What Are the Pros and Cons of the 2025 GMC Sierra EV?

GM has finally started delivering more “mainstream” offerings of its all-electric pickup trucks in the form of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the one you see here: the 2025 GMC Sierra EV. They use the same electric architecture (formerly known as Ultium) that the rest of the GM EVs use, and the Sierra EV we recently drove shares its platform, propulsion system, batteries and technology with the Silverado EV, Hummer EV and even the Cadillac Escalade IQ.

Related: 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali Review: Chargeable Cowboy Caddy

Our test truck was a Denali trim level, which means it was the luxurious, technology-laden top trim of the GMC truck hierarchy, and priced as such: $102,085 (including destination fee). I wish I could say that this is an unusual price for an electric pickup, but between the high-trim GM trucks, Rivian’s R1T entry and the rest, this is generally what they cost when you load up on options. This Sierra EV also has the Max Range battery, which is good for an estimated 460 miles of range. It powers a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup that’s rated at 760 horsepower and 785 pounds-feet of torque. But the truck weighs a staggering 8,860 pounds, which makes calling it a “light-duty” pickup a spurious claim at best given it weighs more than most heavy-duty pickups.

West Coast Editor Conner Golden drove the Sierra EV Denali at the truck’s media launch, and when I got to spend a few days with one, it solidified my thoughts concerning what I like and don’t like about GM’s new super-luxe, super-size and super-expensive electric pickup.

What Are the Pros of the Sierra EV?

Four-Wheel Steering

We first got a taste of GM’s four-wheel-steering system on the GMC Hummer EV and absolutely fell in love with it — not because of the CrabWalk feature, which allows all the wheels to turn in the same direction and is really only useful for showing off in parking lots. Rather, I love four-wheel steering because it makes this gargantuan truck more maneuverable and helps it feel much smaller than it actually is. Despite the GMC Sierra EV Denali’s massive 24-inch wheels and tires, its turning circle is just 42 feet and change — despite the thing being nearly 20 feet long overall. This gives it a tighter turning circle than a conventional GMC Sierra 1500 crew-cab pickup, and even though it’s not as tidy as the 37-foot turning circle of the GMC Hummer EV Pickup, the Sierra EV is more than a foot longer. The biggest benefit of four-wheel steering is apparent when you’re maneuvering into parking spaces; being able to rotate the back and front makes it a snap despite the Sierra EV’s considerable bulk.

Tons of Power

Unlike Ford, which bills its F-150 Lightning as a normal F-150 pickup that happens to be electric, the Sierra EV is a totally different animal than the regular Sierra 1500 pickup. This is evident from its equipment, like its two electric motors pumping out a whopping 760 hp and 785 pounds-feet of torque, enabling a blistering 0-60 mph time of less than 4.5 seconds, according to GMC. There’s always power on tap, and while we haven’t towed with this new electric Sierra, yet you get the feeling that there isn’t much you could put behind this rig that would slow it down.

A Genuinely Nice Interior — With Buttons

Since this is the Denali trim level (the only one currently available for the 2025 GMC Sierra EV), you’d expect the interior to be top notch — and it is. Our chief complaint with the GMC Hummer EV’s interior is that it looks cool but feels cheap; that’s not an issue with the Sierra EV Denali. The simulated leather upholstery is beautifully stitched together and the dash, doors and console use top-quality materials. Just like the Hummer EV, this is an expensive pickup. Unlike the Hummer EV, this feels like an expensive pickup. Oh, and there are knobs and physical controls, so even though there’s an absolutely massive 16.8-inch vertically oriented center touchscreen, there are also dedicated physical controls for the climate system and other functions.

Range Like We’ve Never Seen Before

The estimated range of the Sierra EV with the Max battery is a staggering 460 miles, and there are clips on YouTube of people surpassing 500 miles without trying very hard. That totally eliminates range anxiety with the Sierra EV, and if you use it as a normal daily commuter, you could potentially go all week without charging it. Even if you lost half your range when towing, you’d still have roughly as much as you would if you were towing with a gas-powered Sierra 1500, though refueling (charging) would be more time-intensive. The Sierra EV achieves its long driving range by using one of the biggest batteries in any automotive application, a more than 200-kilowatt-hour pack that can DC fast-charge at up to 350 kilowatts (if you can find a charger that’ll do that).

What Are the Cons of the Sierra EV?

Weight Like We’ve Never Seen Before

But the downside of this setup is that the Sierra EV doesn’t achieve its stellar range through astonishing efficiency — quite the opposite. The huge battery alone weighs more than some cars, and the truck itself weighs just shy of 9,000 pounds. This sets up a cascade effect: The battery is so big and heavy that everything else has to be beefed up to handle the extra weight, meaning the battery has to get bigger to move around all that weight, and so on. While the Sierra EV can go long distances between charging, and it can charge decently quickly, here’s hoping there’s a program in the works at GM focused on lightweighting and efficiency.

No Apple CarPlay

As in other GM electric vehicles, the Sierra EV runs a Google-based operating system — and Apple CarPlay isn’t offered. As long as you have a Google account and are cool with signing into it to access infotainment features, you’ll be fine. But if you’re like half the country and have an iPhone that you’d like to connect using CarPlay, you’re out of luck. For a lot of buyers, this alone is a deal killer, and might just explain why the Honda Prologue is outselling the Chevrolet Blazer EV despite being a nearly identical vehicle … that happens to have Apple CarPlay.

Maybe Not as Useful as It Could Be

While the Sierra EV’s size means it’s supremely comfortable inside with tons of room for five people, its construction means that its pickup bed is a bit smaller than an equivalent gas-powered pickup. The Sierra EV’s cargo box is about as long as a short-bed crew-cab Sierra 1500’s, but it’s significantly narrower, so you get 57.5 cubic feet of cargo box room to the Sierra 1500’s 63 cubic feet. The Sierra EV does have a trick up its sleeve, however: the MultiPro Midgate.

With the Midgate, the back wall of the cab and the rear seats can fold down, opening up the cabin to the bed, just like in the former Chevrolet Avalanche. This creates up to 10 feet and 10 inches of bed length when the MultiPro tailgate is also lowered, but it also opens up the cabin to the elements, which is less enticing in freezing temperatures or rain. Even so, it’s more versatile than an F-150 Lightning’s traditional 5.5-foot bed, and the Sierra EV’s cargo box is also a bit bigger than the Ford’s bed, which has 53 cubic feet of overall room.

More From Cars.com:

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• 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV on the Drag Strip: WTF Was That?
• 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV First Edition RST Review: All the Bells, All the Whistles
• Shop for a 2025 GMC Sierra EV Near You

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