Electric pickup trucks have long found themselves in a bit of a weird place. Trucks like the Ford F‑150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T have the guts and power to do some impressive hauling, but their short range means they’re impractical for all but the most local towing jobs. The Chevrolet Silverado EV is the antidote, being the first electric pickup with legs long enough for drivers to dare to tow long distances on electric power. The towing range is impressive in itself, but that range is also wrapped in a package so good at hauling that you might not want to buy a diesel. But there’s a catch, I think, and it’s that America just isn’t ready for people to tow long distances with electric trucks yet.

I had the privilege of testing a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss for a little longer than the duration of the 2025 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh aviation spectacular. I used this beast of a truck to tow a 7,746‑pound, 36‑foot, 9‑inch long travel trailer approximately 133 miles in each direction. Then, I used the truck to get around Oshkosh, including brief stints going mudding in the fields around camp. The Silverado was shockingly good at towing a trailer and had enough towing range that so‑called “range anxiety” just wasn’t a thing for me. However, I had plenty of anxiety for another reason during this trip, and it was over charging stations. It wasn’t the availability of chargers, as there were plenty, but how they were designed without considering the future.

(Full Disclosure: General Motors loaned me a Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss for a little over a week to do a road trip with. I received the truck with a 96 percent charge and paid for my own recharges.)

## The State Of Electric Hauling
First, I want to explain the state of electric pickup trucks and hauling. On July 30, I explained that when you’re towing a trailer, regardless of whether your tow rig is gas or electric, aerodynamics usually matter more than weight. Car publications and YouTubers love to talk about how they towed 6,000 pounds or 11,000 pounds with their electric pickup trucks. While these weights are impressive, they do not tell the whole story.

As Robert Dunn of Aging Wheels had proved with his independent testing, weight isn’t nearly as important as many people would think. A 1,500‑pound trailer with a 12‑foot‑tall wall on its front will almost certainly result in your truck guzzling more battery or more gas than that same truck towing a 6,000‑pound trailer that’s completely flat. Likewise, if you parked a car behind the giant wall of that first trailer, your fuel economy or range is unlikely to get much worse because the heavier hit wasn’t weight, but trying to ram something the shape of a brick through wind. This is also why some of the most fuel‑efficient cars on the planet practically slice through air.

This applies to my towing situation. It sounds impressive that I got the Silverado EV Trail Boss to tow a 7,746‑pound, 36‑foot, 9‑inch long travel trailer so many miles on a single charge, but the real impressive part is that, as you can see with your own eyes, this trailer’s front wall towered over the Silverado EV and dragged it down in wind. These findings are reflected in real‑world towing testing. Back in 2022, Car and Driver made a Ford F‑150 Lightning, a GMC Hummer EV, and a Rivian R1T tow the same 6,100‑pound, 29‑foot camper. The Ford had only 100 miles of towing range, or less than half of the 230 miles of highway range that it had when unloaded. The Rivian scored only slightly better with 110 miles of towing range against its 280 miles of highway range. The winner of the test was the GMC Hummer EV, which went only 140 miles against the 290 miles that it could do at the same speed while empty.

How about the Tesla Cybertruck? The Fast Lane Truck hitched a 7,500‑pound camper and averaged 1.1 miles per kWh, which is actually pretty good efficiency while towing. However, even with that efficiency, it still would have resulted in a theoretical towing range of just 135 miles, and that’s driving the truck until it’s dead. Honestly, this kind of towing range is pathetic for someone like me, who often tows big trailers over large distances. Stopping just over every 100 miles to charge for 30 minutes or longer would make any road trip a total drag. Certainly, it would be impossible for me to pick up a car from the Port of Baltimore and then drive the 773 miles back home on the same day. This was pretty much the state of towing with an electric pickup truck for a while. All of these trucks are actually really good at towing, and their all‑electric powertrains make pulling thousands of pounds feel like child’s play. But range and charging limitations mean that these trucks can never live to their full towing potential. That was until the Chevrolet Silverado EV arrived on the market in the 2024 model year. It sounds like a cliche, but this truck changed the electric towing game.

