Half Price Chevrolet Silverado EV Is No Bargain After All
This 2024 Silverado EV carried an original MSRP of $80,000 and thanks to its down-market materials it seems ridiculously overpriced.
Tyler Hoover recently purchased a Silverado EV at auction for less than half of its original list price. For a 2024 vehicle with only 16,000 miles on it, that would seem like the deal of a lifetime. However, as he points out in a recent video posted to his YouTube channel, this truck is no deal. There are a few reasons for this. First of all, this Silverado WT EV was used as a rental truck for a year. So, it suffered through the typical rental truck treatment. There are dings and scrapes all over it, the paint is in poor condition, the bed is chewed up a bit. None of those things are terrible but it makes the truck look like it has double or triple the miles.
The far greater concern is that this truck feels more like a low-cost economy car despite the fact that it carried an original MSRP of about $80,000. Sure, this is a WT version, and WT of course stands for work truck. So, cheap plastics and vinyl seats can be expected in a truck that is designed for work and not for trips to the country club. But that $80K sticker price really makes it tough to deal with the down-market materials. Even at more than a 50 percent reduction from new, Hoover is not convinced that his Silverado EV is worth the money.
The Good Stuff
Let’s start with some positives about this truck because there are several. The first is the range. The massive battery pack gives this vehicle close to 500 miles of range. And that can be stretched even further if you are the hypermiling type. At 8,500 pounds this is a heavy truck, but that weight gives it a solid feeling on the road. The 18-inch wheels look tiny by modern standards, but they come with tires with huge sidewalls which make for a very comfortable ride.
In the bed there are plenty of electrical outlets that can power an entire worksite. With 500 horsepower on tap it offers brisk acceleration when called upon to do so. And the simple, vinyl-intense interior makes it easy to clean up spills. So, all is not lost here. This can be the right rig for you under certain conditions.
The Not-So-Good Stuff
The truck has an impressive range but that is because it has a massive bank of batteries. Why is that bad? Well, it means that it takes a really long time to get this truck fully charged. Think of a gas-powered car with a 100-gallon fuel tank. Sure, it will have a long range, but you are going to be standing at the pump forever to fill it up.
Another issue is with the infotainment screens. They look like they are nice, big screens. But they each have a large black boarder around them so the actual display area is much smaller than you would expect. And the truck overall just doesn’t have the technology and/or luxury items that you would expect at this price point.
The $80K Question
Is the Silverado WT EV with the maximum range battery worth $80,000? Heck no! Hoover paid just $37,000 for his, and he is not sure it is worth even that much. But to be fair, it probably is. A truck like this for less than $40K is reasonable. But once you start inching closer to six figures, this truck stops making sense.
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