It is unlikely many workers will be able to afford a 2024 Chevy Silverado EV Work Truck, the price of which just went up by about $10,000 – to $52,000 – before the first one has even been sold.
That beats Ford – which at least sold its electric Lightning pick up for what it said it would – at first. It now sells for much more, of course – after several increases in price during its first 12 months of availability (the word market does not apply when it comes to EVs anymore than contribution does when it comes to paying Social Security taxes).
Anyhow, GM had promised its latest EV (which isn’t really, being a re-bodied version of the Hummer EV it has sold a couple dozen of so far) would sell for $42,000 to start – and that it would have a range of more than 400 miles. The latter will likely prove to be as truthful as GM’s promises about what the Woke truck – for workers cannot afford a $52,000-plus truck – will actually cost.
In fact, it is safe to say with certainty that the promised range will turn out to be lie – because it is always a lie when it comes to EV range.
One preceded by a quibble.
Every EV comes standard with less range than is available – unless you spend thousands more to get the higher-capacity battery pack. But the available range is what’s often touted – without telling people what it will cost.
For example, the Ford Lightning – which is the electric truck rival of the Silverado EV – comes standard with a meager 240 miles of fully-charged range (only about a third of the highway-driving range that comes standard in the non-electric F-150) for $55,974 – vs. $41,530 for the non-electric F-150. But if you’d like to be able to drive the Lightning a little farther – maybe 300-ish miles – it’ll cost you $63,474 – the base price of the upgraded-battery Lightning.
It is likely it’ll be similar with the Silverado EV – for the same reason: To get an EV to go farther, you need more battery – in order to have the capacity to store more power (electricity).
That means a more expensive battery – because of what’s in the battery.
A gas tank is basically just an empty plastic shell with nothing in it – until you put gas in it. It weighs almost nothing when it is empty for that reason and even when it is full, it doesn’t weigh very much. If it holds say 26 gallons of gas – which is what the gas tank of a non-electric truck like the F-150 (not the Lightning) holds – it will weigh about 170 pounds (the gas weighs about 6 pounds per gallon; the rest of the weight is the tank, itself). This amount of stored energy is sufficient to propel a non-electric F-150 624 highway miles and 494 in city driving.
Without extra charge.
An EV battery is a massive block of plastic that is always full – even when it is empty. Electricity weighs essentially nothing – but the materials needed to store it weigh a ton, almost literally. The Lightning’s standard battery pack, for instance, weighs about 1,800 pounds. So also the Silverado-Hummer EV’s. They have to weigh that much – in order to be able to store enough electricity to go even half as far as a non-electric equivalent can on a full tank of gas – and they always weigh that much – because batteries do not get lighter as you use up the power stored within them.
Unlike a gas tank, which gets lighter as you burn through the gas.
An empty gas tank also costs very little to make – and so to sell. An empty gas tank is, after all, just an empty plastic shell.
An EV battery costs as much as a car. Well, a non-electric car.
And it costs more – again – to add additional capacity, to have more range – because it takes more of the stuff that’s inside the thing to store the electricity necessary to go farther. The cost of that stuff continues to increase as artificial demand (conjured by government forcing the manufacture of more EVs, to comply with the regulations) for these scarce and expensive to get/manufacture into finished goods materials increases. That is why the cost of these EVs goes up – not down – contrary to the lies spread about how they’d become “more affordable” as more were made.
We don’t hear that as much anymore. Kind of like “safe and effective.”
Then there is the lie about the actual (vs. advertised) range.
Kind of like “safe and effective,” the truth is seeping out about this one – as more EVs pass into general circulation.
People are finding out – post-sale – that the range they thought they’d bought is less (often, a great deal less) than what they thought they’d bought. Because no one told them that, unlike what they’re used to with gas-powered cars – which always go about the same distance irrespective of conditions – the distance an EV will go varies widely depending on how cold it outside. And on other such variables. Range reductions of 10-20 percent are common. That matters a lot more when you only have about half the range of a non-electric equivalent to start out with.
And because it takes so much longer to get any range back. 
Chevy says it will take “just” ten minutes to put 100 miles’ worth of charge back into the Silverado EV’s battery. But 100 miles of indicated range may be 10-20 percent less – leaving you with maybe 80 miles of actual range. After waiting more than twice as long as it takes to instill 600-plus miles of highway range in a non-electric equivalent.
Chevy does not tout how long it will take to instill a full charge in the Work truck. Probably because not many workers have the time it will take to do that – which will be in the range of 30-45 minutes.