## Big Weight, Big Power, And Big Range
The Silverado EV was announced during the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, and what General Motors built out of the other end is something different. The Silverado EV is not just the Silverado with electric power. Instead, GM placed the Silverado on its Ultium BEV platform, utilizing a unibody with an integrated bed and integrated frame rails. General Motors says that the Silverado EV has a similar wheelbase and dimensions to a gas‑powered Silverado, but they are technically unrelated. The secret sauce to the Silverado EV’s towing range actually isn’t all that special. In building its electric trucks, General Motors just layers on a silly amount of batteries. Unfortunately, that’s just the reality with today’s battery technology. If you want to tow a huge trailer really far, you need to get the aero as good as you can get, and then pile on the batteries. In GM’s case, the Silverado EV technically has an 800V architecture, but how this works is that GM has a dual‑layer 400V battery, and the 800V and 350 kW are split between the layers.

The downside of this is that GM’s electric trucks are crazy heavy. The Silverado EV 4WT weighs 8,568 pounds, while the Silverado RST is a staggering 8,953 pounds. The Trail Boss lands at a bit over 8,500 pounds. For those of you keeping count, this makes the electric about twice as heavy as an ICE half‑ton truck. The Silverado is even about 2,000 pounds heavier than a Tesla Cybertruck.

A Silverado EV’s Max Range battery pack weighs 2,900 pounds all on its own. Of course, all of these batteries mean that electric trucks get expensive. Autopian contributor Sam Abuelsamid has noted that, with current technologies, batteries cost about $100 to $150 per kWh, and GM’s trucks have more than a ton of batteries, literally. I’ll get back to the cost later.

## Like A Rebirth Of The Avalanche
GM loaned me a 2026 Silverado EV Trail Boss with the 205 kWh Max Range battery for a claimed range of 478 miles and manufacturer‑rated efficiency of 2.0 miles per kWh. Power comes from dual motors punching out a total of 725 HP and a whopping 775 lb‑ft of torque. All of this is good for a 60 mph acceleration time just a tick over four seconds, which is nutty for something weighing as much as a condo.

I first got to experience the Silverado EV how most people will, and that’s by driving it around unloaded. Visually, the Silverado EV looks like a futuristic Chevy Avalanche, but with more streamlining and without the huge grille that the trucks of today have. The Avalanche part is most apparent in the integrated bed, the sail pillars above the bed, and, of course, the Silverado EV’s handy midgate.

The only people who stared at the Silverado were existing EV owners. Everyone else just went about their day. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to talk breathlessly about your car every time you stop, the Silverado EV will be great at helping you blend in – assuming there aren’t any EV aficionados waiting to jump out of the bushes.

## Around Town
The driving experience of the Silverado EV Trail Boss was a bit unlike any other truck I had driven, and not just because it’s electric. The electric part of the driving experience was nothing particularly special. Like all EVs, the Silverado EV leaps off the line with a stupid amount of power, and it accelerates way faster than you’d expect 9,000 pounds of truck to go. The Silverado EV is so fast that it can outrun legitimate sports cars in a straight line. The Silverado EV also makes driving fast so easy that it can be dangerous for pedestrians and other drivers if you aren’t careful.

I also wasn’t at all surprised to find that this huge heap of truck didn’t have particularly great handling. Throw the truck into a corner, and the body will want to continue in the direction you just departed from before being forced to turn by the tires, which then scream in pain because you fancy yourself as a racing driver while commanding something weighing as much as a small cruise ship. Though quick in a straight line, the Silverado understandably does not like to be hustled through turns. Otherwise, handling is safe and predictable, and the truck’s suite of stability control and traction control aids will try to keep you from having too much fun. Don’t expect to take your Silverado EV on any track days.

