Season 2, Episode 67 - Have You Heard? Chevrolet Silverado First Drive With Gale Banks

 

 

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Sean P. Holman (0s):

Hey, lighting, Have, You, Heard,

Intro (4s):

Oh. no, no, no, no,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7s):

No. I have not.

Intro (9s):

The truck show. We’re gonna show you what we know. We’re gonna answer What? The truck, because truck rides with the truck show. We have the lifted. We have the lowered and everything in between. We’ll talk about trucks that run on Diesel and the ones that run on gasoline. The truck show. The truck show. The truck show. Whoa, whoa. It’s the truck show with your hosts Lightning and Holman.

Sean P. Holman (46s):

This episode of The Truck Show Podcast Have You Heard is proudly presented by Nissan with the Frontier Titan and Titan Xd. Nissan has a truck for every need, along with the legendary Nissan durability Test. Drive your next truck at a local Nissan dealer today, or point your browser to Nissan usa.com where you can use the build and price tool to configure a Nissan truck that fits your lifestyle. And

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 6s):

When you’re thinking about adding power or improving fuel economy, Banks has over 65 years of experience, whether it’s cold air intakes or exhaust systems tuning, throttle control charge, air cooling, lubrication components, and much more. No one offers smarter, safer, 50 state emissions compliant performance parts than Gale Banks. You’ll find the best engineered parts for your truck at Banks Power dot com. This

Intro (1m 30s):

Is the show where they talk breaking news and This is the part where has Lightning Have You Heard.

Sean P. Holman (1m 38s):

Hey Lightning. Have You. Heard

Intro (1m 39s):

Oh. no.

Sean P. Holman (1m 42s):

I would

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 42s):

Like That one cracks me up every time. I’d

Sean P. Holman (1m 44s):

Like to disagree with you. You were there and invited me to this particular thing, but Oh, I know

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (1m 48s):

What this is.

Sean P. Holman (1m 49s):

So Banks was lucky enough to have a special visitor from a regional GM representative who had been taking the new Silverado EV around to various different fleets and things like that to show them the work truck model. And they had called Mr. Gale Banks and said, would you like to drive the new Silverado EV and take a look at it up on your lift? And Mr. Gale Banks said Yes. And then Lightning said We should have Mr. Holman come. And Mr. Banks said no. And then about an hour before it happened, Mr. Banks said yes. And then I was summoned to partake in this particular experience. So I figured

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (2m 28s):

At first I explained how this happened. So lemme tell you how that actually came to be. At first it was just going to be an engineering exercise. It was gonna be Gail and Matt Gamble. And then he thought, nah, this would actually be good for The Truck, Show Podcast because Mr. Holman does talk a lot about EV, so why not bring him in? So there was kind of an about facing there you were.

Sean P. Holman (2m 50s):

And there I was. And where I was there I was was what? Both was standing next to the Silverado EV up on the hoist. And I will tell you, I actually make a mistake in the beginning of the interview, I have only seen the RST version in person and that has the 24 inch wheels on it.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 11s):

This is a work

Sean P. Holman (3m 12s):

Truck. This was a work truck. And I assume because it had alloy wheels on it that it was a higher trim than It is. So I surmised that early on and then realized Oh, no, this was a work truck with alloy wheels. ’cause the early work truck photos all had steel wheels on it. So that kind of threw me for a loop. So, and then I will say, as far as work trucks go, odd trim too. Too much power and too much style

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 35s):

And not enough work truck ness like not enough utility. I

Sean P. Holman (3m 38s):

Think

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 38s):

We’ll get into it. Okay.

Sean P. Holman (3m 39s):

Alright. So I have taken the trip to Gale, Banks Engineering and I’m standing here with somebody. Fairly important with the company. Sir, what is your

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 49s):

It was Gale Banks engineering years ago. But since I got there, it’s Banks Power.

Sean P. Holman (3m 53s):

I thought Gale Banks Engineering was the other side of the building. No. And Banks Power was consumer facing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (3m 58s):

No. So there’s Gale Banks Engineering and that’s the Ice Corp, right? Yeah, that, but no one refers to that anymore. Now it’s Banks, Power and Banks Technologies.

Sean P. Holman (4m 4s):

Oh Jesus. All, right? Well I was there, so yeah. And I’m standing here with somebody, fairly important with the company. Sir, what is your name?

