The pickup truck is now 100 years old, originally created by Ford by simply adding a bed the Model T. There’s been a fair amount of innovation since then, but mainstream electrification of the pickup truck is by far the biggest step-change the category has seen in a century. Well, that and truck nuts. The 2025 Chevrolet Silverado EV offers a fresh take, but like the Ford F-150 Lightning, it has to sway buyers from a traditional, tried-and-tested formula. Can it succeed?
Like a rock
More like a giant boulder. The 2025 Chevy Silverado EV RST weighs in around 8,800 pounds; for comparison, a non-EV Silverado weighs around 5,000 pounds, depending on the spec. As is par for the course, the Silverado EV is rather gargantuan, spanning almost 20 feet long and seven feet wide. It’s hard to miss the Silverado EV, especially finished in our RST-trim tester’s Habanero Orange paint with attractive 24-inch wheels, gloss black trim, and a front end more reminiscent of Chevy’s friendlier crossovers than its dino juice-burning truck brethren. The side profile is reminiscent of the Avalanche, with the cab integrating into the truck bed. It might look like a unibody structure, but the Silverado EV is neither unibody nor a body-on-frame design. It’s built on GM’s EV platform formerly known as Ultium, integrating the massive battery pack as a structural component.
Not your father’s work truck
Inside, the Silverado EV greets you with a cavernous cabin that wouldn’t look out of place in a seven-passenger family hauler, save for the sheer width. Dual 11- and 17.7-inch screens greet you with crisp graphics and an easy-to-use infotainment interface that never skips a beat. There are physical controls for the HVAC, as well as actual buttons on the steering wheel. EvoTex trimmed seats (read: faux leather) are contrasted with red and blue stitching, which matches the stitching on the dash and doors. Cabin materials are solid, but our complaints from last year remain: the sea of black looks uninspired, and the stitching on the dash still looks slightly uneven. The lack of ambient lighting doesn’t help, although some chrome-trimmed plastic tries to brighten things up a bit.
If you haven’t been in a pickup truck in years, the Silverado EV is par for the course these days. Chevrolet does offer a stripped-down work truck version, but this RST isn’t it, instead mimicking SUVs and crossovers in terms of comfort. Its interior tries to offer a premium experience; although it doesn’t hit true luxury levels like a gas Denali or High Country, the Silverado EV is absolutely roomy. The rear bench is comfortable and spacious, with headroom matching the front row, and legroom being incredibly generous front or back.
There’s a generous amount of tech in the Silverado EV RST, like the aforementioned screens using a Google-based UI with built in Google Maps, a seven-speaker Bose audio system, and GM’s magnificent Super Cruise working with all the active safety features you’d expect in a premium, tech-forward product. You also get heated and ventilated seats, wireless charging, and a massive 14-inch heads-up display. Sadly, GM ditched Apple CarPlay and Android Auto starting with their electric offerings, which I missed dearly.
The Silverado’s six-foot bed even gets some love. It features multiple household outlets along with GM’s Multi-Flex tailgate that can open two different ways. There’s also a power-operated, 302-litre frunk that can fit as much as a small sedan’s trunk.
We don’t roll coal, we fire electrons
The Silverado EV ditches the typical V8 in favour of a two-motor electric powertrain, pumping out a rather ludicrous 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque when using the Wide Open Watts, or “WoW” drive mode. It rushes from zero to 100 km/h in about four seconds, which is just wild for a damn-near-9,000-pound pickup truck. For reference, an empty 17-foot U-Haul truck somehow weighs less, yet you know how slow those things are. Towing capacity is limited to 12,500 pounds, which is a little suprising considering the power figured, but understandable when you realize it has to carry its own weight as well. Regardless, 12,500 is more than enough for most non-commercial use.
Where the Silverado RST really shines isn’t towing or even power, but rather handling. Yes, let’s talk handling in a 9,000-pound pickup. Because the giant 205-kW battery pack is nestled below the floor and centered to the chassis, weight distribution is far better than a traditional pickup carrying a giant engine high up and out front. The Silverado’s relatively low centre of gravity, coupled with the adaptive air suspension at all four corners and four-wheel steering, mean this pickup handles itself like no other. It somehow manages to feel smaller than the enormous dimensions suggest. Not only are you surprised with the comfortable ride quality, you get a rather unbelievable turning radius and some decently athletic handling behaviour when called upon.
Power is plentiful, but not as neck-snapping as the numbers would suggest, no doubt slowed down by the weight. There’s also an odd torque-steer-like behaviour that presents itself when you floor it. It’s as though the electric motors are sending uneven power to each wheel, causing you to have to manually steady the ship as you hit highway speeds. It’s not scary, just odd, as I’ve never experienced this with any other EV.
Outside of that, the Silverado EV RST is great at soaking up miles in comfort. It’s quiet and comfy, and with a 708-kilometre range estimate, range anxiety isn’t a thing. Mind you, it’s not that the Silverado EV is hyper efficient; it just features the second biggest battery pack on the market today. I averaged around 3.3 km per kWh, which is worse than the F-150 Lightning and significantly worse than the 5+ km/kWh an efficiency-driven EV can muster. Charging the massive 205 kWh battery pack isn’t a chore, as long as you find a charger that can take advantage of the Silverado’s 350 kW charging capability. This is enabled via a 400-volt parallel battery architecture that can temporarily switch to series, enabling 800 volts without truly being an 800-volt architecture. Neat.
Is this the future?
It sure looks like it, although the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST still needs to overcome limitations like towing capacity and better efficiency all around. There’s also the small issue of cost, with our tester coming in at a pricey $117,699 as-tested. There aren’t a lot of EV pickup options out there outside of the slightly cheaper F-150 Lightning. But if you’re considering a Silverado EV strictly on price and are drawn to it for its novelty, there are more traditional alternatives — like the gas-powered Silverado. It’s tens of thousands of dollars cheaper, has an arguably nicer interior with wood and genuine leather trim options, and is probably better-suited to do hard work.
But as much as I have a gas tank for a brain, I do think EVs are the future. Although pricey, the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado EV is stylish, especially in RST spec, and some seriously unique characteristics that no fuel-burning pickup can match today.