The Trail Boss features an independent coil suspension with a factory lift and a hydraulic rebound control system. In addition to the high‑riding suspension, the Trail Boss has 18‑inch wheels, 35‑inch all‑terrain tires, meaty tow hooks, and a special off‑roading mode. This is compared to the air suspension that you get in the regular Silverado EV. The Silverado EV weighs as much as a heavy‑duty pickup truck, but it has the ride of something like a half‑ton Ram.

## Quirks
I do have one major complaint about this interior, and it’s about quality. One of the speaker grilles wasn’t fully installed. The truck had just 300 miles on it when I got it, and somehow, nobody noticed this? Some heavy percussive maintenance with my fist locked the speaker grille in place, and it did not come back up again for the rest of the trip.

One of the trim panels attached to the steering wheel was also not fully installed. This one had no fix. Every time I snapped it into place, it popped right back out again. The stereo in my truck was a Bose 7‑speaker unit, and it was fine.

## The Midgate
I carried four gas cans along for this trip to fuel my generator. When I carried gas cans, I always secure the cans to a tie‑down in the bed so they aren’t just sliding around. In the past, if a gas can went rogue and broke loose, it was no big deal – mop up the gas spill, wash the bed, and keep on truckin’. On one gas station visit, my dad helped me fill the cans, but he skipped the tie‑down step. Later, as I was driving the Silverado EV around Oshkosh, I started smelling gas. One of the gas cans had turned over and was leaking fuel, the fumes of which leaked through the midgate’s seals. The tonneau cover was open, but that didn’t matter.

## The Big Haul
The Silverado EV is made to haul, not to puttering around town. I started off my trip to Oshkosh by topping off the truck’s battery. I had taken the truck to the beach and around town, consuming about 25 percent of the battery to drive 100 miles. Keep in mind that I was having lots of fun with the truck’s Wide Open Watts (WOW) Mode, which unlocks the truck’s maximum acceleration potential.

With a totally full battery, I drove over to my parents’ place to pick them up, and then I drove to where they had their trailer stored. The total distance here was about 20 miles, and I averaged about 2.4 mi/kWh, arriving at the storage facility with 95 percent battery. Hitching up the trailer went no differently than the hitching process with a gasoline truck. The trail boss has a towing capacity of 10,000 pounds and a payload of 1,500 pounds.

I even love how the truck uses a combination of regeneration and friction brakes to pull the whole rig to a stop in a manner that feels more confident than an ICE truck.

## Bizarre Problems
The first problem I had was with Super Cruise. The system worked great about 95 percent of the time. It was alarming how freakishly good the robot was at towing a trailer. We stayed perfectly between the lines, kept a consistent pace, and the truck was a safe driver, keeping a good distance away from traffic in case of an emergency. The only feature that didn’t work while towing was Super Cruise’s automatic lane change function, but the truck had no problem taking back over once you helped it do a lane change.

I had times when the truck would begin to accelerate by itself. I chose a cruising speed of 65 mph for much of my trip, and when the truck started accelerating by itself, I often saw it creep to 75 mph, 80 mph, or even 85 mph on the cruise control display. On the other hand, the truck sometimes slammed on its brakes for no apparent reason.

## The Charging Pickle
The Silverado EV Trail Boss averaged 2.1 miles per kWh when I was driving it empty on the highway. With the trailer, I got between 0.7 mi/kWh and 0.9 mi/kWh. The truck was absolutely guzzling down its battery. A rating of 0.9 mi/kWh results in a theoretical range of 184.5 miles, which is pretty awesome considering the circumstances.

Weirdly, this wasn’t range anxiety, at least, not in the traditional sense. There were tons of fast chargers all over my route. The problem is that pull‑through charger infrastructure is currently nonexistent in many parts of America. Yes, truck stop chains, General Motors, and others are working to build trailer‑friendly EV chargers, but they just don’t exist yet in many regions, and one of those regions includes massive swaths of Wisconsin.

I also had to deal with the fact that many chargers listed on PlugShare as being fast actually delivered a charging rate barely better than Level II. The truck’s range estimator was also very optimistic. I calculated range by hand and arrived at a 24 percent remaining charge after consuming 71 percent of the battery.

