We’ve now had our first have a look at the 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1, the launch model of the most recent massive electrical truck primarily based on the GM Ultium structure used for a rising vary of EVs in a number of sizes and classes. The overwhelming majority of these fashions haven’t hit the street but, however the cadence of bulletins continues, together with that for the Sierra’s subsequent of kin, the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV.
Different automakers have fast-forwarded plans for extra electrical vans as nicely. Plans are already afoot for Ford’s next-generation, high-volume electrical truck, and GM might also be planning a smaller Hummer pickup for the GMC model. After all, there’s additionally the attainable arrival of the oft-delayed rival to the GMC, the Tesla Cybertruck.
This week, GM’s luxury-truck model confirmed hand-built prototypes of what would be the first of an array of Sierra EV variations that may hit the market by the tip of the 2025 mannequin yr. The design is all however closing, however GMC executives requested reporters to not contact the doorways or get into the car at a New York Metropolis media preview earlier this week as a result of it was such an early-stage mannequin.
The Denali Version 1 would be the solely mannequin of the GMC Sierra EV within the 2024 mannequin yr, with a worth round $107,000 and EPA-rated vary of no less than 400 miles. Deliveries of Version 1 electrical Sierras will begin “in early 2024,” adopted for the 2025 mannequin yr by each an AT4 off-road-inspired mannequin with a two-inch elevate and an Elevation base trim. Sooner or later, the bottom worth of the entry Elevation mannequin will probably be round $50,000, GMC mentioned—although not till demand for the highest Sierra EV trims has been happy.
2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1
GMC disclosed solely chosen specs for the 2024 truck, together with 754 hp and 785 lb-ft of torque in “Max Energy” mode, offering 0-to-60-mph acceleration occasions of 4.5 seconds. (The Sierra EV is not going to have the Hummer’s “Watts To Freedom,” or WTF, launch-acceleration mode.) Towing capability is rated at 9,500 lb, and it will possibly export as much as 10.2 kilowatts of AC energy. It’ll fast-charge at as much as 350 kw, that means customers can add 100 miles of vary in 10 minutes beneath particular, optimum circumstances. It’ll even be the primary GM electrical car with no “Push to Begin” button; it is going to swap on routinely when a driver sits down, in response to the chief engineer.
It appears secure to imagine the truck will use the Hummer EV battery pack, or one very comparable, since it is going to cost at 350 kw utilizing a collection/parallel swap to attach two 400-volt packs to allow 800-volt charging. If a 9,400-lb Hummer EV is EPA-rated at 329 miles, a Sierra EV weighing maybe three tons ought to get 400 miles from the identical 212.7 kwh of usable vitality.
The vans will probably be constructed at GM’s “Manufacturing facility Zero” (née Detroit-Hamtramck), and extra manufacturing capability will come later from the Orion Meeting plant in Michigan that now builds the 2 Chevrolet Bolt electrical hatchbacks which might be GM’s sole volume-production EVs this yr.
2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1
Visible restraint for ‘one of the best’
As with the GMC Hummer EV pickup that’s now one in all two Ultium automobiles in low-volume manufacturing, the “Version 1” model of the GMC Sierra EV will probably be a limited-edition mannequin with primarily each obtainable characteristic and possibility. On this case, it’s the model’s top-end Denali trim stage, which GMC is now chosen by virtually half of its truck consumers. The Denali fashions are “a shortcut for consumers to say ‘one of the best’” in luxurious vans, defined one GMC marketer.
That luxurious notion, together with the various upgrades wrapped into the Denali package deal, permits the model to cost 1000’s of {dollars} extra for a truck that shares working gear and dimensions with lower-priced Chevrolet fashions. It’s the identical argument that persuaded the White Home Auto Job Drive to retain the model following GM’s 2009 chapter and government-backed restructuring: GMC generates good income utilizing underpinnings already in existence.
Visually, the Sierra EV is extra elegant and restrained than the Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup that debuted in January at CES. Whereas all GMC vans are “grille-centric,” to make use of a brand new design time period, the grille of a car with an engine has been supplanted by a “defend” that varieties a blanking plate in a entrance finish that’s totally truck-like: excessive and sq.. The defend itself has a lit GMC badge and is surrounded by a lighted border. The daytime working lights sit excessive, however the headlights themselves—each excessive and low beams—are on the backside of the entrance gentle stack, virtually at knee stage. This retains the sunshine at an appropriate stage within the rearview mirrors of smaller automobiles it might comply with, GMC mentioned.
It stays a big truck, with the cowl of the Version 1 prototype virtually at chin stage on this 5-foot-11 reporter. Inside area ought to accommodate 5 6-foot-tall occupants, although we couldn’t verify this on the preview. The Version 1 will journey on 24-inch wheels, the biggest on any manufacturing truck, most definitely utilizing the identical eight-lug hubs because the Hummer and Silverado EV. A smaller 22-inch wheel comes on less-expensive trims.
2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1
A number of load-bay lengths … and crab stroll
Missing a conventional ladder body and physique, the Sierra EV additionally lacks a lower line between the field and the cab. The unibody construction has a 60-40 cut up “midgate” that extends the mattress into the back-seat space of the cab, with the cut up rear seat again folding down to increase the load ground. The cab’s rear window additionally retracts into the folding midgate, opening your entire again of the cab for taller hundreds. Mattress size is 59 inches with the midgate closed, increasing to greater than 108 inches with it open, and cargo size may be prolonged to 132 inches with the tailgate folded down.
2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1
The cabin of the Version 1 has a set glass panoramic roof, with an 11-inch digital instrument cluster in entrance of the motive force and a 16.8-inch touchscreen show within the middle of the sprint for infotainment, some car controls, and working data. Drivers can use as much as 14 separate digital camera views to place the big truck precisely, and all shows may be reconfigured to supply the motive force’s most well-liked combine of knowledge and information.
Among the many many options wrapped into the Version 1 is a pair from the Hummer EV that caught the general public eye in TV advertisements: the mix of rear-wheel steering and the “crab stroll” functionality of angling all 4 wheels in parallel to maneuver the car sideways at an angle. That will probably be restricted to the highest-end Sierra EV trims, in response to the GMC reps.
2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Version 1
Battery lag
The lag time between car announcement and the beginning of deliveries—on this case, 15 months or extra—is because of GM’s must get Ultium battery-cell manufacturing up and working at excessive quantity. With its joint-venture cell associate, LG Power Options, GM plans a probable whole of 5 cell manufacturing crops in North America, however the first of these—in Lordstown, Ohio—gained’t begin producing cells within the crucial volumes till the tip of this yr.
That’s stored quantity of the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq very low this yr, and it’s the constraint on manufacturing launches of the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV, Equinox EV, and now the GMC Sierra EV. All these automobiles have been proven to the general public, and extra will come, together with from Buick. In the meantime, Individuals will begin to see TV advertisements and different advertising and marketing for the GMC Sierra EV, “obtainable quickly.”
If the celebs line up, 2024 needs to be a giant yr for electrical automobiles from Basic Motors. Till then, the corporate can be delighted to promote you a Chevy Bolt EV or EUV.
