Chevy Silverado EV Drives 1,059.2 Miles on a Single Charge, Surpassing World Record (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0178621914
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/09/0517212/chevy-silverado-ev-drives-10592-miles-on-a-single-charge-surpassing-world-record
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/news/718442/chevy-silverado-ev-longest-drive-single-charge-record
> The potentially record-breaking run took place over seven days on public roads near GM's Milford Proving Ground and Detroit's Belle Isle "using smart driving techniques" that included limiting the speed to 20-25 mph. The truck was a 2026 Chevy Silverado EV Work Truck with an EPA-estimated range of 493 miles. But by making a number of adjustments, GM's engineers were able to far surpass the vehicle's estimated range...
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> First of all, the test was conducted in the summer for "optimum ambient temperature for battery efficiency," GM says. They also lowered the windshield wiper blades to reduce drag, inflated the tires to the highest acceptable pressure for lower rolling resistance, removed the spare tire to lighten the load, and optimized the wheel alignment. A tonneau cover was added to the truck bed for smoother airflow, and climate control was turned off for the duration of the test.
GM isn't seeking the Guinness World Records, the article adds, with a GM spokesperson calling it "a passion project led and executed by GM engineers." (The test "started out as casual conversation among a group of GM engineers in late 2024," [2]GM says , but "quickly turned into a challenge: How far could the Work Truck go if we optimized absolutely everything?")
After the test, [3]reports Motor Trend , "The dead truck was hauled back to Milford, its battery was topped up, and the energy used to power a Stratasys F370 3D printer, which spent 6.5 hours printing an ABS plastic trophy to commemorate the auspicious event."
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/chevy-silverado-ev-smashes-world-record-for-longest-drive-on-a-single-charge/ar-AA1JX62G
[2] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2025/aug/0805-GM-breaks-EV-range-world-record-Chevy-Silverado-EV-Work-Truck.html
[3] https://www.motortrend.com/news/2026-chevrolet-silverado-ev-work-truck-guinness-world-record-for-range
Good (Score:2)
It's good that they're doing this testing. This won't affect the current product, but it might well contribute to design considerations for future products.
They should also look at what happens with more realistic driving speeds for other parts of the country, see if any of the other simple changes contribute much compared to typical battery mileage.
Re: (Score:1)
> It's good that they're doing this testing. This won't affect the current product, but it might well contribute to design considerations for future products.
Sure. Like they'll start selling cars without spare tires or windshield wipers and a top speed of 25 mph. The test conditions are so artificial the results are completely divorced from reality, like the world record for number of consecutive dunks of a basketball while standing on a ladder. Entirely pointless.
Re: (Score:2)
>> It's good that they're doing this testing. This won't affect the current product, but it might well contribute to design considerations for future products.
> Sure. Like they'll start selling cars without spare tires or windshield wipers and a top speed of 25 mph. The test conditions are so artificial the results are completely divorced from reality, like the world record for number of consecutive dunks of a basketball while standing on a ladder. Entirely pointless.
Cars have been sold without spares for years as a weight saving device to get better CAFE results. While I agree the effort is far from real world conditions, improving aerodynamics vis things such as hidden windshield wipers. lower drag front ends instead of a billboard perpendicular to airflow, etc. will be key to EV mileage advances without having to wait for better batteries.
Re: (Score:2)
> While I agree the effort is far from real world conditions, improving aerodynamics vis things such as hidden windshield wipers. lower drag front ends instead of a billboard perpendicular to airflow, etc. will be key to EV mileage advances without having to wait for better batteries.
Massively improving aerodynamics results in a car that looks like the Aptera. There's no free lunch.
So long as people want their cars and SUVs to look like, well, cars and SUVs, the laws of physics dictates that increased battery capacity is the only change they can realistically make. Everything else about modern EV drivetrains is already pretty damn efficient.
Re: (Score:2)
>> While I agree the effort is far from real world conditions, improving aerodynamics vis things such as hidden windshield wipers. lower drag front ends instead of a billboard perpendicular to airflow, etc. will be key to EV mileage advances without having to wait for better batteries.
> Massively improving aerodynamics results in a car that looks like the Aptera. There's no free lunch.