Gale Banks (4m 12s):

Gale. Banks. Oh.

Sean P. Holman (4m 13s):

Oh, your name’s on the building. Yeah. That, yeah, All. right. So the opportunity came up where GM brought you a new Chevy Silverado. EV. And so this is built on the Ultium platform. It’s shared across GM’s lineup, shares it with the, the Hummer Electric. Is this the first time that you’ve seen one of the electric trucks?

Gale Banks (4m 33s):

Absolutely. The first time.

Sean P. Holman (4m 35s):

So we are,

Gale Banks (4m 35s):

And this is an eight log, so it’s a serious electric truck.

Sean P. Holman (4m 38s):

So this truck has I think a 9,900 pound gross vehicle weight rating. And it’s curb weight’s around 8,600 pounds. So the way that GM is treating this is it’s sort of splitting the difference between half Ton and Threequarter ton So I know there’s some regulations about weight and how many of those vehicles need to be electrified. So this kind of plays because it’s above a 8,500 gross vehicle weight rating. But they’re really marketing it toward the half ton customer. Even though it’s heavy, it has more of, so the interesting thing about this is that gm, maybe like other manufacturers, found a little bit of a loophole and everybody’s like, oh, these EVs are so heavy. I think that’s by design because it gets them into the HD class, even though they’re going after more of a consumer.

Sean P. Holman (5m 18s):

Mm. You’ll get the payload of an hd, but you do get the towing of an hd and you also get the tax implications of electrifying heavy duty, even though it’s not the heavy duty that you and I know it’s this other thing, man. So you’re getting the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 29s):

Best of both worlds.

Sean P. Holman (5m 30s):

And, it straddles the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (5m 31s):

Line a little bit. Double dipping is what you’re saying. I’m

Sean P. Holman (5m 33s):

Just saying they’re creative about a half ton. I think Ride and and feel. I think they made a mistake when they named it. I think they should have called it the Avalanche because? Because it has the same form factor as an old Avalanche did, which is the kind of the no bed separate from the cab with the pass through and all that kind of stuff. Yes.

Gale Banks (5m 53s):

It’s a good looking truck. We’re looking underneath. We’ve got it on the hoist. It’s got like a full belly pan on it.

Sean P. Holman (6m 0s):

Yeah. So the Ultium platform is basically kind of like a EV skateboard where the batteries are housed in the middle between frame rails. So this is still body on frame. And this I believe is a two motor setup and So, it does have all Wheel drive, but you’re right, it’s completely flat. There’s some bolt heads sticking down and think,

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 20s):

I don’t think the GM guy expected it though, by the way. ’cause it, he pulls in, the GM guy pulls in and Gale walks in with him and then we, we right off on the lift. He’s like, what are you guys doing in my truck?

Sean P. Holman (6m 30s):

Well that’s part of what happens expecting.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 32s):

Yeah. When you

Sean P. Holman (6m 33s):

Head to Gale. Banks engineering technology and power.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 37s):

Yeah. What did you think about? So Gale just remarked about all the bolts sticking down. Yeah. Yeah. Like it was a minefield under there. Gale’s tall, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I had the lift all the way to its max I think. Like I was

Sean P. Holman (6m 48s):

Watching his noggin

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (6m 49s):

For sure. Yeah. Six and a half feet off the ground or so. But Gale was, I don’t know what a centimeter was from, from scraping his, his head on all of these bolts. Yeah. Why? It’s not a smooth belly

Sean P. Holman (7m 0s):

Cam. It’s a manufacturing thing. They’re not, you know, it’s not an off road package. So they’re not concerned about getting hung up on things. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 6s):

This had a hundred places to be hung up on.

Sean P. Holman (7m 9s):

It wasn’t that bad. No, it was other than no, other than the

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 12s):

Bolts. There was a bunch of seven sixteens bolts broke into

Sean P. Holman (7m 14s):

Yeah, but other, but other than that the belly was flat.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 18s):

It So, it looked like a cheese grater to me.

Sean P. Holman (7m 21s):

Okay. So. it was flat with holes in it. And you

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 23s):

Have

Sean P. Holman (7m 24s):

Water and dirt able

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 24s):

To get out. No, I’m saying not. Not the holes, but like you at all of these bolts sticking down. Like if you hit something you would Yes. If you were

Sean P. Holman (7m 31s):

Driving over cheese, you would shred it. don don’t know when you would do that though.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (7m 34s):

Okay.

