Which of these equally quick
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00:00I'm Aaron Gold from Motortrend. This is my colleague Frank Marcus. Between the two of
00:17us, we have about 600 years of experience reviewing vehicles. We're out here in beautiful
00:23Brighton, Michigan for Motortrend's 2025 Truck of the Year Awards. And Frank, you have the
00:29unenviable job of comparing these two trucks. That's right, Aaron. And this is a comparison
00:34test that has been two and a half years in the making. I've been itching to do it for
00:37two and a half years because in January 2022, Chevy unveiled its Silverado EV, a completely
00:45bespoke from the ground up, no Silverado parts in there, taking full advantage of the efficiency
00:51of packaging of an electric drivetrain and everything. Because as we all know, the Ford
00:56F-150 Lightning, Motortrend's 2023 Truck of the Year, was an F-150 where we ripped
01:03out the engine and put a new frame in that accommodated batteries and electric. So this
01:08is like an honest-to-gosh electric pickup truck. And this is like a way to get there
01:14two or three years ahead of Chevrolet. But see, what I've always liked about the electric
01:18F-150 is it's just like every other F-150 that you've ever driven, except it's quieter
01:23and a lot quicker. It tows very much the same, it feels the same. No, it feels smoother,
01:28more comfy. That's true, yeah. You don't have an engine, you don't have vibration. But if
01:32you've been driving F-150s for 30 years, you're going to get in this and it's going to feel
01:37totally familiar. Does the Chevy do that? Well, that's the question. That's what we're
01:40here to answer. And that's a big part of the whole deal. You know, I kind of, I have mixed
01:47feelings because I like the fact that Chevy has kind of decided to do something a little
01:50bit different. It doesn't have a traditional body, for example. They moved everything around
01:54to give more space for the gigantic battery, which is, what's the range of this thing?
01:59400 miles? We got at least that on our Motor Trend road trip range. So yeah, it's above
02:05that. I happen to think range anxiety is a bit of a, it's kind of baloney because most
02:09EV owners will have a charger at home. That's the best way to go. You get a full tank every
02:12morning. But I got to tell you, when you get in and turn this thing on, which you do by
02:16stepping on the brake pedal and you see range, 400 miles, just makes you feel like you could
02:21take on the world. It's true. And it's also, it's not just the range. It's the fast charging
02:26speed as well, because that two layer battery, that 205 kilowatt hour battery is two batteries,
02:32one on top of the other. It runs at 400 volts when it's driving the car. But when you stop
02:38at a charger, it goes into a series mode and it gives you 800 volts. So that way you're
02:44going to get the, they rate it for 350 kilowatt. We saw 260 something this week as we charged
02:49it. So much faster because I can tell you, I ran our long-term truck of the year test
02:54car for the F-150. My parents live in Memphis, Tennessee. I live here in Detroit area and
03:00it's painful to drive this car down there. I mean, it takes me 11 hours in an ICE car.
03:04It took like 14 plus with the stops and the, you know, this one doesn't work. This charger
03:10doesn't work. That one doesn't work. Slow charging, because this is only 400 volt.
03:14So yeah, it was a pain point that this thing is supposed to solve.
03:17So you're saying, so the faster charging on this truck and the longer range, you're saying
03:21this is the car that you'd rather take for that long trip down to Memphis. But let's
03:26say you're doing something around the house. You got a whole wood, you got a whole rocks.
03:28Which of these two would you take?
03:30Well now that's what's so interesting. This one is a little bit better set up for that.
03:35The bed is a little bit larger. It's also got, I don't know if it's composite or if
03:39it's just got a spray in line or whatever. It's a little more durable, but it is several
03:43inches longer because again, taking advantage of that compact powertrain, they've scooted
03:49the cabin forward a little bit, made the frunk area smaller because we're not, we don't have
03:54to put a V8 in there in any of them and made the bed a little longer because the overall
03:58length is very close to the same on these cars.
04:00Yeah. That's what people sometimes forget is you really don't need to put anything up
04:03here. You don't need an engine. This I think has a long hood for the sake of tradition.
04:07The reason the F-150 Lightning has such a long hood is because there's still space in
04:11here for an engine, which it doesn't have.