Nor have most of them got the money. 
$52,000 – to start – is a lot of money to spend on a truck for a worker who probably doesn’t earn that much in a year.
Luckily – for Chevy – there are government workers. They don’t have to worry about how much electric trucks cost – or the time it costs – because we’ll be paying for it. GM will be selling the Woke truck to various government fleet buyers – flush with our money.
Expect to see lots of electric Silverados with municipal tags.
But people who actually work are not likely to be much interested in a truck not capable of doing much work, other than briefly.
And expensively.
. . .
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The young generation and cars…..
The Classic Car Scene has a language problem – And Ultimate Dubs is the future
https://geoffbuyscars.com/the-classic-car-scene-has-a-language-problem-and-ultimate-dubs-is-the-future/
Kind of sounds like a Canyonero – my all time favorite truck. Two lanes wide! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI_Jl5WFQkA&ab_channel=Hoy
Great comment on EV “work trucks.” Spot on. I still cannot find an article from the MSM that explains how much the average cost would be to charge an EV at home. 50% cheaper than gas? 20% cheaper? On par with gas costs? More expensive (if you factor in the time)?
Will my electric costs double? Triple? Stay the same?
What about amp issues? Would two EVs slow charging at home (at a typical 200 AMP service) cause other issues, such as if you want to use your electric furnace, electric stove, electric washing machine at the same time the EVs are charging?
Crickets…
Hi Pug,
Thanks!
As regards cost to charge: You’re right about the opacity of it – which is another lack-of-straightforwardness as regards EVs.
When you pull up to a gas pump, you know what the per-gallon cost is and you know exactly how much it cost you to fill ‘er up. With EVs – at home – you cannot know exactly unless you buy a device to separate out the various draws. But we do know that electricity costs are rising and that the cost to charge an EV is already at or near parity with the cost to fill up a typical family-type car. I know my utility bill practically doubled during the month I had three EVs to test drive, one after the other. Pete Butigieg conceded in congressional testimony that the average household’s annual utility bill could more than double as EVs are “adopted” – that is, forced on them.
No one is going to be saving money. Or the planet.
I was wondering how much your electric bill was going to be, Eric, after your EV testing? Yikes, no one can afford that kind of rate increase on a daily basis. Also, as much as I would like, I would not dare park an EV anywhere near my house, let alone in an attached garage, lest the damned thing catch fire and burn everything down.
Not to worry, Pug, Joe Biden is making sure appliances won’t be worth having anyway:
https://tinyurl.com/2davanzz
Problem solved!
CNBC: “Why the electric vehicle boom could put a major strain on the U.S. power grid”
https://archive.fo/7PGcs
Gee! Ya don’t say! F—ing brilliant, Sherlock!
“Electric vehicle boom”? That’s a laugh, considering most people don’t even WANT an EV, much less afford one. The only reason there’d be any “EV boom” is because of government diktats and idiots who think that they’re “saaaaaaaaaving the planet” by getting an EV.
Air conditioning puts a major strain on many US power grids. And no effort to increase grid capacity to handle EVs. A clear indication the idea is to get you out of a car, not to replace it with an EV that the grid can’t support.
Keep up the good work Eric
sold one friend a Hummer. he’s riding on 17 magnetic frequency (.1-4 considered safe for humans. another friend bought a Lyriq. at 226 miles he was stranded on the side of the road trying like hell to figure out where the flashers were. the dipstick from Cadillac who delivered this embarrassing bucket of bolts car was useless.
Many of us have been concerned about emfs and magnetism levels associated with EV’s, but would the government allow unsafe products? Oh, right. As for Cadillac, GM has not learned from the Hummer debacle that customer support is key when things go wrong. A missed opportunity to erase a problematic past.
The funniest thing to me is the thought of all of these incredibly weighty vehicles running around in the name of “lowering emissions”. In a world of ICE vehicles that now weigh as much or more than the old big barges of the 70’s, but are half the size (or less) of those barges, carry fewer passengers, and have maybe a tenth of the cargo capacity- now we have that times another 50%, due to the humongous batteries the EV versions of these techno-transportation appliances must also lug around. And yet the fools who think that driving these short-lived gimped obese Kirstie-Alleys-with-wheels are ‘saving the galaxy’ would point a finger (and probably a gun, but remotely through their delegated mercenaries, being these soy-boys are allergic to guns or anything that even looks like one) at me for driving my long-enduring Excursion, which when it comes to practicality is everything their car (or “truck”) isn’t.
