Chevy built an all-American EV truck — why is nobody buying it?
Chevy built an all-American EV truck — why is nobody buying it?
雪佛兰打造了一款纯正美式电动皮卡——为什么没人买？
Although I grew up shifting my dad’s Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck from the passenger seat, I’m not exactly Chevy’s target market. I favor hatchbacks over cargo beds. But after tooling around Detroit for a day in the Silverado EV, I realized that Chevy might make a truck guy out of me yet. 虽然我从小就坐在副驾驶座上帮我父亲换挡，开着他的雪佛兰 S-10 皮卡，但我其实并非雪佛兰的目标客户。比起货斗，我更偏爱掀背车。但在底特律驾驶了一天 Silverado EV 后，我意识到雪佛兰或许真的能把我变成一个皮卡爱好者。
The Silverado EV drives, well, almost like a car. Yet the bed is massive, its frunk, cavernous. The back seat has enough room for me to cross my cursedly long legs, and the cabin is quiet. It’ll power your house in case of a hurricane, and it’ll haul, tow, and navigate down the freeway without a finger on the steering wheel. Plus it travels over 400 miles on a charge. That should be a dream combination for an American pickup lover. Silverado EV 开起来的感觉，嗯，几乎就像轿车一样。但它的货斗巨大，前备箱也深不见底。后座空间宽敞，足以让我那双“该死”的长腿交叉摆放，且车厢内部非常安静。它能在飓风来袭时为你的房子供电，还能在高速公路上实现无需手扶方向盘的运输、拖拽和导航。此外，它单次充电续航超过 400 英里。对于美国皮卡爱好者来说，这简直是梦幻般的组合。
And yet, it hasn’t exactly been flying out of showrooms. GM sold about 14,000 last year in the U.S. and Canada. The fossil fuel Silverado sells 10 times that in a quarter. After my drive, I’m kind of stumped. GM might have made the perfect American EV, but nobody’s buying it. 然而，它的销量并没有出现“抢购潮”。通用汽车去年在美国和加拿大仅售出约 1.4 万辆。而燃油版 Silverado 一个季度的销量就是这个数字的 10 倍。试驾之后，我感到非常困惑。通用汽车可能打造出了完美的美国电动车，但却无人问津。
Maybe it’s the looks? At a glance, the Silverado EV resembles the old Chevy Avalanche, and whether that’s a good thing depends on how you felt about the original. Like the Avalanche, the Silverado EV has four doors, a short bed that can be extended into the cabin, and a “sail” between the cabin and the bed, a stylistic flourish that helps minimize drag. I thought the EV looked fine, but then, I’m not a truck guy. 也许是因为外观？乍一看，Silverado EV 很像老款雪佛兰 Avalanche，至于这到底是好是坏，取决于你对原版车型的看法。和 Avalanche 一样，Silverado EV 拥有四个车门、一个可以延伸至车厢内部的短货斗，以及车厢与货斗之间被称为“帆”的结构——这是一种有助于降低风阻的造型设计。我觉得这款电动皮卡看起来还不错，但话说回来，我毕竟不是皮卡发烧友。
Getting in requires a big step up, but once inside, it’s spacious and comfortable. Press the brake and the Silverado EV springs to life, with crisp screens dominating the lower third of your vision. The seats are great, and like many EVs, it’ll surge forward when poked with your right foot. At almost 20 feet long, no one will call the Silverado EV small, but thanks to rear-wheel steering, it’ll wind its way through a parking lot like a tidy hatchback. That is, until you try to wedge it into a narrow parking space. 上车需要迈很大一步，但进入车内后，空间宽敞且舒适。踩下刹车，Silverado EV 便瞬间启动，清晰的屏幕占据了你视野的下三分之一。座椅表现出色，而且像许多电动车一样，只要你右脚轻点，它就会迅速向前冲刺。Silverado EV 车长近 20 英尺，没人会说它小，但得益于后轮转向系统，它在停车场穿梭时就像一辆灵巧的掀背车。当然，前提是你别试图把它塞进狭窄的停车位里。
The Google-powered infotainment system is crisp and clear and commendably responsive. It’s not quite as speedy as an iPhone, but it’s darn close, and the voice commands work well. There are volume and temperature knobs and some HVAC buttons below the vents, which can also be manually directed. Chevy still remembers how to make physical controls, thankfully. 由谷歌驱动的信息娱乐系统清晰明了，响应速度令人称赞。虽然它不像 iPhone 那么快，但也非常接近了，语音指令也很灵敏。通风口下方设有音量和温度旋钮以及一些空调控制按钮，通风口也可以手动调节方向。值得庆幸的是，雪佛兰依然记得如何设计物理按键。
The nav is a Google service, so it works well. When I spoke my destination, it offered a selection of routes, just like Google Maps does on your phone, but with a twist: Below the usual time-to-destination readout, another estimates how long you’ll be able to use Super Cruise, GM’s hands-free driving option. Don’t feel like driving much? Pick the route to maximize time spent in Super Cruise. Over the years, GM has offered many reasons why it excised CarPlay from its EVs, and this might be one of its better arguments. Doesn’t mean I fully agree with that decision, though. 导航采用的是谷歌服务，所以非常好用。当我报出目的地时，它像手机上的谷歌地图一样提供了多种路线选择，但有一个特别之处：在常规的预计到达时间下方，还有一行预估数据，显示你能在多长时间内使用通用汽车的 Super Cruise 免手扶驾驶功能。不想多开车？那就选择一条能最大化 Super Cruise 使用时间的路线。多年来，通用汽车为在电动车中取消 CarPlay 找了很多理由，这或许是其中最有说服力的一个。不过，这并不代表我完全赞同这一决定。
