An early adopter of the GMC Sierra EV, the GMC relative of the Chevy Silverado EV, is looking for feedback from fellow owners on social media about an offer he received from GM. According to his posts on Reddit and Facebook, GM reached out to him and offered to swap the battery in his 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali First Edition for research purposes.
The post says it’s part of a battery study, in which GM takes out the battery pack of an owner’s existing truck, swaps in a new battery pack, and throws in a $250 gift card to thank the owner for their trouble. This is in addition to the compensation of the brand-new battery and a vehicle loaner during the process. Apparently, GM just wants to study the gently used battery, probably to research degradation in early BT1-based trucks.
The responses on both social media platforms are very encouraging for the owner to take GM up on its offer. It’s hard to argue against getting a brand-new battery in your EV, even if it’s only a year or two old with only 25,000 miles on it. Some replies are skeptical of the real motive for GM offering to swap the battery, but on its face, it seems like a win-win for the owner.
If GM is making this offer to GMC Sierra EV owners, it’s safe to assume that drivers of early examples of the Chevy Silverado EV are receiving similar offers for battery swaps. GM is betting a lot on EVs, and pickup trucks are its most profitable products, so this could just be an effort to ensure the automaker is getting this product rollout right.
If you own a GM EV, would you accept this offer and get a new battery, plus a few bucks? What advice would you give to this Sierra EV owner? Let us know in the comments, or chime in yourself on his social media posts.
Comments
Is there not enough of these in fleets and the corporate office to get enough field testing done? A bit odd to get owner data, but maybe those outliers with “real world” testing are enough to pique the General’s interest.
Probably not Ron. Those corporate types are likely smart enough to drive a real vehicle.
I’d do it in a minute if offered…. We have a local dealer that does fleet business. He’s got 6+ Silverado EVs that have been sitting on his lot for over a year now, a couple of which haven’t moved at all during that time period, (I stopped last week and looked closely).
Those may need to have the batteries “analyzed”.
They should pull all the batteries out and replace it with a combustion engine for you. That is the real no brainer.
New battery plus a $250 card for my troubles? Heck yeah! Anything else they want to replace?
“research,”. That’s funny. Therefore you’re smart to take the offer. It’s a no brained..
As a previous owner of a 2019 Bolt that gm wanted returned (absolutely no issues with it) because of the Korean manufactured battery fiasco, I opted for a vehicle replacement. Gm gave me a 2022 Bolt that spent 46 days of the first 2 months (60 days) of ownership in the dealership service shop trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I had to file a lemon law replacement and eventually received a 2023 Bolt. This 2023 proved to be as reliable as the original 2019 car and I eventually traded it in for a new 2024 Equinox EV.
So my point is, I would do the battery replacement as long as the dealership had competent technicians. But I would also want to know my options if the Silverado was returned and started having both mechanical and electrical issues.
I would have to think long and hard about it considering how much vehicle disassembly is required. If I had a truck with no NVH issues and was tight as could be, I would want a written guarantee it would be restored to that condition and a replacement would be provided if after 3 attempts the dealer failed to restore it to that condition. To just issue a blanket statement of “heck yeah I’d do it” is foolish, IMO.
Rolling the dice with the OE battery is more foolish.
Getting a new one and paid for it to boot? No brainer regardless of what needs to come apart. I would make certain the warranty on the new battery starts at that date and mileage, versus letting them try to cover it with the residual of the first battery.
GM California resident. As my attorney says ” GM sues good…” I am definitely replacing my Denali with a Hummer EV when my lease is up. Long live the Lemon Law.
Even better idea for you Randy, Just buy a real truck!
Pretty smart by GM to learn and make better packs.
“GM is betting a lot on EVs, and pickup trucks are its most profitable products, so this could just be an effort to ensure the automaker is getting this product rollout right.”
Truck has been ‘rolled out” for a few years now thought the R&D would have been done already or is gm still “beta” testing these on the public?
And how much actual profit is there in this for gm? look at the units invoice, the dealer price, employee price and the invoiced price are all the same. Is he talking about gov money to gm?
EVs will never make it as trucks. You need DIESEL power like locomotives!
Locomotives use diesel engines to turn electric motors.
Great justification. Lol. Deaddinos4life!
Jimmy you get me.
I would love to discuss this with a GM representative to get full details. I would consider if they could guarantee that I am not out of my truck for more than a month. It is only a matter of time before solid state batteries come out with significant changes to range and charging times. I love my EV RST and only see them getting better.
You can get a good look at a cows….
I would decline. I would not want my new truck worked on for no reason. I have no confidence in dealership tech
EV trucks are for men who carry infant babies in those emasculating chest carriers while the wife leads the way.
Scared of a truck that’s virtually silent, as fast as a Porsche, can power your house if the grid is out for a couple days, and can be charged from rooftop solar? Why would a real man be scared of that.
Because it doesn’t feel like it makes up for their little wee-wee.
Noone who uses a truck as a truck buys one of these. Diesel power baby!
That’s what she said. Lol.
I have had my silverado ev rst for 2 months. I love it. I would do a swap if they are still keeping the warranty. Or extending the warranty. Also does the new battery have more range?
Oh Ian. My 3.0 Babymax can go 700 miles on a fill up. Don’t even need to google a spot to do so. Just pull over slap some dead dinos in it and move on for another 700. Thanks for buying one though. Save them dead dinos for me!
Fox did a study that fast charging costs $8 a gallon equivalent!
If you consider Faux to be a reliable newsource on ANY topic, Your wee marbles got cracked. Just had direct comparison of East KS to CA run, bought the Siverado and left next day… Volts beat Dino-juice by a bunch of Benjamins. (family both places- seen a lotta miles).
What GM is researching is HV Battery vs. software programming – are there issues?
A lot of this is still very new technology- and this research helps make it better for future models. What they find inside the used HV battery gives them a better idea of the software functionality and any needed improvements that need to be made. They’ve already come a long way.
I’d take their offer in a second – it’s a no-brainer.
The only thing better would be not having over spent on one in the first place!
First off I wouldn’t have an EV truck and secondly if you have to completely disassemble the truck to change I would say no unless I got a lifetime warranty.
Yep. Diesel power for me Mel
Let’s not call these abominations trucks. It’s junk.
My 24 denali ev is currently sitting at the dealership waiting for a battery replacement because of a high voltage system error, my truck has 4000 miles on it. I’m really suspicious of their Motives for this study offer, I’m wondering if they found a problem and trying to keep it hidden
Seriously I’m not trying to be dumb, I just don’t get why anybody would want an electric truck? It’s everything that’s backwards about having a truck in the first place. And they pollute more to make and fuel costs more than diesel because of the expensive to replace batteries you have to change every 100,000 miles when the warranty runs out.