If humanity weren’t in the process of destroying itself and the world could continue long enough, this time period would go down in history as the Stupid Age- a time much darker than the Dark Age. People would marvel “How could those people have been so stupid?!”.
Just think how ass-backwards society has become. The official right things to do, are:
1)Drive an EV.
2)Take the clot-shot.
3)Complete the ultra-invasive census.
4)Apply for Obozocare.
5)Pay ‘your’ taxes.
6)Visit ‘your doctor’ regularly, so he cna drug and vaccinate you with the latest gov’t-pharma recommended products.
7)Believe that a ‘person’ is what ever gender or life-form they claim to be, despite all evidence to the contrary.
8)Use proper pronouns!
9)Believe that all races and cultures are equal- except for Cau8casian Christian non-liberal males.
10)Vote! Vote! Vote! (Pretend you don’t notice the lies nor the fact that there is absolutely nothing holding any candidate to anything they said).
11)Prostrate yourself before any ignorant thug with a government uniform and or badge.
12)Get permission for whatever you do.
13)Don’t look at sites like this, because it’s ‘disinformation’ and not official double-speak!
Send your kids to government skools so that they will learn to obey all of the above without thought (Thinking is dangerous!)
14)Support Israel!!!!!!!! (And never criticize a Jew for anything!- It’s pretty much against the law now anyway)
Yes jews are super smart and they’re persecuted by dirt poor Palestinians who were originally in the land they stole from them but it doesn’t matter becasuse they’re awesome. For some reason. Yay jews. FWIW my parents were duped Christian zionists. My dad finally woke up to the fact that there was something “wrong” about the USS Liberty attack.
It’s hilarious, Mark3- There are more “Christian” Zionists in the world today than there are Jews in total. They all quote what God said to Abraham c.4500 years ago- “I will bless those who bless thee…”. -The End -(according to them). Funny thing is, even though they claim to be Christians as opposed to Jews who reject their Messiah/our Savior, they completely ignore everything that happened in the intervening several thousand years, such as God giving the boot to the Jews and kicking them out of Palestine; and Jesus telling them that “The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43).
Interesting too how these Zionists (Whether Jew or “Christian”) apply Abraham’s blessing to only the branch of his descendants that became the Jews….but not to his other descendants- the A-rabs/Muslims…….
Eric: I think this this is right on topic… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXZIYIaeduw
You should do a podcast or an interview with Scotty, One of the few Youtube car guys who isn’t “flipping” flood damaged McLarens, showing off that they have better cars than you do, or shilling for the EEEEVVVV promoters Seems to be an honest guy who lives in the real world.
And yes, you are perfectly right …It will be the Govt. and institutions supported by your tax dollars ie. schools, airports, Parks etc.who will purchase these pseudo trucks.
the hummer battery is 3000 lb, it will it cost $30,000+ ….lol
That’s O-K, Anon1- $30K for a Hummer battery, and >$100K for an electric Hummer? Just remortgage your house to buy one- it’s O-K, the house’ll just burn down anyway when the Hummer and one’s other assorted $100K EV cars and $3K ebike burst into flames. It could be a new sport: Bet on which one of your vehicles will kill you first! It’s O-K- after all, ‘no tailpipe emissions’…. (Just don’t be standing too close or downwind when the thing thermally recycles itself!).
Not to worry – government (unconstitutional) “money” will solve all.
“Ford Venture Gets Record $9.2 Billion Government Loan for EV Batteries”
I thought Pontiac made the Venture?
😀
Whatever that is on that truck is fugly! Walking would be an improvement. Does any ‘class’ exist today,,, in anything?
No, Ken… Can’t have class. Everything has to look brutal, ugly, over-the-top or squished and contorted and perverted or angry and mean. Kinda fits the current state of North American humanity. Can’t have anything to remind us what we used to have, or anything that might remind the public of the true utility and function things used to have, or of how they actually used to work for the purposes for which they were designed, while offering beauty and pleasantness. Instead one has to offend and shock everyone…just so long as you don’t offend the fags, trannies, cannibals, thugs, Muslims, Jews, or liberals.
I was walking around Barcelona Nunz. The only ugly, building built with communist architecture was yes, a synagogue.
Funny thing too, Mark: When I was a teen exploring Hymietown, I’d always mistake synagogues for banks or government buildings. They were always just square and bland- sometimes with a couple of pillars or other edifice tacked-on to the front. Always very brutal-looking and ugly.
Spanish Jews…..talk about the running of the bull….
Saw a Rubicam EV in the wild on Sunday. One. In a VERY affluent suburb.
