General Motors has assigned Josh Tavel, chief engineer for the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Cadillac ELR, to develop the automaker’s upcoming electric pickup truck.
Tavel is an experienced GM engineer that began his career with the company in Wisconsin working as a quality engineer at a production plant. He then managed ride and handling, foundation, brakes and chassis controls on a variety projects before being awarded his first chief engineer role in the way of the first-generation Chevrolet Cruze Diesel. Tavel then served as engineering lead for the ELR and Bolt EV programs.
Ford recently announced that its fully electric F-150 would arrive before 2022. GM is taking its time in bringing its battery electric truck to market, though, and isn’t expected to launch for another few years or so. GM president Mark Reuss also said that engineering it would “take some time,” as GM wants it to have equal range, performance and cost to an ICE pickup.
Both Ford and GM will be beat to market by startup Rivian, however, which debuted its R1T electric pickup concept earlier this year. The R1T, which offers a 180 kWh battery delivering up to 400 miles of range, is expected to go on sale for the 2021 model year. The company has already been spotted testing working prototypes for the R1T, as well.
Ford is also believed to be working on a plug-in hybrid F-150. GM won’t be competing in this space, however, as the automaker recently said it would no longer make hybrid vehicles, citing high development costs and low demand. Ford, which recently axed many of its passenger vehicles in North America, says it is “playing to its strengths,” in focusing on pickups and trying to introduce a large variety of F-150 variants.
Stay tuned for continued updates on the GM electric pickup truck program and be sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevrolet Silverado news, Chevrolet news, GMC Sierra news, GMC news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Source: Reuters
Comments
Use the Volt and make a mini truck. Would be great for commuter and local delivery truck.
No they worn’t. GM has already decided to abandon the hybrid market. Ford will continue to produce hybrids, and they are much better than the import hybrids. Even the Fusion Hybrid (which was a competition to the Chevy Volt) sells better than the Toyota Prius during several months a year.
Ford is discontinuing the Fusion after 2020. After that, the brand will have exactly 1 hybrid vehicle (Explorer). It seems like Ford is slowly abandoning the hybrid market as well.
Actually according to a recent Conference in the EU Ford is introducing Hybrid Versions of all their vehicles in the coming years.
check out Via Motors. They did that for a full sized pickup. I believe that group was started by people who worked on the developing the Volt.
The Ford F-150 won’t be so late as described. They have demonstrated one prototype EV F-150 pulling a 1.2 million pound train. It will be a 2021 model, so it begins selling sooner than any other EV brand because it will reuse the top selling truck platform.
GM should begin converting the Colorado to an electric first before doing the Silverado. The Bolt EV power train can fir the Colorado in months, and be ready by 2020.
One has to wonder whether ZEV should be electric and not a gasoline or diesel fuel cell hybrid given that the US National Power Grid or it’s counterparts in Europe do not have the capacity to recharge millions of electric vehicles; a fuel cell that converts gasoline or diesel into electricity would offer the same exhaust as Hydrogen while being able to keep the infrastructure of day especially as gas stations will be necessary to power legacy vehicles.
You are very mistaken about the grid capacity. There are many gigawatts of surplus power during the night, and one EV charge overnight uses as much power as a small air conditioning unit (search and see for yourself). Besides, the utilities would love to sell that excess power at a discount to you if you register your EV with some of them! Don’t believe me? Just ask some of the Chevy Volt owners! Visit EV sites and read even more, or ask your own power utility company.
I think the easiest way is Traverse platform customization to have truck and CUV. This probably bring weight savings compared to the BOF approach.
The key is going to be how well it executes the skateboard approach and make use of the free space. Frunk is a must .Grill less design is also a must and its a direction set for future. Interior space utilization, quality and functional interior is also a must. For CUV , its 7 Adults + 7 suitcases (30 inch ) + 1 carryover bag ( frunk ). DC Fast charge , Battery swap-able other safety tech should be standard . It should have great drive feel and Tesla like acceleration ( WOW factor is the must at this moment for EV to sell )
It will be interesting to see they go with dual motor awd or 4 motors ( one motor for every wheel )
Another must is he has to leave his current practices and truck needs to have the WOW factor. Don’t make a 15k looking car for 40k worth car ( ex: bolt ) . Don’t give cheap interior ( BOLT ) . A skate board needs to be a skateboard ( like tesla not like BOLT ). People pay money for WOW factor, not just for the tech.
BTW : I remember they engineers Siliverado to have 6 power trains including hybrid, EV and Fuel-cell. Can’t they reuse it ??
Let me guess..
Double the size and add a bed.
Scrambling to compete when you should have offered these kinds of vehicles 30 years ago.
Same can be said for the C8 Vette which is currently not hybrid..
Rear ICE front electric ..regen..torque vectoring..its not rocket science.
The same guy that designed that ugly little turd of a car, The Bolt, is going to build an ugly little turd of a truck. I wonder if it will have the same appeal to truck drivers as the Bolt has to EV buyers.
30 years ago? Who was building all electric trucks back then? Were there even a strong litium-ion batteries to do that back then? EV1 had lead- batteries, and these S-10 all electric truck had these same. As for being behind, they are going to be a very pricey trucks, selling in small numbers. Ford hybrid truck ins coming out first, then there all electric tuck.
GM just had a massive recall for brakes on trucks. You would think with all that “experience” they should have figured out brakes and by now I would have expected GM to get their paint to stay on.
GM doesn’t build the breaks. Their Suppliers do. If issues are found they fix them. Sometimes they don’t show in testing. I actually applaud GM in being much more proactive in recalls than in the past.
Blaming a supplier is not an explanation, it is an excuse.
For gm is about hindsight years from now they will be like if we only made our hybrids like the competition…we would have sold more… if only we had done a better job.. we created the tech, we were leaders, we pioneered, …but but we never really put a good effort like ….Toyota, honda, tesla
BEV3 chassis, it’s going to be on that.
BEV3 is a CUV platform. T1XX was designed to support vehicle electrification. So this will literally likely be an electric Silverado.
BEV3 chassis future gm electric car’s/models, Gm first too have full hybrid drivetrain on there SUV’s and Full size trucks.
They’re already in the competitors’ mirror….