GM Exploring Small Ultium-Based Electric Pickup

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

Despite what automakers and your fragile ego tell you, owning the largest full-size pickup you can find does not make you cooler or more interesting. However, it does make you more likely to be frustrated while parking and waiting in line at your third fuel stop of the week. Ford and Hyundai offer small-truck solutions with the Maverick and Santa Cruz, respectively, and now it’s General Motors’ turn.


GM revealed a small electric concept truck in a closed-door media session earlier this week. The automaker is heavily invested in EVs that people can actually afford and held the event at its “affordable EV design studio” in Warren, MI. Devoid of branding and logos, the truck will reportedly come with a mighty reasonable sub-$30,000 price tag.  


The company plans to lean into customer feedback to refine the truck’s design. Chevy affordable EV and crossover design boss Michael Pevovar told Automotive News that the company is trying different things to see what works for customers and what doesn’t. For example, GM started with a bed length of 4- to 4.5 feet but is open to changing it. “The input may come back that it’s just too small, and that’s ok,” Pevovar told Auto News


Thanks to the insanely flexible Ultium EV platform, General Motors can play around with the sizes and shapes of new models without starting from scratch each time. That saves time, but most of all, it saves money, allowing GM to hit the mythical $30,000 EV mark – at least on paper. The architecture underpins EVs of all sizes and shapes in GM’s catalog, including the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, and the upcoming Chevrolet Equinox EV.

[Image: GM]

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Chris Teague
Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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  • Beachy Beachy on Jan 21, 2023

    Please offer a good 4wd system!

  • Mallard Dux Mallard Dux on Jan 23, 2023

    Note to automakers: Can you just figure out a way to make a simple pickup truck, defined as a cab on frame with a bed longer than the cab, capable of moving objects larger or LONGER than items normally able to be carried in cars? Is that really too complex to pull off?

    Look up the word truck and go from there... please. Simple and durable. Tough and work ready.

  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
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