Sean P. Holman (7m 35s):

Things like that. But it basically has a skid plate, the whole, on the whole underside of the, the belly. Yeah.

Gale Banks (7m 41s):

Which appears to, to be somewhat ventilated. The height of the batteries. I’m going to estimate five or six inches. We know where the bottom of the batteries is. Sure. We’re looking at it right now. The top, when they open the door,

Sean P. Holman (7m 55s):

You’ll be able to see from where the body interface is with the platform. Yes.

Gale Banks (7m 59s):

Where, where, where the floor is inside.

Sean P. Holman (8m 1s):

So this has up to 14,000 pounds of towing capability. Which is really high. Yeah. I mean that’s trailer. Yeah. For for trailer. But obviously that’s gonna impact battery life and and things like that. So the interesting thing is the capability is there, but how long Can you use the capability. I think there’s a, a balance in this place. So you know, we’ve talked about on the show, I feel like EVs definitely have a place. Are they a third car? Are they last mile delivery? Are they buses? Things like that. I think those are places where it makes a lot of sense. A vehicle like this is really trying to mainstream it for the everyday guy.

Gale Banks (8m 35s):

If I had had one here, it would be an in town vehicle. Yeah. I wouldn’t be out on the road with it. I’d be charging overnight. Here we can talk about where you can charge on the road and whether or not they’re using Tesla’s or ultimately would use Tesla’s to charge. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (8m 52s):

The supercharger network. Yeah. I don’t want to gel delve too far down into kind of the tertiary or the adjacent conversation. But let’s dive down into the truck specifically. Yes. I’d like to crawl under it here. You got it up on the hoist. And start getting your impressions of the build quality, lower control arms, drive, train components and see what your thoughts are about how, how the truck is assembled. Well

Gale Banks (9m 13s):

Let’s start at the front and work to the back. We’ve got forged aluminum control arms. That’s sexy.

Sean P. Holman (9m 25s):

The lower and the uppers are, are both aluminum, which is cool. They’re not just a stamp steel product. Look at how beef these S

Gale Banks (9m 32s):

Are. Yeah. Was the upright Look at the upright. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (9m 34s):

Twin piston front calibers. Yep. Look at how beefy that half shaft

Gale Banks (9m 37s):

Is. Half shafts are, you know, there’s a major twist. Yeah. Going to the wheels. A lot of torque output from the

Sean P. Holman (9m 44s):

Motor. Now on a rivian you’re looking at a four motor setup on a Hummer EV you’re looking at a three motor setup. This one is a two motor setup. So one per axle. And that still allows you to have all Wheel drive

Gale Banks (9m 57s):

And torque Vectoring

Sean P. Holman (9m 58s):

And torque vectoring.

Gale Banks (9m 59s):

Yeah. It’s probably sensing Wheel speed on all four wheels. When the Wheel speed goes too high, they take torque away from That one and vector it to the ones with traction. So I hear open field driving.

Sean P. Holman (10m 15s):

Well there’s some evidence of that here on the skid plates where mud definitely been off road before.

Gale Banks (10m 20s):

So skid plate under the front motor

Sean P. Holman (10m 24s):

This is the, the battery skid here.

Gale Banks (10m 26s):

Not a lot of unsprung weight. You know, the aluminum really helps.

Sean P. Holman (10m 30s):

You know, it’s interesting being under this versus being under a F-150. Lightning It is totally different. So the Lightning is essentially built on a modified F-150 platform. Yes. Whereas This is the OTM skateboard platform. So they’re completely different vehicles on the underside. Everything from the batteries is pretty well covered up with the skid plates. It would be interesting on the Ford you can actually see the battery capacity and kilowatts on the sticker underneath. I don’t see, there’s not a whole lot of information about what’s going on behind all of this protection here. I

Gale Banks (11m 1s):

Wish I could see it. We’re considering Multim batteries for some upcoming hybrid projects we’re doing for the Army.

