Chevy Silverado EV will offer four-wheel steering

Chevy Silverado EV will offer four-wheel steering
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With lots of curbs and rules being laid on gas and diesel-powered vehicles, pickup trucks are finally going electric. And the latest entrant into the EV pickup truck space is the Chevrolet Silverado. Yup, you read that right. The Silverado will be offered in an EV guise from 2022 while Chevy will continue to offer the truck with conventional combustion engines.

Now, pickup trucks are all about customization and building them as per your purpose. Let's say if you own a Silverado, you can buy Chevy Silverado accessories from the dealership or aftermarket and tweak it the way you want. However, many people still tend to be apprehensive about customizations and modifications when it comes to EVs. But that's not quite the case. EVs can be tweaked and customized as well. Moreover, EVs typically come equipped with a long list of factory-fitted features so that you don't have to add something extra to improve the performance and capabilities.

Take the example of the new electric Silverado that's all set to launch. Chevy recently revealed that the Silverado EV will feature a four-wheel steering system. Four-wheel steering has been making it into more and more cars recently and some trucks in the past, like in the early 2000s, had this feature as well. Now, with the electric powertrain, four-wheel steering is all set to return to the Silverado. The four-wheel steering will simply make the Silverado EV much more maneuverable and off-road capable than its ICE-powered variant.

GMC had recently announced that the 2022 Hummer EV will be getting a feature called 'CrabWalk' that will let the truck move diagonally and crawl at low speeds. The CrabWalk mode is a good example of how EVs can flexibly be tweaked with such features and offer enhanced capabilities and better off-roading prowess.

The new Silverado EV will share its architecture with the Hummer EV and utilize the Ultium modular battery system. The Silverado EV will have better range than the Hummer and Chevy has claimed that the truck can clock up to around 400 miles. However, there are speculations that the four-wheel steering system on the Silverado will be limited to the higher and off-road trims of the truck. Although, in our opinion, it should make it to base spec trims as well as it will give yet another reason for buyers to opt for an EV pickup than an ICE-powered pickup.

The launch of the Silverado EV comes in the light of GM's aspiration of cutting down tailpipes from its lineup by 2035. That said, GM has said that the heavy-duty line-up will still be offered with gas and diesel engines, for a while, and has no plan of electrifying them any time soon. So, the Silverado 2500 and 3500 will not be getting an EV iteration.

GM recently revamped its Detroit area factory for facilitating the manufacture of EVs. The Silverado EV and the Hummer EV will be built in the same factory called 'Factory Zero'. GM has dedicated this part of the factory to building EVs.

GM is also working really hard with its fleet EV business, BrightDrop. The newly set up business unit in Silicon Valley aims to develop an integrated environment for commercial vehicles. With BrightDrop, GM is working on building an ecosystem of electric first-to-last-mile products, software, and services. Although the Silverado isn't a direct product of BrightDrop, it sure will benefit from its services and charging station infrastructure.

The four-wheel steering system on the Silverado EV will not just enhance its off-road capabilities but also make it more-city friendly. A four-wheel steering system will help the truck reduce its turning radius significantly which will further help it to navigate through tight spots in the city with ease. Better maneuverability around the town means that more and more people will be using the truck for last-mile deliveries and services. So, even if the acclaimed 400-mile range may seem a little low for the long hauls, this truck can very well prove to be a great buy if you intend to use it around the city,

The Silverado EV is pitched up against the likes of the Ford -150 Lightning and the RAM 1500 EV. And even if Chevy appears to be a little late to the light-duty EV pickup truck party, it looks to come in with all guns blazing, loaded with advanced tech and features. Not just that, the Chevy truck beats the Ford F-150 Lightning in terms of range fair and square. 

The Ford truck targets to achieve a range of 300 miles while GM has already declared that the Silverado EV will haul up to 400 miles on a single charge. Chevy is yet to reveal the whole list of features and the four-wheel steering system was just teased in a video Chevy recently uploaded on the website. However, it looks to be a very promising package and we'll have to wait and watch for all the new and interesting stuff the GM plans to load in on the Silverado EV.

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