Open the cover on this book and you’ll find a very different story than the traditional pickup-truck tale. Under the “hood,” a generous storage space (about 255 litres) invites you to pack your cooler in a place where we’re used to seeing an engine. The separated cab and cargo box configuration typical in full-sized trucks has been replaced with a single unit that looks like unibody construction, where the body of the vehicle also serves as the frame, but GM insists is not.
“You can’t fit the battery between the frame rails,” Andy Oury, GM’s lead engineer for new high-voltage battery packs, said during a media briefing in Birmingham, Mich. Instead, the UItium platform itself acts as a frame, providing much of the truck’s structural rigidity. GM claims the structure is as a strong as a frame-based truck.
Nichole Kraatz, GM’s chief engineer for full-size pickup EVs, calls the hybrid design “ultibody,” meaning it is a hybrid of unibody and full-frame vehicles. Among the benefits is the ability to extend cargo space by opening a “mid-gate” located between the box and rear seat.
Arriving later than archrival Ford’s EV truck, which appeared in April, the GMC aims at one-upmanship. GM estimates range at 640 kilometres, outpacing the Lightning’s 515 kilometres with its biggest battery pack.
The 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali comes with a 255 litres of storage space under the 'hood.'
With the mid-gate open and the tailgate folded down, the bed goes from almost six feet to almost 11.Doug Firby/The Globe and Mail
For Canadian cold weather days, GM recommends keeping the truck plugged in overnight. Battery preconditioning (or prewarming) can be controlled remotely.
Oury concedes that towing could degrade the Sierra EV’s range by as much as 50 per cent, depending on load. To ease range anxiety on long-distance hauling, GM says the battery can be topped up with 160 kilometres of range in about 10 minutes when plugged into a DC fast charger.
“In this segment, range is king,” Kraatz said.
In Max Power mode, the vehicle produces 754 horsepower and 785 lb-ft of torque. Driven by two electric motors, the truck can tow about 9,500 pounds or carry a payload of about 1,300. GM claims the vehicle will go from zero to 96 kilometres an hour in 4.5 seconds.
Adaptive air suspension can raise or lower the truck by about five centimetres. And Hummer-like CrabWalk mode enables four-wheel steering. The Denali EV sits on 24-inch wheels shod with 35-inch tires. The truck’s ground clearance figures have not been finalized.
An optional on-board power station, mated with the Ultium Power Bar, can export up to 10.2 kilowatts of power to operate tools, or even power your house (Ford’s Lightning peaks at 9.6). GM claims the big Ultium battery can power the essential needs of a typical house for 21 days – outdoing Ford’s claim of up to 11 days.
GM only unveiled the Sierra EV with a “halo” vehicle – the luxurious Denali trim level, which is at the highest price rung. (Prices on the Sierra Denali EV have not been announced. A gas-powered 2022 Sierra Denali starts at $76,598 in Canada; expect the EV to cost more.)
Kraatz says the decision to launch with the high-end model is one of the ways in which the GMC differs from the Silverado EV. She says GMCs are typically somewhat fancier versions of the Silverado, although the vehicles share common chassis and drive trains.
The front treatment of the Sierra’s exterior travels a much different road than its Silverado kin. The Sierra has a bold, snub-nosed face with a solid panel replacing the gas vehicle’s radiator grille. The only ventilation louvres sit low, allowing air in to cool the battery and electric motors. LED accent lamps are set on the fender corners, arching up like Dumbledore’s eyebrows. The high-low beam headlamps are mounted way down at bumper level, for improved visibility.
The truck’s interior is also markedly different from the Silverado, says Phillip Kucera, the Sierra EV’s design manager. Quilted leather seat backs and open-pore wood accents contribute to the design. With a flat floor, made possible by the absence of mechanicals underneath, there is room for a cavernous centre console, which includes a wireless phone charger. Overhead, a panoramic fixed-glass roof is infrared reflective.
The centre infotainment screen is almost Tesla-scale in size at 16.8 inches. A 14-inch head-up display is standard.
As is common with trucks that are intended more for recreation than work, the Denali Edition 1 comes in crew-cab only, and with a relatively small rear cargo box. It’s just 1.8 metres (just under six feet) long, although the company notes that with the mid-gate down and the tail gate lowered, the space can be stretched to 3.3 metres (almost 11 feet).
U.S. dealers will start accepting orders for the 2024 model in October, but Canadian dealers will not. A launch date for Canada has not been set and GM says the first model Canadians will be able to buy is the 2025 model. The Denali trim will be the only option available at that time.
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