Sean P. Holman (11m 9s):

So what’s it like to be Mr. Gale? Banks known for Turbocharging? Obviously both delved in the gas and Diesel side, but now starting to really dabble and evolve with your hybrid and and electrification side of the business. ’cause that’s starting to take off. And what I mean? This is just really the next step in the evolution of your career. Obviously you’re in Marine before you’ve done land speed racing, you’ve done all different fuel types. Is

Gale Banks (11m 34s):

This turbo turbocharging for 55 years?

Sean P. Holman (11m 37s):

Is this just another fuel type for you?

Gale Banks (11m 41s):

Yes, I’m fuel agnostic. I don’t give a damn what It is. You know when you combine the motor generator unit with a Diesel or gasoline turbocharged engine, you can amp up the turbochargers and if you got the motor generator there’s no turbo lag because you run ’em up together in terms of getting engine off idle.

Sean P. Holman (12m 1s):

Yeah. They’re really good for kind of filling in the cab.

Gale Banks (12m 3s):

I, I wanna do hybrid hot rods.

Sean P. Holman (12m 5s):

I think that would be awesome.

Gale Banks (12m 6s):

You know, offer hybrid hot rod engines, powertrains so to speak. I I

Sean P. Holman (12m 10s):

Think that would be amazing. The, the Beauty on that is as the internal combustion engine comes up on the torque peak on RPM, you can fill in that whole bottom. Absolutely with, with electric.

Gale Banks (12m 20s):

I can make the turbos more laggy. Yeah. But better top end. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (12m 24s):

But you can fill in where that, you would fill that lag with the electrification portion of it. We

Gale Banks (12m 28s):

Already are doing it in a Humvee we’ve done for the army being tested at the Aberdeen test center right now in Maryland. And we’re torque filling.

Sean P. Holman (12m 38s):

I think that’s a great technology. Ram has done it a little bit with the e torque. You’ll see some of the hybrids out there do it. But to, to see it, it’s

Gale Banks (12m 46s):

Minuscule. I,

Sean P. Holman (12m 47s):

Yeah, I want to see, I think what you’re seeing in the, the marketplace that I wanna see more of is performance EVs or performance hybrids where that hybrid motor is not about range or efficiency, it’s about more a better driving experience because you don’t have any of those gaps in power delivery.

Gale Banks (13m 1s):

You’ve got the 48 volt hybrid setups, which are belt driven up. Yeah. On the front of the the engine,

Sean P. Holman (13m 6s):

The mild ones GM has

Gale Banks (13m 7s):

Starts. It’s the alternator. That’s a hybrid then. Then you have what Toyota and Ford are selling, which is a bit more 600 to 800 volt system if they’re current. Sure. 800 volt being current for us and a bit more motor generator unit. So there’s some torque fill there that you can actually feel don don’t know what it does for fuel economy. I’ve looked at the non-hybrid Toyota mileage numbers and with hybrid it’s eh a little bit more. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (13m 42s):

You know it’s far It is hard to describe hybrid to people sometimes. I saw Lexus commercial recently that said it Perfect. It says both fuels electric for short trips, gas for long trips. And that makes a lot of sense because I think it educates the consumer doesn’t really understand why you would have those two technologies.

Gale Banks (13m 56s):

That is the Beauty on the, on the Humvee. The range is pretty profound. It’s a serious hybrid. The Humvees are serious hybrids.

Sean P. Holman (14m 5s):

You wanna walk to the back? Yep. And we can take a look and see.

Gale Banks (14m 9s):

Now here the a-frames are

Sean P. Holman (14m 11s):

Steel. Yeah. So lower control arms, these are steel unlike the, the aluminum ones up front. It’s an coil sprung rear independent on this particular version.

Gale Banks (14m 20s):

The upper appears to be a forged piece. The upper control

Sean P. Holman (14m 24s):

Arm. Yep. Yep. Pretty beefy.

Gale Banks (14m 26s):

And the upright Can, you see it looks aluminum as well.

Sean P. Holman (14m 30s):

It does,

Gale Banks (14m 30s):

Yeah it does. But steel lower probably to take strikes from stuff you’re driving over. You know, I

Sean P. Holman (14m 39s):

Am amazed that the, the motors are really only protected by a splash guard and they actually hang down lower than the, than

Gale Banks (14m 46s):

The ski plates,

Sean P. Holman (14m 47s):

The skid plates on the batterie. So Yeah. And the

Gale Banks (14m 48s):

Skid plate is bottom of frame.

