Revealed: Hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Silverado military truck
A look at the stealthy hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Silverado military truck that is breaking cover.
General Motors president Mark Ruess says the automaker’s upcoming battery-powered cars will be sold at "very average transaction prices” as the company works to bring down the cost of the technology.
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Reuss was speaking at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference, and said the company’s electric vehicles will reach parity with its internal combustion cars “a lot sooner than people think,” Wards Autos reported.
GM plans to introduce 20 new fully electric vehicles by 2023, but the only one that the company currently builds, the Chevrolet Bolt EV, is a subcompact crossover that starts at $37,495.
The main hurdle to reducing costs is the battery, which ranges from $150 to $225 per kilowatt-hour across the industry, although Tesla said last year that it expected to reach $100 by the end of 2018. The Bolt EV uses a 60 kilowatt-hour pack.
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Reuss suggested that the cost reductions on EV tech and the increasing expense of developing internal combustion engines that can meet more rigorous emissions standards will equalize the powertrains soon.
“All these things and more will lead to greater consumer acceptance of EVs, plus they are going to be great cars,” Reuss said.
He also reconfirmed GM’s intent to introduce an electric pickup that will compete with the battery-powered Ford F-150 that is also in the works and Tesla’s promised truck, which Elon Musk said this week would start under $50,000.
No timeframe was given, but Reuss said that the electric car platform in development will be able to accommodate front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive. GM has previously demonstrated an electric military truck based on the Chevy Colorado pickup that used a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a large battery pack and has released renderings of a similar vehicle built on a Silverado chassis.