GM's EV truck customers must wait for Tesla-compatible charge ports

By Paul Lienert

(Reuters) - General Motors does not expect to put Tesla-compatible charging ports on its new Chevrolet Silverado EV pickups before model year 2025, it said on Monday.

The U.S. automaker also has scrapped plans to offer a base version of the Silverado EV with a $39,000 price tag, Amy Masica, director of Chevrolet truck marketing, told a media briefing.

GM in early June joined Ford Motor in adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS), which is fast becoming the norm for EV charging in North America.

But GM’s new battery-powered pickups are not yet fully compatible with Tesla’s Supercharger network.

The first 2024 Silverado EV Work Trucks are rolling out of GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant, with deliveries to fleet customers beginning “in a few weeks,” officials said. The initial model is priced from $77,905, excluding shipping charges.

A cheaper Work Truck variant arrives late this year, priced from $72,905. About the same time, retail customers will be able to buy a well-equipped Silverado EV RST, from around $105,000.

A less expensive Trail Boss edition should arrive next year, which is also when the 2025 Silverado EVs should go on sale.

When GM announced the Silverado EV early last year, it said prices would start at $39,900. Silverado EV's nearest rival, the Ford F-150 Lightning, was initially priced at $39,974, but its base sticker has since soared by $20,000 to $59,974.

Masica said "conditions have changed" in the nascent electric pickup sector, but declined to say how low future Silverado EV variants will be priced.

GM Energy executive Derek Sequeira said at the Silverado launch in late June that GM will only have charging adaptors available for the electric pickups in early 2024.

Eventually, GM will replace the current CCS charging port in its EVs with the Tesla-compatible NACS outlet.

That means early models of the Silverado EV and other GM electric vehicles may have to employ a different adapter to use the CCS chargers GM’s existing charging partners provide across the country.

GM also is considering installing Tesla-compatible NACS chargers at its dealerships, once its vehicles begin to be equipped with NACS charging ports, Sequeira said. Those new GM chargers are likely to carry the Ultium Charge 360 brand, he said.

At an investor conference in early June, GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said the automaker has an opportunity to partner with Tesla in developing future locations for EV chargers.

(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; editing by Barbara Lewis)