When it did come time to charge, I was impressed with the charging performance of the Silverado EV. Assuming that you can find a properly‑equipped charger, the Silverado EV can suck up to 350 kW of juice. The fastest charger I found in Oshkosh put out 178 kW. I plugged in with 8 percent remaining, and after about an hour and a half, the truck’s battery was back to 100 percent.

GM provided me with an NACS adaptor, which meant that I gained access to Tesla Superchargers. These had a knack for starting out at around 178 kW, but then quickly throttling down to 60 kW before recovering back to 70 kW. This is a common issue with charging GM EV trucks on the Tesla Supercharger network, and means that if you have the choice, go somewhere else to top up. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if it takes a couple of hours to get enough range to start towing your trailer again.

For comparison, I averaged 10.2 mpg towing the family camper with a Ford F‑250 Super Duty Power Stroke. Based on its 34‑gallon tank, that means a range of 346.8 miles, or a little less than double what the Silverado EV could do while towing the same trailer. That truck would consume about 58.82 gallons over the same 600 miles. At current diesel prices in my area, which are about $3.80 a gallon, that adds up to $223.

## Like A Diesel, But Quiet
I even did some mild off‑roading with the truck, as the camp at AirVenture got seriously muddy. The Trail Boss rode through soupy mud like it was nothing. The truck would struggle with crawling over rocks or through terrain serious enough to warrant lockers, but mud, fire roads, and mild to moderate terrain? Yeah, the Trail Boss could handle it.

But the truck doesn’t get a perfect grade. I cannot discount the problems that I experienced with the truck’s interior fittings and with Super Cruise. Then there’s the price of it all. The 2026 Silverado EV has a base price of $54,895, which isn’t bad until you realize that it gets you a work truck with few features, rear‑wheel drive, black bumpers, and steel wheels. If you want some style, that’ll cost you $62,995 to get you into the LT. If you want a Trail Boss with the Max Range battery like the one I had, that one starts at $88,695, and then escalates with options. The end price? $93,940, which includes a $2,095 destination charge.

To put that price into perspective, that kind of dough would easily buy you a Ram 2500HD heavy‑duty pickup with a Cummins diesel engine, with nets you significantly better payload and towing capacity. That said, you can save on a Trail Boss by getting one with the smaller Extended Range battery, which is good for 410 miles for $72,095.

To me, the biggest problem with the Silverado EV is not the truck or its price, but the infrastructure that supports it. This is a truck designed to tow trailers long distances, but America’s charging network isn’t yet built to handle people who use EVs for work or for towing. Nobody wants to decouple from their trailer every single time that they need to charge the tow vehicle.

America’s questionable charging infrastructure also harms innovative camper trailers like the Pebble Flow and the Lightship AE:1. If you cannot easily charge a truck while it’s connected to a trailer, imagine the headache of trying to charge both your truck and your trailer at the same time. This puts the Silverado EV in a weird place. In some ways, it’s better at towing than a diesel truck. Certainly, EVs flex their towing muscles without fumes, diesel maintenance, or diesel pollution. But charging sucks so much that it’s easier to keep burning fuel, anyway.

So, I think the best way to describe the Silverado EV is that it’s one of the best trucks for a future that isn’t here yet. It’s a towing beast, can outrun darn near any gas‑powered vehicle in a stoplight drag, and is the first electric truck that I’d feel comfortable driving across the country. In short, it rocks. But America just isn’t ready for it yet.

The 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV Tows Like A Diesel Truck, But America Isn't Ready For It Yet

The article reviews the 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV Trail Boss, highlighting its impressive towing range and power, but also pointing out significant limitations in charging infrastructure, range estimation accuracy, and interior quality. It compares the EV to other electric pickups and diesel trucks, noting that while the Silverado EV can tow long distances with minimal range anxiety, America’s current charging network and the vehicle’s high cost and weight make it impractical for many users.