Speaking of Super Cruise, the hands-free, Level 2 advanced driver-assistance system is as good as they say. In March, I drove the Bolt with Super Cruise and came away impressed, though my time with it was short. With the Silverado EV, I traversed the Detroit metro area during peak commuting hours. In a truck of this size, Super Cruise is almost a requirement, making the drive relatively stress free. 说到 Super Cruise，这个免手扶的 L2 级高级驾驶辅助系统确实名不虚传。今年三月，我试驾了配备 Super Cruise 的 Bolt，虽然时间不长，但印象深刻。这次驾驶 Silverado EV，我是在通勤高峰期穿越了底特律市区。对于这种尺寸的皮卡来说，Super Cruise 几乎是必需品，它让驾驶过程变得相对轻松。
It had its downsides, though. Keeping it in its lane can be a bit of a chore. Similar to my time in the Bolt, Super Cruise could be caught off guard by cars speeding up and cutting in from the right. There was one particular nerve-wracking Super Cruise moment when the Silverado EV nearly plowed into a dirty paint mixer trailer. Perhaps the paint-splattered taillights threw the system? Really, though, the radar should have caught it. 不过它也有缺点。保持车道居中偶尔会有些吃力。和试驾 Bolt 时一样，Super Cruise 可能会被右侧加速切入的车辆打个措手不及。有一次特别惊险，Silverado EV 差点撞上一辆满是油漆污渍的搅拌拖车。也许是那些溅满油漆的尾灯干扰了系统？但说实话，雷达本应检测到它的。
Overall, though, Super Cruise helped keep the ride smooth, though a lot of credit should go to the 205 kilowatt-hour battery pack sitting midships. It’s one hell of a ballast. But also kudos to the ride and handling engineers, who clearly had their work cut out. As trucks go, this one is smooth. Perhaps more impressive was the efficiency. I clocked about 2.1 miles per kilowatt-hour, which is about 10% to 20% less than I average in my Audi e-tron, a smaller vehicle with much less frontal area pushing against the wind. 总的来说，Super Cruise 确实让行驶过程更加平稳，尽管这很大程度上要归功于位于车身中部的 205 千瓦时电池组。它是一个极好的配重。同时也要称赞底盘调校工程师，他们显然下了很大功夫。在皮卡车型中，这款车的平顺性非常出色。更令人印象深刻的是它的能效。我测得的电耗约为每千瓦时 2.1 英里，这比我那辆更小、迎风面积更小的奥迪 e-tron 的平均水平仅低了 10% 到 20%。
So why the slow sales? Some observers have blamed the Silverado EV’s high price, but I’m doubtful. Full-size pickup buyers shell out an average of $66,000, just $5,000 shy of the list price of a Silverado EV LT Extended Range, which nets 410 miles on a full charge. (The LT Max Range I tested will go another 68 miles but costs $20,000 more.) People also blame the EV’s mediocre towing range, which is 60% shorter. Again, that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. The vast majority of full-size truck owners, about 75%, tow at most once per year, according to Strategic Vision. 那么，为什么销量上不去呢？一些观察人士将其归咎于 Silverado EV 的高昂价格，但我对此表示怀疑。全尺寸皮卡买家的平均支出为 6.6 万美元，仅比 Silverado EV LT 长续航版（满电续航 410 英里）的标价低 5000 美元。（我测试的 LT 超长续航版续航多出 68 英里，但价格贵了 2 万美元。）人们还抱怨电动皮卡拖拽续航表现平平，会缩短 60%。同样，这也不应成为决定性因素。根据 Strategic Vision 的数据，绝大多数全尺寸皮卡车主（约 75%）每年最多只进行一次拖拽。
There should be 400,000 fossil fuel-powered Silverado buyers ready to make the switch. And yet those sales figures! It appears that GM and other automakers misjudged the truck market, which tends to suffer from inertia, and not the kind that comes from piloting a 4.5 ton vehicle. Potential buyers fret about range, about charging, and probably a few other things I’m not aware of. It has held back EVs generally — and EV pickups especially. 本应有 40 万名燃油版 Silverado 的买家准备好换购电动版。然而看看这些销量数据！看来通用汽车和其他车企误判了皮卡市场，这个市场往往存在“惯性”，而且不是那种驾驶 4.5 吨重车时产生的物理惯性。潜在买家担心续航、担心充电，可能还有一些我不知道的其他顾虑。这些因素阻碍了电动车的普及，尤其是电动皮卡。
It’s too bad, really. Most of those concerns melt away after owning an EV for a while, and the Silverado EV is a solid first draft of an electric pickup truck. With a little more engineering, could the automaker wring some weight out of it? That would boost payload and towing capacity while also allowing it to slim down the battery, cutting costs. 这真的很可惜。大多数顾虑在拥有一段时间电动车后都会烟消云散，而 Silverado EV 作为电动皮卡的初稿，表现已经非常扎实。如果再多花点心思改进工程设计，车企能否减轻一些车重？这不仅能提升载重和拖拽能力，还能缩小电池体积，从而降低成本。