*Rivian
Ars test drove the EV Rolls…
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/07/silent-smooth-sublime-driving-the-electric-2024-rolls-royce-spectre/
FTFA: But let’s be completely clear here: Rolls-Royce owners don’t really do road trips. 500-mile journeys are for helicopters or planes, and the owners can pick up one of their other cars when they land.
Back when I worked in Aspen every Friday afternoon I’d see car haulers line up at the Aspen Airport Business Center and unload vehicles. Once in a while there would be a nice Austin or Ferrari, but most were SUVs that probably could have been rentals, if the rental company offered armor plating. July 4th and Christmas they’d line up and wait to unload. I guess when time is the only thing you value the road trip isn’t an option.
Calling that thing a work truck is a lie.
The whole EV reporting/testing thing is like Elaine in Seinfeld, fake-fake-fake.
When I read a few blogs about EV’s you always have the EV lovers and the ‘next battery’ will be the best ever. solid state!!! And they believe……….
Here’s the kicker that no one ever talks about. If you increase Kwh to say 600-800, you ain’t charging that at home. And you ain’t charging that ‘fast’ at anything but 800v or higher systems.
fake-fake-fake = lie-lie-lie (and they know it)
Any pickup with a dual cab, 5.5′ bed, and bed sides the height of a man’s shoulder is not *remotely* a “work truck.” No matter the type of propulsion.
Great episode!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgHThXuheOM
Maybe she can be our spokesperson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k1tbf8muMc
That’s funny, I like the pull ribbon dumb feature.
How’d they get her to do that, or is it AI fake? haha…. if fake, it’s really good, even has her voice inflection down to a T.
sorry ‘dump’ feature………
Hey! Hey! That better technology that’ll really work (and be as cheap as dirt!) is JUST AROUND THE CORNER, dontcha know!!!!!
😀
The fleet vehicle aspect is key. Gov’ts at every level as well as other large non-gov’t institutions and corporations. These entities are top down controlled by a small cabal of the Left and people employed in such organizations WILL genuflect in front of the climate crisis god and the EeeeeVeeee saviors. Just like they wore the face diapers, took the shots, use the proper “pronouns” and worship deviant sexual narcissists.
It’s like gov’t and its private sector “partners” are buying out the means of production via taxation and printed funny money. Members of “the party” will signal its virtues, whether they believe in them or not, or they will find themselves outside the party, a la the proles in 1984. Appeals to safety, effectiveness, comparisons to the past, etc., all meaningless to them.
One butt-ugly useless electricity eating machine endorsed by the most celebrated useful idiot the world has ever known.
Trumps Alfred E. Neuman!
Trumps Trump!
Expect to see lots of electric Silverados with municipal tags. – Eric
I recently spotted an F-150 Lightning in the wild. It was parked at the Lower Monument trailhead at the Colorado National Monument. What made it even more distinct was the federal license plate on the thing. Yep, your taxes paid for that thing. It’s fitting that it would be stationed at the Colorado National Monument, since that’s probably the best case scenario for an National Park Service EV fleet. There’s plenty of power avilable, the park is very small compared to most and only a few miles away from Grand Junction. My guess is that EVs will replace gasoline powered vehicles in the very few unique situations like this (such as The Mall in Washington DC), then this will become a big talking point about how wonderful EVs are for the NPS.
I imagine the NPS could replace a quarter to half their fleet with EVs (if you count manager vehicles) and not notice. But then those vehicles will only work in those specific locations, so now you have a truck that can’t be moved to just any other location later. A two layer system that will become logistically difficult, and given the added expense of EVs vs gassers will increase costs even more.
And it still won’t eliminate CO2!
Go back and read the background of the first person to take delivery of an F150 Lightning.
He wasn’t even the usual media stretch of “jus’ plain folk … with a six figure annual household take home”.
Serious Deep State.
Just saw where one of my contemptible Senators, Rocket Man Kelly was bragging about replacing the NPS vehicle and bus fleet at the Grand Canyon. He is so proud that everything will now run on electric. No mention of the cost to taxpayers.
If anyone hasn’t been, I’d suggest going soon before it becomes a full throttle dystopian experience, 100% simulated behind glass. Which still wont even make a dent in C02
Time to pre-order your flying EV. Top speed 25 mph!
https://tinyurl.com/57htfhen
“Expect to see lots of electric Silverados with municipal tags.”
That’s all I’d expect to see. And, I’d expect to see ICE powered tow trucks hauling ’em back to the shop.
