Chevrolet's 2024 Silverado EV looks nothing like the truck that's currently in showrooms; it has no grille, and it features Avalanche-like flying buttresses. The differentiation is intentional, and sketches published on social media shed some light on the process that shaped the EV.
Released by General Motors Design, the drawings suggest that designers experimented with a boxier and more aggressive look. The truck depicted in the sketches wears a much shorter front overhang, air intakes chiseled into the front panel, and a massive vent integrated into the hood. Out back, the tailgate features big "CHEVROLET" lettering, and there are thinner lights made up of two separate elements.
In contrast, the production-bound truck has a deeper front overhang, a more rounded front end, Chevrolet's bowtie emblem on the tailgate, and single-piece rear lights. And yet, some of the EV's defining styling cues (including the ones that set it apart from the gasoline- and diesel-burning models) were seemingly locked in early on. The front end has no grille, for example, and its headlights are thin and linked by a light bar. The flying buttresses accented by fin-like accents appear on both trucks, as do rear lights that stretch into the quarter panels.
Some of these design cues will permeate Chevrolet's range of electric cars in the coming years. The upcoming battery-powered variants of the Equinox and the Blazer both wear thin headlights, a light bar, and fin-like trim on the C-pillars. It looks like the Silverado EV's significance goes beyond the fact that it will compete in America's best-selling segment; it also blazes the design path that future Chevy EVs will follow.
We know that GMC is planning its own version of the Silverado EV, and it will be interesting to see how the model (which could be called Sierra EV) manages to stand out from its Chevrolet-badged sibling. Both trucks will be closely related to the Hummer EV underneath the sheetmetal. Speaking of, its path from a sketch to a production model was fascinating as well; it could have looked completely different.