04:13Right. So you get 14 cubic feet of a frunk in here and 10 something in that one. I would
04:19fit more comfortably in this one, but I'm not really riding in it.
04:22No, but your groceries are.
04:23No.
04:24And there's enough space for a big shopping in the front of this thing.
04:26There is. Apparently a giant stroller doesn't fit in there. So one of our colleagues is
04:29like, maybe it's not big enough.
04:32Maybe you need a smaller stroller.
04:33Of course, the other thing that's so interesting about this one is that it's like the old Avalanche.
04:38Remember that one was a Suburban turned into a pickup truck. It has a mid gate that goes
04:43down so you can put up to 10 foot long things if you put down the tailgate and put up the
04:50little load limiter. So that's a really huge thing.
04:54And of course, you can fold the mid gate down and leave the window in and you can fold it
04:5960 percent or 100 percent. So you can still get three people sitting in there and some
05:04long things in there. If you're a skier with more than six foot long skis, that would be
05:11great because you can leave the tonneau cover and the window. So the car is weather tight
05:15and yet it's got this long eight foot plus space in there.
05:19You know, I was thinking first when I thought about the mid gate loading it where you drop
05:22down, you're essentially opening the cabin to the outside air. I thought, no, that's
05:26dangerous because it sucks the exhaust back. Oh, wait, we don't have to worry about that
05:33because in an electric vehicle, the exhaust is, you know, down by the river where the
05:36coal fired power plant is. Exactly.
05:39You know, but the thing about it, we had a chance to tow with both these vehicles, fairly
05:43large trailers. And what I admired about the F-150 is it towed like just like every other
05:49F-150. Nice stability, good control with the regenerative brake. The Chevrolet was kind
05:55of moving around a little bit and porpoising and getting shoved by the trailer and kind
06:00of doing the doing the big trailer Watusi a little bit.
06:03Yeah, and I'm not exactly sure how to explain that because this one made out of steel, made
06:08out of aluminum, giant battery, more normal sized battery. It weighs a ton more than this
06:14one. Literally. We're not being, you're not saying a figurative ton. You literally mean
06:18it literally weighs two thousand pounds more than the F-150.
06:23And it's got within millimeters on the wheelbase. So I'm not sure how to explain that. Another
06:29thing that is a kind of a problem with this one is it's got a lot more horsepower than
06:33this one, 180 more horsepower. When you get in it, it rears back enough that the front
06:39end gets really light. And that's even worse when you've got a big trailer adding some
06:43ton weight in the back. And now the helm is a little nerve wracking.
06:47No longer is attached to the road, which again, in a nine thousand pound vehicle,
06:52you don't expect to have a problem with that. Yeah. So, you know, it seems like we kind
06:57of have an interesting conundrum because you've got the Chevrolet, which has tried to do something
07:01very new and create a different experience, not necessarily for the positive. Then you've
07:05got the good old F-150 Lightning, which is just another F-150 and does everything we
07:09expect an F-150 to do. You know, if I'm an electric car enthusiast, I'm thinking this
07:14is the way I want to go. If I'm just a truck user who wants to learn the gasoline engine
07:19and save all that money on fuel and all that, I'm kind of thinking this might be the way
07:22to go. The happy thing is you're the one writing the comparison, so I don't have to decide.
07:27What do you think? Well, and tapping the brakes on this one a little bit. First of all, we're
07:30at a funny point in time where the only one of these that civilians can get is an RST
07:36first edition, you know, full all singing, all dancing, every option. Ninety six grand.
07:41So we paired it with as snazzy an F-150 Lightning as we could get. And this thing's like ninety
07:47grand and you get in this car and it looks like it's designed to, you know, a price point
07:54for the work truck down in the fifties, you know, dolled up. It's got leather and it's
07:57got red and blue stitching all over the place, sometimes in places where it doesn't have
08:01any real business being and not perfectly well executed either. This one, on the other
08:06hand, is Ford's new top of the line Platinum, and it's absolutely gorgeous all the way through.
