The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 is getting a refresh for 2022 that will bring new standard tech and safety features, a redesigned interior, a more powerful 2.7L turbo four-cylinder engine, a new ZR2 off-road package, and the availability of GM’s Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance system.
When the 2022 Silverado arrives at dealers
next spring, it will be the truck’s first major update since the current
generation went on sale as a 2019 model.
General Motors will give its best-selling Chevrolet Silverado large pickup truck models a makeover next spring to fix competitive shortcomings that have left Chevy in third place in one of the most lucrative vehicle market segments in the world.
Catching up with rival trucks from Stellantis
NV and Ford Motor, most 2022 Silverado models will get larger dashboard screens
and new connectivity technology featuring built-in Google voice commands and
software.
Chevrolet also will add a 420-horsepower
Silverado ZR2 designed for rugged off-road adventures - or to give the
appearance that the owner would have them. The Silverado ZR2 will chase Ford's
F-series Raptor and the Ram TRX from Stellantis, which are attention-getting
performance models for those brands.
The current Silverado, launched in early 2019,
has been outflanked in sales by rival Stellantis NV's Ram pickup. The Ram in
2018 got a makeover with a more refined interior and a 12-inch (30.5 cm)
dashboard screen that was closer in style to a Tesla Model S sedan than a
conventional pickup truck.
The Fiat Chrysler unit of what is now
Stellantis also expanded production capacity for Ram pickups in North America,
gunning to displace the Chevy Silverado as the No. 2 brand in the North
American pickup segment.
That strategy - led by Mike Manley, now head
of Stellantis North America - worked. Through the first half of 2021, Ram's
pickups have outsold the Silverado and are now in second place behind Ford's
F-series trucks, the best-selling model line in the United States for more than
40 years, according to sales data compiled by Automotive News.
Smartphone-like experience
Steve Carlisle, head of GM's North American
operations, told Reuters GM has learned from the challenge from Ram. "You
have to be very agile and react," he said. "And maybe ask different
types of questions."
Going forward, Carlisle said GM sees the
market moving from "bigger is better" when it comes to dashboard
displays to more emphasis on improving the user experience.
Carlisle said his goal for the revamped
Silverado is to knock Ford out of the top spot in the segment.
"We will not rest until that
happens," he said, though he added, "we are going to do the right
thing from a brand point of view."
Ram and Ford have their own upgrades coming
for 2022. Ram trucks will get enhanced infotainment systems. Ford is touting a
hybrid system available on the F-150 pickup that can power a house, and
promoting its all-electric F-150 Lightning coming next spring.
The new Silverados will get other new
technology. The redesigned trucks will be the largest-scale application of GM's
partnership with Alphabet's Google to create a more smartphone-like experience
in cars. And top-of-the-line Silverados will offer GM's Super Cruise system as
an option to enable hands-free driving on more than 200,000 miles (321,869km)
of roads in Canada and the United States.
The Silverado ZR2 responds to a more
traditional form of automotive competition. Powerful pickup trucks equipped
with tall, beefy suspensions, and other modifications to handle racing over
rough desert or leaping sand dunes have become the 21st century answer to
Detroit's 1960s muscle cars. Ford and Ram had models designed for extreme
off-road enthusiasts. Chevy did not. Now it will.
Carlisle said 60 percent of Chevrolet
Silverados sold now are "lifted trucks" with tall suspensions. The
Silverado ZR2 will add a 420-horsepower, eight-cylinder gasoline engine to the
formula. Carlisle said the ZR2 could account for more than 10 percent of
Silverado sales.
Ford's Raptor has a starting price of nearly
$66,000. Carlisle said Chevrolet's ZR2 will be more "accessible" with
a lower starting price.
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