These 1998 Chevy S-10 Electric Pickups Were Supposed To Be Destroyed. This Guy Saved Three

There was a time not that long ago when people thought the electric car takeover was imminent. I’m not talking about any time in the last five, 10, or even 20 years—I’m talking about the 1990s. General Motors made quite a few believers with the EV-1, an almost revolutionary vehicle that met an untimely end when the company suddenly pulled the plug on the program. While that’s the car that history remembers, there was a lesser-known GM EV from the same period with a radically different shape: the S10 Electric.

We’ve written about these a few times before, but without much authority, if I’m honest. Info on the rudimentary electric pickups just isn’t widely available. That’s a big reason why my eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw Keith Dillman post in a Facebook group saying he owned not one but three S10 Electrics.

Considering GM made just 492 of these between 1997 and 1998, that’s impressive. It’s even more impressive when you learn all but 60 of them were crushed alongside the EV-1s. And of that small fraction of factory trucks that survived, most went on to become government vehicles. All three of Dillman’s S10 Electrics are ’97 models wearing build numbers 42, 107, and 145. Wouldn’t you know it, they were also government trucks that he believes served at Robbins Air Force base.

“(The S10 Electric) had the force of General Motors behind it,” Dillman told me over the phone. “There’s actually a lot of high-tech stuff in it—it’s just the batteries sucked. That’s why they failed. It was destined for failure. There’s no way it could have succeeded.”

Indeed, the lead-acid batteries in all three of Dillman’s trucks are no better than paperweights today. He purchased his first S10 Electric somewhere around 2018 and despite that, he’s still never driven one. That means he’s spent the last seven years or so just tinkering, trying to fix what he can as he waits on a lithium-iron-phosphate pack that’s being built specifically for trucks like his. More on that in a minute.

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Dillman tells me he’s repaired quite a bit on the first S10 Electric he purchased. Everything that runs on the 12-volt circuit works like it should. That one even has a working diesel-fired heater. Yup—these have a one-gallon diesel tank behind the regular fuel door that supplies a small water heater. Since the powertrain’s heat pump doesn’t work well in freezing temperatures, there’s a flip you can switch on the dash that engages the diesel heater. It even has a one-inch stainless steel exhaust pipe that dumps behind the back tire.

Finding parts for these can be tough, as you’d expect. Dillman says that if you want something highly sought after, like the front bumper valance, you just have to buy a whole truck. But he learned that all S10 Electric (and EV-1) part numbers are eight digits long, starting with “2700.” He shopped the Vintage Parts website and bought everything he could that met that criteria “without even knowing what most of the stuff was because there’s no picture, very poor description or abbreviations or something.”

“I just bought everything they had,” Dillman continued. “If they had two, I bought two. If they had seven, I bought seven. I just bought everything. And I got some pretty neat stuff in, some stuff I needed to actually, like the charging port, factory charging port in the box, a few things I’d just bore you to death talking about.”

And that leads us to the batteries. Dillman says he beat the dead horse of lead-acid for years with no luck. Finally, he and some other S10 Electric owners went in together on a group buy for Trajectory EV out of California to make lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for their trucks. They paid half up front with the rest due when they receive their batteries and so far, “four or five” have taken delivery. “Not me,” Dillman continued, “but it’s been years chasing this thing, and I don’t want to rush anything.”

The new battery has been the most expensive part of the process by far. Dillman said that at $12,000 per pack, he’s only purchasing one and plans to rotate it between the three trucks rather than investing $36,000 into them. When the cold weather hits in Indiana where he lives, he’ll put the battery in warm storage to preserve the cells’ lifespan. That should help the truck maintain its projected 150-mile range, which is plenty for weekend cruising and visits to car shows. Considering the lead-acid battery-equipped S10 EVs could supposedly travel just 60 miles at a constant 45 mph before running out of juice, 150 miles on a full charge sounds like a dream.

That’s what these trucks have in store for them; no trips to pick up mulch or stone or what have you. They’re collector vehicles and Dillman plans to treat them as such. And while he wants to keep all three of them as complete as possible, he realizes there may come a day when one has to be used for parts. If that’s the case, then so be it.

“I’m going to put batteries in it and be just happy,” Dillman added. “If somebody wants to buy them, they can buy them off my wife when I die.”

Apparently, there’s another collector who Dillman claims has “probably 80%” of the S10 Electrics still in existence. They’re said to be covered in moss, wasting away. I’m curious to learn more about them, and maybe there’s a follow-up story to be written if I get in touch with the owner. Stay tuned!

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