08:12I mean, it's not quite as nice as the top of the line Ram, but it's damn close and it
08:17feels a lot more like ninety grand in this interior than in this one. Yes, I think we
08:22discovered this has an amazing banging, awesome stereo. It's got that really big, well planned
08:27out screen right in the middle of the vehicle. Yeah. This one, though, when you get in this,
08:31it looks a little more high tech. Obviously, it's got, you know, the new, the latest Chevy
08:35screens and everything. It's got a head up display. It has a bunch of technology in there.
08:40It also has air ride. Right. And, you know, and this sophisticated electrical system and
08:45so forth. There's a lot of those things there. But then also like the mid gate. OK, great
08:49idea. I struggle to imagine who's going to really use that all that often. And then also
08:56we know how it works. The window comes out and it stows in the seat back and you click
09:01it in and then there's some electric releases after you've folded the seats down and you
09:05can get it down. But sometimes the electric switches don't really work and you have to
09:08go around both sides of the car if you don't, if you're doing it alone. It's a 12 step operation.
09:13Yeah. And then when you put it back up half the time we'd get back in, it would say the
09:18mid gate's still open. And we're like, nah. And you go back there and you have to take
09:21it all apart and slam it again to make some limit switch. You pay ninety six thousand
09:25dollars. You don't want to be slamming it. Right. So the execution, I mean, maybe it's
09:30like Elante tops or something. You know, those were kind of dodgy at the beginning and maybe
09:34they'll get it right in a little bit. But right here, right now, you know, a few little
09:39problems like that. I came into this two and a half years waiting to do it, expecting this
09:43car to completely run away with it. And at the end of the day, after spending three days
09:49driving these in all kind of conditions, I had some some trouble. I wrote down pros and
09:53cons. So on my my con list. Wait a second. Is that your little black book? It is my little
09:58black book. I've heard a lot about your little black book. My little gray head can't remember
10:02things quite well enough. So the interior plastics, everything is pebble grain and shiny.
10:08I wish someone at General Motors could be fired for that. You know, find another way.
10:15You can make plastic with a different sheen and a different grain and it doesn't look
10:18as awful. And by the way, you could probably could probably find that if they sat in one
10:21of these. I know. Yeah. Which they had two and a half years to sit in it. The back seat
10:26wasn't as comfortable either because it has to do all these gymnastics for the for the
10:29mid gate. Much more comfortable back seat. Do you think this would be a better back seat
10:34if they hadn't bothered with the mid gate? I think the work truck back seat is a good
10:38example because that one does not have the mid gate and it doesn't have to do any of
10:42the other things. And I believe that is a little comfier. There's no trailer reversing
10:45technology on this one. We got trailer pro assist. I mean, Ford has kind of owned the
10:50trailering world for a long time. But on the other hand, nobody wants to go camping
10:56with their trailer in an electric car and stop every hundred miles or 150 in this one
11:02because they all get way worse mileage with a trailer. So I kind of downplayed the importance
11:08of the trailering. But this also had, you know, a trailer blind spot camera, which they
11:13don't do, which they do on the ICE Silverado. So not exactly sure. We do have to acknowledge
11:18that Chevrolet has one of the greatest pieces of technology I have seen, which is SuperCruise,
11:25which is a actual, real live, hands off driving system. Only works on certain mapped roads.
11:31You can engage it. You can take your hands off the wheel. Scary prospect. But what I
11:36love about the General Motors system is it communicates SOAs. A big light bar on the
11:42steering wheel. It goes blue when you turn the system on. It goes green when it is ready
11:46for you to let go. And if anything is in doubt, it needs you to take over. Flashes
11:51red, buzzes your seat so you feel it in your in your in your tuchus. It's a very different
11:55experience from, say, Tesla's poorly named full self-driving, where you got to be you
12:00got to be worried all the time that the car is going to make a sudden left turn into the
12:04into the oncoming right turn. I think it'd be no. In this case, I have had FSD do a left
12:09turn into oncoming traffic or try to. This system communicates well. I mean, it is one
12:14of the finest bits of electronic engineering I think I've seen. But you were forgetting
12:18about Blue Cruise, which the Ford F-150 does have. Yes, it does. And yes, I did kind of
12:22forget about Blue Cruise, which is a wonderful system. But Blue Cruise will not steer when
12:27you have a trailer. And that one does. And that is a big plus. Also very frightening.
