Having officially announced the names of its upcoming Conventional Medium Duty Class 4 and Class 5 trucks at the 2017 State Fair of Texas, Chevy also revealed a few more juicy details about the upcoming trucks.
For starters, Chevrolet’s initial announcement (from March) surrounding plans to enter the Conventional Medium Duty truck space made mention of only a single truck. However, we now know that the Medium Duty program being developed in collaboration with Navistar will result in not one truck, but two trucks. As such, the Class 4 truck will be called Chevrolet Silverado 4500 and the Class 5 truck will be the Chevrolet Silverado 5500.
Chevrolet also revealed that all Silverado 4500 and 5500 models will be powered by a Duramax diesel engine and Allison transmission, a legendary combination that has powered about two million trucks. The brand didn’t specify which engine and transmission will be used specifically, but we have a hunch that it will be the all-new 6.6L Duramax Turbo-Diesel L5P that is rated at 445 horsepower and 910 pound-feet of torque in the 2017 Chevrolet Silverado HD and newer. It could be possible that the boosted oil burner will be even more powerful in the Silverado 4500/5500.
Chevrolet commercial director John Schwegman stated that the duo will “stand out because we’ve designed the trucks around how customers work.” He also added that the trucks “will be “powerful, highly maneuverable, and among the easiest trucks on the market to upfit with specialized bodies, such as dump bodies, rollbacks, freight boxes and more”.
Furthermore, the vehicles will be available in Regular Cab and Crew Cab models with 4×2 and 4×4 capability. They will also be offered in a wide range of GVWRs and wheelbases.
OnStar with 4G LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity will be optional. The system is being embraced by fleet management firms to help improve safety and productivity thanks to the fleet management tools it provides, such as OnStar Commercial Link.
Finally, Chevrolet confirmed that the trucks will launch in late 2018 calendar year. As such, we believe that the trucks will launch as 2019 model year vehicles.
Outside of that, the Bowtie also used the Texas State Fair to announce the Chevrolet Silverado Centennial edition full-size and Colorado Centennial edition midsize pickup trucks to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first production Chevrolet truck.
We’ll have to wait until close to the trucks’ launch for more details, pricing information and pictures.
Comments
I work for a bus manufacturer, and there is HIGH anticipation for this among our Sales Dept and our Dealers. The new F550 has proven to be difficult to “make look good” as its truck sized body requires a huge front cap to transition to the cabin assembly.
So can GM now add these to the truck sales like for does?
Yes, they will probably count towards the overall Silverado figure.
However, Ford only counts F-Series sales as being F-150, F-250, F-350, and F-450. The F-550 and F-650 get counted as Heavy Trucks and therefore do not get added into the F-series pool.
Here’s an example of the sales reporting:
http://fordauthority.com/2017/09/ford-motor-company-sales-numbers-figures-results-august-2017/
Seriously doubt the L5P will get a horsepower boost in the 45/5500. GM has a long history of actually derating the Duramax when it gets put into larger vehicles…likely to enhance durability as the engine will spend more time at higher engine loads….and need to do it reliably for a lot of miles.
Yes, what you say is true regarding GM’s powertrain development process. However, the only exception to all that would be if GM developed two versions of the new 6.6L Duramax/L5P… one for light trucks 2500-3500 and the other for medium 4500-5500.
I’ve no evidence to support this, just a hunch given that the Medium Truck program and the L5P were developed side by side from a time frame standpoint.
I hope you’re right Alex
…having options (and horsepower!) certainly can’t hurt sales! I really hope they get this right…was sad to see GM leave this market when they had a great product.
When are these trucks going to be available, we have a 2005 Chevy 5500 with the Duramax and an 18′ box and it is starting to get tired. I’m trying to be patient!