DETROIT — The Chevrolet Silverado's upcoming electric propulsion system allows the vehicle to have a different design than the gasoline version, a top General Motors executive said last week.
The Silverado EV, which forecasters expect to go on sale in 2023, won't necessarily be a derivative of today's pickup, GM North America President Steve Carlisle told Automotive News when announcing a freshened version of the gasoline-powered Silverado.
"With the freedom and the latitude that we have to do something that's ground-up, we see it as more of a white-space opportunity than we see it as an extension of the current lineup," he said.
The flexibility of the Ultium battery platform removes the architectural limits that internal combustion vehicles have, Carlisle said.
"You should expect different dimensions and different packaging, for instance," he said. "We're not constrained to the same kind of constructions as we are today."