Very true, but looking at the test mule Chevy used there are a lots of areas that could be improved without making the truck look like a Aptera. For example the headlights, rear view mirrors, front fascia angle, wheel arches. Even incremental changes that lowers the Cd would be helpful.
So long as people want their cars and SUVs to look like, well, cars and SUVs, the laws of physics dictates that increased battery capacity is the only change they can realistically make. Everything else about modern EV driv
Standard Response (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's get this out of the way before they all get here...
"It still won't satisfy my niche use case* therefore it's a complete waste and no-one should ever buy one. "
* A case that I made up and has never happened in real life
Re: Standard Response (Score:2)
Is Elon a republican?
Re: (Score:2)
Travelling long distances in Canada is not "niche". Most people with a car will at least drive a few hours down to the US a few times a year. So much that businesses on the border are setting out "we love Canada" signs now that Trump has turned everyone off.
Re: (Score:2)
My favourite was when a 15 minute delay on a 5 hour trip was going to cause them to miss their flight.
The reality is that battery tech is already good enough for most people and many commercial uses. Europe has EV trucks (as in big goods vehicles carrying 40 tonnes, not an F-150 wankpanzer) doing thousands of kilometres to make deliveries (which charging stops, obviously). Batteries continue to improve and get cheaper, charging continues to get faster.
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't even have to be in real-world conditions, but the usefulness of the results is largely dependant on being able to compare it to other vehicles. Since I'm not aware of anyone else who does range-testing of their EVs at 20-25 mph etc, it's not very useful in that regard - I'm sure most EVs could post impressive range figures if driven slowly enough. With nothing to compare to, it's just a marketing stunt, though apparently a successful one, since we're talking about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, prior to reading this article, I didn't realize Chevy made any more electric vehicles after the Volt, so the advertisement is definitely working.
Now I just need some people who's owned one for 20 years and still loves it to convince me to buy one.
Re: (Score:2)
> Well, prior to reading this article, I didn't realize Chevy made any more electric vehicles after the Volt, so the advertisement is definitely working.
They do, but car dealers being car dealers, they tend to promote the big spendy ICE trucks instead - because that's where the profit is.
> Now I just need some people who's owned one for 20 years and still loves it to convince me to buy one.
Maybe if you [1]ask Jay Leno really nicely. [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnjMdzGusc
Re: (Score:2)
While some of the reported optimizations did increase the mileage, none of them were drastic. The bed cover probably contributed much to the efficiency, but it is not something out of the ordinary I have not seen with other trucks.
Re:Useless test (Score:5, Insightful)
"Cheating"...hmmm, isn't that why the manual that comes with a Silverado car mention that the range is 400-ish miles with normal use, as you state in your post?
And isn't this an article of GM engineers trying to get as far as possible with just 1 charge, just for "funsies"/bragging rights?
Question becomes, why are your panties in a knot after reading the article or at least the summary?
A test like this useless? Hardly! Because the engineers first looked where they thought they could gain the most distance in the already known places, then in unknown places. The insights gained from those unknown places and how to properly combine these with the knowns, that is applicable knowledge gained. Engineers should do much more of this, instead of less.
Let me guess... (Score:1)
The bed was empty, which is the typical use case on American roads.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but it was also traveling 20-25 mph which is not typical.
Re: (Score:2)
> Yes, but it was also traveling 20-25 mph which is not typical.
And illegal on the highway, where the minimum speed is 40/45 -- typically ...
Finally (Score:2)
Electric motors are superior to internal combustion engines in almost all conceivable ways except one, the electric source matching its power. A decent electric car has about 75kWh or so battery, the size of its gas tank. That same car in a gas version would have something like a 15 gallon tank. Now my F-150 has the two package which takes the 23 gallon tank to 36 gallons because when I’m towing an actual trailer my gas mileage is easily half.
The ford lightning has a 100 kWh pack, the cyber truc
Re: (Score:3)
> Electric motors are superior to internal combustion engines in almost all conceivable ways except one, the electric source matching its power.
You mean a problem with the battery? The motor itself is totally fine. The Shinkansen pulls 17.08 MW (22,905 hp) directly from the grid and its motors have no problem converting that amount of power into movement.