12:31That was a big one. I got to admit that was a little outside my comfort level, taking
12:35the taking my hands off the steering wheel when when there was a trailer attached. But
12:39it did it. It did a really nice job. Yeah. And I'm I'm willing to trust that General
12:43Motors has sweated those details. I wouldn't do it in a Cybertruck, which also won't do
12:48it with the trailer on board. And that's better. Yeah. Our colleague Jason Gonderman says when
12:53you see a Cybertruck get out of the way, full self-driving is another reason to do that.
12:57Exactly. I do have a couple more things that bother me about this car because we're packaging
13:02that big battery in here and trying to keep the roof down for aerodynamics, because that
13:08is one of the big pluses with this. .331 is the aerodynamics on this. This is in the .4 range,
13:15I think. So much more aerodynamic. I think it's the most aerodynamic pickup truck out there,
13:19which is great for that's at least part of the 400 plus miles of range.
13:25Being the most aerodynamic pickup truck is like being the tallest inchworm.
13:29But .331 is pretty good. I mean, car numbers are down around there or were before everyone
13:34started getting really great. Anyway, they've got a panel roof in both of these cars, but that one
13:38has no shade on it. And it isn't a deep, deep, deep tint. And I really don't like that. That's
13:46inviting a lot of heat load in the car and whatever. It does give you more headroom in the
13:51front. And that was the main reason they made it standard. Also, we have to remember GM's electric
13:56cars, no Android auto or car play functionality. Now, one of our colleagues, perhaps the only one
14:04who's an Android guy, only he uses Android phones primarily. He can log into his Google account on
14:10there and he says it works pretty much his Spotify and I think phone calls and all that stuff comes
14:16in. He doesn't miss it very much. And with an electric car, you really do want to use the native
14:22navigation because it knows the instantaneous range and the level of consumption that you have
14:29at the time. And can also direct you. I know the Ford will direct you based on the shortest
14:33charging time. Exactly. And so will that one. So maybe it won't be as big a problem as folks out
14:39there who are big devotees of car play think it is, but it is going to be a turnoff for some
14:46buyers not to have that functionality. A lot of iPhone users out there. So, yeah, those are
14:51the biggies on this one. On this one, there's fewer big negatives on there. This is a
14:59body-on-frame design, the traditional body-on-frame cab and whatever. This is a unitized body sitting
15:06on an Ultium skateboard platform. So, it's body-on-frame kind of, but it's modern
15:14body-on-frame. And this one, you do feel a bit more NVH from that. You can feel the doors moving in
15:20their frames a little bit the way you do on an ICE F-150. So, that's a negative on this one that
15:26we didn't really talk about. So, yeah, at the end of the day. Yeah, if you got to pick between them,
15:31because I got to tell you, I'm listening to your pros. I'm listening to your cons. I'm thinking
15:34about my driving experience. I don't know which of these I could necessarily pick as the better
15:37truck. Well, and I think really it is going to be, this is one of those where whatever we pick,
15:44the people that decide, now, hell no, I got to have car play. Hell no, I got to be able to put
15:47a camper on it like I do on my F-150 V8. They're going to be happy with this one. I feel like at
15:54Motor Trend, we really have to be forward-looking. And this is such a much more forward-looking
15:59vehicle. It's also better as an electric vehicle in so many ways. We didn't talk about their
16:06one-pedal driving system in this one too, which is another really big plus. You have two levels
16:12that you can select, normal or high regeneration. And then there is a button on the steering wheel.
16:17That little paddle. That can increase it, give you on-demand instantaneous, all the way to a stop if
16:23you like. So if you want to drive with no one-pedal driving mode and just occasionally use it to come
16:28to a stop, you can do that. You can put it in normal and add when you need it. Worked great
16:33when the trailer was on board too. So yeah, that is another thing that this one does better. So
16:38at the end of the day, we have to give the nudge to this one. The Silverado EV is going
16:43to win this comparison test, but by a thinner margin than we all expected going in. So the
16:49Chevrolet Silverado EV is our winner, but only by that much. By a few kilowatt hours. By a few
16:55kilowatt hours. Excellent. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Aaron. For more about the F-150 Lightning,
17:00the Chevrolet Silverado EV, all things electric or all things automotive, please visit us on the web
17:05at MotorTrend.com.