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General Motors’ executive team was crystal clear on Wednesday in New York while laying out the automaker’s future: the end game is EVs and the future is electric. Today, that struggles to align with electric truck sales.
On the latest episode of The Drivecast, Senior Vice President of Vehicle Products at General Motors Jaclyn McQuaid told The Drive, “I think there is a huge application for electrification in the truck space, huge application in the truck space.” The statement was in response to the question of what she would tell someone who’s scared of electric trucks and nervous about the future feeling like someone can pry their diesel-powered HD from their cold, dead hands.
Listen below to the moment McQuaid addresses the topic and the future of electric trucks.
McQuaid is no stranger to trucks. Her career includes working on subsystems for GM’s trucks, including but not limited to exhaust, tires, wheels, brakes, and even seats, all before becoming the first chief engineer for the automaker’s heavy-duty trucks. She launched the heavy-duty pickup GM called T1.
She’s lived with one, too. McQuaid said she spent a year driving a Silverado EV, and called the range of GM’s current electric trucks “incredibly impressive.”
According to McQuaid, a big part of the case is “Off-board power that it can provide, running a job site, running your home.”
The executive qualified the future by noting, “We’re continuing to make advancements in battery technology, in energy density, in range, in cost. With that increase in range and performance comes increase in towing.” And continued by saying, “I think the infrastructure is going to continue to develop as we continue to develop, but I do not see those two things as mutually exclusive, the truck space and electrification.”
In terms of EVs and trucks McQuaid said, “I actually see them working together really well, and what you have to remember about General Motors is we know trucks.”
“Whether it’s propelled by a diesel or a gas engine or whether it’s propelled by an electronic propulsion in battery, we know trucks, and we’re going to continue to develop the EV technology, but I see great application for it in the truck space,” McQuaid said.
GM’s next wave of trucks will get the automaker’s new central computer, and full-size pickups are next in line for its eyes-off highway driving system after the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ. No timeline has been given for when GM’s next-gen EV tech, including LMR batteries, will reach its electric trucks.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
