When I spent a week with the Silverado EV last fall, I said it “has potential to be a winner, as long as GM takes a moment to step back and breathe.” It was a competent enough product, but not one that I actually liked. More importantly, I didn’t want a Silverado EV over a Ford F-150 Lightning; it felt kind of lost to me, like GM needed to walk away from the drawing board and come back with fresh eyes in order to fully flesh it out. The 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali is the result of those fresh eyes.
First impressions
It’s amazing how far style goes with how much we like or dislike vehicles. The Silverado and Sierra EVs are more or less the same vehicle, but the Sierra is far easier on the eyes. We were in unanimous agreement about this around the office. I appreciate what Chevy was going for, but the GMC vision of the same product is much cleaner. The Silverado EV comes across as sportier, but the Sierra EV’s straighter lines are more classically handsome while still managing to look appropriately futuristic, as EVs must be. I don’t typically love primer greys like the Thunderstorm Grey paint on our tester, but it wears it well.
Perhaps more important than the exterior style is the interior. After all, it’s where you’ll spend most your time, so this isn’t just a matter of taste. The Sierra EV is unequivocally better in every regard; I’d say this is only the nicest cabin in the GM portfolio I’ve seen yet, but probably in any pickup truck at all. It is so beautifully uncluttered and tidy, without dipping so far into minimalism as to look out of place in an American truck.
Interior design, comfort, and fit-and-finish
The dashboard wears simple straight lines across, trimmed with a striped wood laminate to warm things up and add an organic accent to the otherwise clinical, almost Bauhaus-inspired space. Technology comes in the form of a relatively wide 16.8-inch portrait display, placed smack in the centre for symmetry. It’s framed by very subtly curved metallic trim, which also stretches across the dash. Even the vents are artfully integrated without losing an ounce of efficacy. The Sierra EV’s interior is such a masterstroke of visual design, and so distinctly American Modern, too. I’m smitten.
The centre console is just as lovely with the same striped wood, except with perpendicular striping to create the illusion of more space and movement, and framed with the same bright metallic trim. Both the forward wireless charging tray and rearward cupholder slide away to reveal a massive storage cubby, itself with its own removable tray for smaller items. Between that, the armrest, and the door pockets, there’s tons of space for knick-knacks without breaking up the visual harmony.
It goes beyond looking pretty; the Sierra EV’s cabin feels nice, too. Gone is the coarse, rubber-like material from the dash and doors of the Silverado EV, instead replaced with leatherette on the dash, and a soft-touch plastic that resembles leatherette. The seats are the same between both trucks, except the GMC gets a far more intricate quilted stitching pattern, and I’m thrilled to report that fit and finish of these fine details is immaculate. It remains a sore point on the Chev, made worse by its garish red and blue colouring.
Tech: crisp, easy to use, but where’s CarPlay?
The centre screen is powered by the same Android Automotive software in all of GM’s newest products. Just like all of them, it works exceptionally well, with a largely intuitive interface and snappy responses that puts it among the best in the business. Google’s integration is slick, with Google Maps and Google Voice Assistant making life super simple. GM was wise to leave climate control functions on physical rocker switches on the bottom of the screen, too. The gauge cluster is an 11-inch displayflanked by a large heads-up display; both are easy to use and read.
There’s a couple small wrinkles, and neither are unique to the Sierra. First, it doesn’t have Apple CarPlay, wired or otherwise. GM says it’s useful enough on its own to not need it. I’m inclined to agree, especially since the couple of bugs with phone connectivity and media playback I saw in the Silverado seem to have been ironed out. Second, it’s still silly that there isn’t a shortcut on the homescreen to quickly pull up the Sierra EV’s many cameras.
Putting the ‘heavy’ in heavyweight
It’d be nice to have a shortcut for the Drive Mode selection, too, but I didn’t bother with this much. With everything in its default setting, the Sierra EV is lovely to drive. This is a huge truck that’s knocking on nine thousand pounds in mass — a third of which is the battery — but how they’ve managed to hide that from the driver most of the time is astonishing. To put that in perspective, the Silverado 2500 HD Trail Boss, a heavy duty truck with the big stonking diesel engine and the ability to tow ten tons, is 600 pounds lighter and you’d never guess it from behind the wheel. It feels like the heavyweight that it is, whereas the actually-heavier Sierra EV sneaks around that.
A full third of that heft comes from the gargantuan 205 kWh battery underpinning Max Range Sierra EV, and enabling an industry-leading range of 740 kilometers. There’s so much reserve capacity that it just got used for everything all week, wasn’t plugged in once until it had to go back home, and never at any point was there even a whisper of worry if it would “make it.” Even if you limit charging to 80 per cent to preserve battery longevity, you still have about 600 kilometers to play with. That’s still industry-leading, and leaves you with enough headroom to make use of its 10,000-pound towing capacity without having to worry too much.
Our biggest-battery tester accelerates briskly with 760 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of silent, seamless muscle. That number is kneecapped somewhat when not in Max Power mode, but I never felt like it needed more. The Sierra EV is so quick, it’ll make the front end light under hard acceleration and display some degree of torque steer. I see it as gentle reminder of the unstoppable force of electricity meeting the immovable object of mass fighting with each other underneath you.
How does the Sierra EV drive?
Most of the time, you’d never be aware of just how much the principles of physics are being stretched. It steers fairly precisely with little (but not zero) weight, and it’s aided by a four wheel steering system that goes a long way to help this monster be somewhat manoeuvrable in tight confines. This can be turned off via shortcut if you find it strange, but they’ve calibrated it such that it doesn’t feel unnatural.
Speaking of which, where a lot of EVs struggle with brake feel and the balancing act of integrating the regenerative braking inherent to electric motors and traditional brakes, GM has it nailed. One-pedal driving is a breeze that’s super easy to get used to, is easily configurable, and stays configured how you left it; how other brands have missed on this, I’ll never know. They’ve even integrated a paddle on the steering wheel that acts as an additional brake for really strong regen if the standard one-pedal drag isn’t enough. I know it sounds weird, but as with the Cadillac Lyriq, it’s actually nice to have the option.
I can’t definitively say if the adaptive air springs on the Sierra are dialed differently, or if it’s just the difference between December and July in Toronto. But where the ride comfort in the Silverado EV was pretty good, this Sierra EV is great even with tester’s colossal 24-inch wheels. Along the same lines, isolation from wind and road noise is exceptional. It’s easy to make the long hauls this truck is capable of, and it’s made even easier by SuperCruise hands-free driving. It’s the best and still getting better.
Final thoughts
This 2025 GMC Sierra EV is an easy contender for our Truck of the Year award. It looks fantastic inside and out, it’s practical and thoughtful in its design, it rides and drives beautifully, it’s quick and capable, and packs the serious range that a lot of truck buyers demand. At $120,194 as-tested, it’s roughly in-line with other top-trim pickups, and doesn’t really carry a cost penalty for being an EV. Regardless of what’s powering it, you don’t need to be an “EV shopper” to appreciate that this is a brilliant truck.