Re: (Score:2)
Needing to use lead acid batteries, which have a low energy and power density, killed electric cars over 100 years ago. The main drawback is battery energy density is still tens of times lower than gasoline, the efficiency differences don’t make up for total energy stored.
High of 89 in Belle Isle today (Score:2)
Summer may be the ideal time for battery life in theory, but unless you want to arrive at your destination in a pool of sweat ... you are gonna need AC, which ... oops.
So that's fine and all (Score:2)
But what if I want to drive from New York to Las Vegas all in one go on a Coke fueled journey of self-discovery and action? This is why evs will never be ready for prime time.
Well that and as our economic system is gradually collapsed by the high tariffs and disengagement with the global economy people are not going to be able to afford vehicles like this.
But again even if they could what about that coke fueled journey of self-discovery? But you didn't think of that did you!
So? (Score:1)
I remember reading an article in the early 1990s about a kid who built a solar powered car with infinite range with no need to charge. That car wasn't going to happen in production, either.
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty sure I learned the same thing and then later in life you learn while its still cool but that thing was basically made out of paper and balsa wood and could only do that with a 90lb teenager as the single passenger
Re: (Score:2)
If you go slow enough it's always possible. E.g. drive for 1 hour, stop for the next 2 days to charge.
But this limitation is irrelevant. You put solar panels and batteries along the route, and then use those to charge your car. No reason to take the panels with you.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, that's the real key to the inevitability of EVs, they don't care where the electricity comes from.
Re:So? (Score:4, Insightful)
"So" indeed.
We know the anti-EV crowd keeps moving the goalposts. We keep hearing "the range isn't enough", only the ranges keep improving and this experiment shows that they'll continue to do so. The charging times keep improving, but the nay-sayers keep saying they're too long. Charger availability keeps improving, but all we hear is that there aren't enough. Charger reliability is going up but there's an endless litany of anecdotes about broken chargers everywhere. Bonus complaints about tires causing pollution because EVs are heavy, as if the Ford Earth Destroyer SUVs don't weigh more.
We get it. Progress in EVs isn't impressive to you. Gotcha. Don't care.
Re: (Score:3)
> We keep hearing "the range isn't enough", only the ranges keep improving and this experiment shows that they'll continue to do so.
Actually, this "experiment" was more of a demonstration of what was already well-known about EVs: 20 to 25MPH is the efficiency sweet spot. It's basically as fast as you can go before wind resistance starts appreciably eating away at your range.
I follow the Chevy Bolt subreddit, and every once in awhile someone picks up one used as their first EV and launches into a rant about how they get nowhere near the EPA rating of roughly 240 miles per charge. Well, the devil's in the details - climate control can e
Re: (Score:2)
> There's a lot of folks who are unwilling to crawl along in the rightmost lane to keep their efficiency numbers up.
I'd be profoundly happy if slow traffic kept right like they are supposed to. That scenario in no way resembles the real world around here.
Re: So? (Score:2)
How happy would it make me if (some) drivers didn't honk or flash their lights at me as I drive 40-50 in the right lane?
Re: (Score:1)
We do that because people have been telling us it's "getting better" for 15 years but considering how far away they are still it will be another 60 years before EVs are anywhere near the convenience and reliability of ICEs.
Re: (Score:3)
My neighbor is a general contractor. As in, he owns the general contracting business and is the license holder for the company's operation. As the GC he's either visiting the various jobs around the state that his company has contracts for, checking up on the work of the subs, meeting with the customers, meeting with the inspectors, sometimes acting as part of the demolitions or cleanup or gofer crew depending on if there's something that needs to be done that isn't strictly covered by the various subs or
Re: (Score:2)
Our friend owns a roofing company and bought a Cybertruck. Not only does it do everything he needs but it does it better than the F-150s he formerly used. He sold one of the Fords and bought another Tesla it was so much better for his needs.
Re: (Score:2)
> That car wasn't going to happen in production, either.
Though, this one was a production vehicle -- with customized wipers, way-over-inflated tires, no spare tire, re-aligned wheels, and an add-on tonneau cover, that you can only drive in the summer, w/o the A/C, at a max speed of 25 MPH. Luxury! :-)
Re: (Score:2)
> That car wasn't going to happen in production, either
They used a production care for this. You can go buy this one right now.