Sean P. Holman (14m 50s):

So if you’re an aftermarket company wondering what kinds of products you could make for this, I would be like a starts right there. Yeah. Motor skid plate. Yeah. Serious

Gale Banks (14m 57s):

Skid

Sean P. Holman (14m 58s):

Plate for the road. Although I don’t know if this one has the offroad package or not.

Gale Banks (15m 2s):

It’s a work truck that’s for sure. No question about

Sean P. Holman (15m 5s):

Well yeah, I think the eight lugs said lot about that. That’s a tail right

Gale Banks (15m 7s):

There.

Sean P. Holman (15m 8s):

Yeah. The base work truck has 510 horsepower. This is definitely up above. This is up in the sevens. Yeah. This is 7 54. Yeah. On, on this particular one. don don’t know what trim this is, but I know this isn’t the WT trim. If you look, they actually have a temporary full-sized spare in the back.

Gale Banks (15m 23s):

And I understand there’s a 24 inch Wheel option.

Sean P. Holman (15m 26s):

Yes. Which is, which is a lot of Wheel.

Gale Banks (15m 29s):

Yeah. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (15m 30s):

Trust me, Lightning was very excited about that.

Gale Banks (15m 35s):

I don’t know where the battery management is or, or the battery cooling or heating capabilities.

Sean P. Holman (15m 41s):

It’s all covered up. Although you can see some of the high voltage orange cabling from the motor to the battery. Yes. And you can see a little bit of, I think the coolant routing above here going to the motor. Yeah. The rear half shafts. Amazingly enough, the rear half shafts

Gale Banks (15m 56s):

Look smaller.

Sean P. Holman (15m 57s):

Looks smaller than the front. Right. Than the front. Yeah. I’m wondering if that’s because of the extra load from turning that they need to accommodate for the front.

Gale Banks (16m 3s):

Oh, probably. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (16m 5s):

All, right? I I don’t know that there’s more to see underneath. It’s, it’s beefy. It looks like the rear sub frame is is pretty massive And. it, you could see the tow hitch on the back. So. Yep. It’s, there’s definitely structure under here. I’d love to put it down. Are they gonna let us drive it? Yep. Alright, before we put it down all the way, I’ve got Matt Gamble here who is going to fill my head with all sorts of technical bits that I was unaware of or unable to put into words earlier. So Mr. Gamble, you’re standing here looking at this newest technology from General Motors. What are your thoughts? Pretty

7 (16m 41s):

Interesting platform for a truck. This, this particular truck we’re looking at is configured as a, as a Chevy Silverado work truck in, in base trim with, you know, ba base interior on it. No real frills.

Sean P. Holman (16m 57s):

So this was the base. I was surprised because the wheels are the upgraded wheels. ’cause they,

7 (17m 2s):

It is a, you know, It is an early production or pre pre-production vehicle. So maybe some of that stuff won’t carry over, but,

Sean P. Holman (17m 8s):

So This is the only, this is only the 500 plus horsepower version, not the 700.

7 (17m 12s):

Oh yeah. Only, only. Yeah. Which, which is interesting because I, we, we don’t really have any specs while we’re standing here right now on, on the capacity of the battery. We know the vehicle weight, which is a little bit over 8,600 pounds, we know range 450 miles at, at that weight. Presumably we know zero to 60 time, which is four and a half seconds. It’s interesting to, to think about how much, how many kilowatt hours this Ultium battery pack has, and then what is its maximum discharge rate or it c rating to, to put that kind of power out. And, and what does that translate to as you use the truck in a, in a, in a work environment as this one is configured for

Sean P. Holman (17m 55s):

So, it looks like the base version. So if This is the 510 horse version is 400 miles of range on a full charge is what they’re saying.

7 (18m 2s):

But we don’t know what the capacity of the battery is. Right. So I I think Gail was talking about efficiencies and, and and how does that translate and range, right? So is It

Gale Banks (18m 13s):

Is terrain based and load based. Yeah. And velocity based. So if you don’t, you state a range, is that 35 miles an hour on flat land? What is that? Right. Right. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (18m 23s):

Well and then also arrow comes into effect around 55, 60 miles an hour. Absolutely. So that’s ending diminishing returns. The faster you go, that’s, that’s not a one-to-one. That’s an exponential increase as speed

7 (18m 34s):

And all

Gale Banks (18m 35s):

The square of the velocity.