I can’t see much other market for them. There can’t be that many urban cowboy goat ropers with adequacy issues out there, that are also “climate disaster” virtue signalers with 6 figure incomes.
I was talking to cop while visiting in northern Virginia – I know, I know, never talk the cops! But we sitting in a bar and I started a conversation before I knew he was a cop. Anyway, he was telling me that his department got a 1/2 dozen electric cruisers. They’re useless. Kept running out of charge, especially at high speeds, had to be towed back, spent half the day sitting on the charger, etc. Now they’ve been relegated to ceremonial duties only. Dog and pony shows at the mall, parades, that sort of thing. What a waste of a half million taxpayer dollars. And that’s just one department in one town.
My former employer bought a few EVs (Chevy Bolts, I believe) for fleet vehicles. The up-front cost included a charging station that can also be used by customers, if they’re wiling to sit around a parking lot waiting. The charger station required a 400 VAC service to be run from the electric service entrance to the customer service entrance on the other side of the building. Then word got out that the EVs were no good for going to remote offices/customer service locations outside of the Denver metro area, so most of the manager trips weren’t eligible for EV use.
Probably helped the ESG score and generated press releases though, so mission accomplished!
If the EV batteries work anything like rechargeable batteries in other things, like cell phones, they will be useless after a couple hundred recharges.
People continue to find the money somewhere. I still see a lot of new trucks rolling around at the $50-60k trim levels in the hands of households visibly lacking six figure take home incomes so that’s probably why GM believes they will get away with it, at least until next Summer when the new CAFE rules kick in and buyers in the truck segment won’t have a lower priced alternative.
Yeah, Texas, where the truck often is the expression of the father’s manhood, granted, but the math has to make sense sooner or later. Repossession of current vehicle(s) as part of the finance package only works once.
Yeah I see lots of guys driving $50-$60k pick ups. They must be overextended but I imagine they will continue to do so.
We refer to those as “penis extenders.”
‘People who actually work are not likely to be much interested in a truck not capable of doing much work, other than briefly.’ — eric
Late this month, we’ll get on update from Ford on how many F-150 Lightnings it sold in the quarter.
Last quarter’s figures were pathetic — ‘teething troubles,’ as the Brits say. This quarter’s figures should be better … but still chiiiiiickenshit compared to liquid-fueled F-150s, the stolid dray horse of America’s pickup fleet.
An indicator of EeeVee pickup success (or lack thereof) will be F-150 Lightning sales as a percentage of all F-150 sales. Ford hasn’t even hit 5 percent yet. Without actively throttling conventional F-150 production, I doubt they’ll be able to exceed 10 percent for years to come.
GM’s Silverado EeeVee Work [sic] Truck faces the same constraint imposed by the dismal science of economics: stiff price, questionable range, and intrusions on convenience mean limited demand except from non-market buyers such as Big Gov and lots of Little Govs run by DemonRats ‘n do-gooders (sorry for redundancy).
Mandates will escalate until EeeVee sales improve … or the next Ice Age arrives, whichever comes first. 🙂
“Mandates will escalate until EeeVee sales improve”… Jim H
Sorta reminds me of the saying “whipping will continue until morale improves” 😆
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/07/03/this-rush-to-electric-cars-is-a-colossal-mistake/
Hi Stephen,
I’ve been trying my damndest to “hip” people to the fact that EVs are not about exchanging what we drive now for something new to drive. They are about limiting – if not ending – driving, for most of us. Many people do not understand this but then, they also did not understand what the “pandemic” was all about, either.
Easy to see, since there is no attempt at all to increase generating and grid capacity to make that work.
You are right, Eric. And after us useless eaters are forced to walk everywhere, does anyone seriously think TPTB are going to be driving EV’S? No, they will be driving the vehicles we once drove, and the luxury ones we could never afford. Like the dogs they think we are, they will have no problems with rubbing our noses in it, either.
Connecting the EV push to the “pandemic”, I also figure that the next time they say “lock down”, it will not be an easily circumvented suggestion. They will simply flip the EV master kill switch.
Hi Philo,
Yup. I am convinced the EeeeeeVeee push is (in part) to facilitate pushing the button… to Off. So much easier to “lock down” the populace when the populace cannot drive anywhere. Add some CBDC and they have us corralled as neatly as feedlot cattle.
Assimilation is the strategy for all things “A… 30”–bike lanes, massive cheap apt complexes embedded in former green spaces–and let AI formulate real estate taxes to drive poor homeowners to the street and renters to the curbs. Coming to a neighborhood near you… “You will own nothing and you will be happy.”