The GMC Sierra Denali full-size pickup truck is going electric. The automaker teased the first image of the upcoming EV much in the same way it did with the Hummer EV truck — by only showing off its front end.
The square-shaped nose of the truck is set off by L-shaped headlights and an illuminated logo in the middle. The massive grille on the gas equivalent has been smoothed out — a clear indication there is no internal combustion engine under this hood in need of cooling. And it appears we’ll be getting some sort of lighting system that indicates when the vehicle is charging, much like the Hummer EV.
Other than that, details are slim. The electric Sierra will only be available in GMC’s popular Denali trim, it will run on GM’s Ultium electric vehicle battery platform, and it will be assembled at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. The truck will be unveiled next year but won’t go into production likely until early 2023, much like the Chevy Silverado EV.
The Silverado will make its public debut on January 5th at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. When it comes out, it will be one of the flagship vehicles in the company’s much larger $35 billion push into electric vehicles, as well as the first electric truck for the automaker’s Chevy brand.
But when they inevitably hit dealerships, both the Silverado and Sierra Denali will find the market fairly crowded. The Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning, and possibly the Tesla Cybertruck are expected to reach customers in greater numbers in 2022. GM’s electric truck production will lag behind the F-150 Lightning, which is expected to start in spring 2022. (Ford recently shut down reservations for the F-150 Lightning after receiving nearly 200,000 orders.)
The Sierra is one of GMC’s most popular trucks, with sales increasing 40 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2021. It’s also one of the automaker’s largest and most dangerously designed trucks, with a high hood and square-shaped front end that increases the size of the vehicle’s front blindspot. Trucks with larger bodies and higher carriages mean pedestrians are more likely to suffer deadly blows to the head and torso. And higher clearances mean victims are more likely to get trapped underneath a speeding truck instead of pushed onto the hood or off to the side.