Chevy just published a press release showing off an 1,100 horsepower Chevy Silverado EV ZR2 race truck concept meant to get the world excited for the 2026 Chevy Silverado EV Trail Boss β Chevyβs very first off-road-focused electric vehicle. But Iβm not excited because I know that the new, more capable Silverado EV is going to be yet another reminder that electric off-roaders are just not ready for primetime in 2025.
Iβm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, here. As an off-road diehard, I think the more capable vehicles hit the market the merrier. And in fact, when I reviewed the Rivian R1T, I had almost entirely nice things to say. I also liked driving the Cybertruck.
But those machines were cool because they were novel, and by 2026 when the new Silverado EV Trail Boss hits the market, the glitz and the glamour associated with new electric pickup trucks will have worn off. In fact, it already has, and now that Iβm looking at new electric vehicles through clear lenses with no rose tint, it becomes obvious that they just arenβt suited to be great off-roaders. At least, not right now.
I donβt mean that electric vehicles arenβt good off-roaders from a technical standpoint. No, the torque delivery of an EV, and the granularity with which it can be delivered, are sensational. Thereβs no doubt about that. No, when I say EVs arenβt suited to be βgreat off-roaders,β I mean off-road capable vehicles for the masses.
Think about it: Itβs 2025, and thereβs not a single off-road electric car that even borders on βaffordable.β Not one. And the reason for that is simple: off-road vehicles just require too much energy to go down the road, which is something we all intuitively know β itβs a key reason why a Ford Escape gets better fuel economy than, say, a Ford Bronco. And the more energy needed, the bigger the battery needed.
So when I saw Chevyβs press release for the new Silverado EV ZR2 and Trail Boss, I couldnβt help but think about how compromised itβs going to be, especially when it comes to pricing.
Hereβs what Chevy has to say about the Trail Boss in the aforementioned press release:
The Silverado ZR2 race truck conceptβs reveal comes as Chevy prepares to launch this summer the 2026 Silverado EV Trail Boss, its first off-road oriented EV variant. Trail Boss is a more off-road capable Silverado EV with a factory-installed lift, 18-inch wheels, 35-inch all-terrain tires and red tow hooks. New Terrain Mode gives the truck increased maneuverability in tight spaces.
If this were a gasoline truck, like, say, the Chevy Colorado ZR2, Iβd be amped to see this. 35s! A lift kit! Lockers! Thatβs fantastic. Sure, itβll hurt fuel economy and ride quality and handling, but those are compromises Iβm willing to make. In an EV, though, that first compromise makes the off-road hardware far from worth it in my eyes.
My article last May about how EVs just arenβt suited for serious towing is quite similar to this one in that my main point has to do with Vehicle Demand Energy: The energy needed to propel a vehicle down the road.
With a heavy load hooked to a trailer hitch, getting a reasonable range requires a massive amount of energy onboard the tow vehicle. On a gas or diesel vehicle, you just install a big blow-molded fuel tank for a few bucks more and be done with it. On an EV, you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds worth of curb weight to store the extra energy needed to yield a similar range as an ICE truck.
The good thing about a pickup truck tow vehicle, though, is that it can be fairly efficient when itβs not pulling a trailer. So, an EV pickup could still be an OK daily driver even if itβs not great when the energy demand goes up during towing. But what if that pickup truck has an increased energy demand when not towing?
Thatβs essentially what Chevy is doing by off-road-ifying its Silverado EV. By installing 35-inch tires and a factory lift kit, itβs going to compromise the vehicleβs range by increasing aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. The only way to even slightly mitigate that is to use air suspension, which allows one to raise the vehicle for off-roading and lower it for highway driving. Even with air suspension (which, by the way, isnβt cheap) 35-inch all-terrain tires alone will significantly reduce range.
The current crop of Chevy Silverado EVs offers ranges between 282 miles and 492 miles, and while that latter figure may sound impressive, itβs just a product of a humongous 205 kWh battery. The vehicleβs efficiency of 50 kWh/100 mi is significantly less than that of, say, a Rivian R1T (which, to be fair, is a bit smaller). The 282-mile vehicle uses a 119 kWh battery, while the 400-ish mile truck has a 170 kWh battery, if youβre curious.
The result of these bigger batteries is a high cost and high weight. Unless youβre a fleet operator who can buy a WT βWork Truck,β buying a Silverado EV will cost you over $75,000. I get that an off-road variant will look cool and be fun, but like an off-road version of a gas truck, this is just going to be a more expensive truck with less range. And when youβre already expensive and range-conscious like the Silverado EV is, Iβm not sure those are two areas worth compromising for a bit more off-road capability.
Iβm saying βa bit,β because just looking at that picture above tells me this thing is going to be far from an off-road beast. That belly looks big, the front overhang looks low, and at about 9,000 pounds itβs likely going to bury itself in loose terrain and be an absolute bear to recover once itβs stuck.
Back in August Lucidβs then-CEO Peter Rawlinson told me itβs not possible to make an affordable EV pickup truck without a gas motor. If you want to be competitive in terms of towing range, you just have to install an absurdly heavy and expensive battery pack.
The same holds true when it comes to off-road capability. To build an off-roader with the right geometry (short overhangs, a short belly), underbody protection (which adds weight), and tires (big all-terrains or mud-terrains), youβve got to make major compromises to Vehicle Demand Energy. That means you need a big battery to give you a reasonable range.
The Rivian R1S will go 410 miles on a charge, but it does it thanks to a 141.5 kWh battery. And that vehicle doesnβt even have aggressive all-terrain tires. It also costs over $90 grand.
EVs just arenβt ready to be good, affordable off-roaders in 2025. But there is an obvious solution: The range extender.
Adding a small gasoline range extender allows you to install big 35-inch tires and all the skid plates you could want without significantly compromising edge-case driving situations like road trips (this is important because people, whether logically or illogically, buy vehicles based on edge cases). Instead of installing a 200 kWh battery to get 350 miles of range (for example) out of your off-road vehicle, you can just have an 80 kWh battery, get 140 miles of electric range to handle the majority of your daily-driving needs, and when you need to go on your annual road trip, you just fill up.
Youβve now saved $17,000 worth of batteries (but added maybe $7000 back with the range extender, for a net savings of $10,000 to be conservative), and youβve dropped your curb weight by at least 1,000 pounds.
Range extenders truly are the only way to make electric off-roaders remotely accessible to the masses in 2025. This new Silverado EV Trail Boss doesnβt have one, and the result is almost certainly going to be an expensive, heavy vehicle with only so-so range and off-road capability. Iβm sure itβll be fun to drive, but certainly not fun to pay for or charge up.