7 (18m 36s):

And all the guys we’ve talked to today have said how much, how much fun this truck is to drive because it it does

Sean P. Holman (18m 44s):

Because It is the base model. Light one

7 (18m 46s):

Oh And, it And it really moves when you put your foot into it. But every time you do that, what, what does that do into your range? Right, exactly. You’re you’re really chewing away at it. It’s a big

Gale Banks (18m 54s):

Deal.

Sean P. Holman (18m 55s):

What I’m told, and I don’t know because this was from early production going through my notes, it’s a 200 kilowatt battery pack on the work truck.

7 (19m 3s):

Okay.

Sean P. Holman (19m 4s):

Okay. So we’re, we got a a 200 KWH whether that changed or not, it’s possible it could have, you know, most of the manufacturers will state that. And the battery capacity is actually more than that. And the reason for that, for people listening is because you don’t live from zero to a hundred percent in an EV in charge like you do in a internal combustion vehicle where you’re filling the gas tank from zero to a hundred, you live between 20 and 80%. And they don’t want somebody who’s gonna plug in every night and top off, which isn’t the best for the batteries every single night to be maxing out the battery pack. The system

Gale Banks (19m 32s):

Will not let you top off the battery. Right. Period. Which

Sean P. Holman (19m 36s):

Is, which is why they give you a lower rating than what is actually in the vehicle.

Gale Banks (19m 39s):

They’re lying to you about the number. Yes.

7 (19m 42s):

There’s,

Gale Banks (19m 42s):

You know, you go to a hundred, there’s still overhead on the battery. Absolutely. You go to zero. There’s still basement on the battery so to speak. So I had, I had a GM EV one for a while. It was their first effort.

Sean P. Holman (19m 54s):

The story behind that and there’s still a few that escaped being brought back. But that’s a whole other topic. It was, look at the EV one history. Google that. If you’re listening to this, the story is amazing. I

Gale Banks (20m 6s):

Had mine fully charged, had a charge indicator at the base of the windshield. I’m going to the gym in Pasadena. I go up the on ramp, I go, I go a mile and a half to the freeway downgrade, go up the on ramp leg it 70 miles an hour in the fast lane. Look down at that charge indicator. An eighth of the charge was gone, one eighth of it was gone. And that wasn’t like a quarter mile or something. All.

Sean P. Holman (20m 33s):

Right. Well let’s see what this thing will do on the on ramp. Hopefully it’s not an eighth of the charge.

Gale Banks (20m 36s):

Yeah.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 38s):

So then I proceed to lower the lift in back the EV off the lift. And that is actually the first time I’ve ever driven an EV. Isn’t that weird? Ever.

Sean P. Holman (20m 47s):

Ever. Except for that golf cart you have in your garage.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (20m 49s):

I don’t consider that I mean. Yeah, it’s an EV but I don’t consider that a like a, an actual car. So, I take it off the lift and then I put it in the street and you and the guy from GM and Matt and Gale all hopped in and went for a little ride.

Sean P. Holman (21m 3s):

Alright, so here we are in the brand new Silverado EV again. It should have been called the EV launch because that’s what It is. You’re

Gale Banks (21m 15s):

Really

8 (21m 15s):

Milking.

Sean P. Holman (21m 16s):

I am. Or or the a or the avilan. Either way it would’ve been fine. All. right. Gale is behind the Wheel and he’s buckling up for safety and we’ve got our GM corporate overlords are in the car with us to make sure we don’t do anything super stupid Oh.

Gale Banks (21m 30s):

No, I’m not. You want you

9 (21m 31s):

To accelerate gonna them up. It it won’t light ’em up. Yeah. We’re gonna find a way. It it has, it has a really good all Wheel drive system in it. So

Sean P. Holman (21m 38s):

Chris Bruney is outside egging Gale on. We at the end of the cul-de-sac ready to launch. There’s a

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 44s):

Couple that matters because Chris Bruney is our corporate counsel. Yes.

Sean P. Holman (21m 48s):

He was telling Gail to do a burnout.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (21m 51s):

What lawyer does that? He is like light it up old man. A good one.

9 (21m 55s):

Yeah. So the right hand side is basically your kilowatt meter. Okay. So when it goes up and orange and eventually red, that means you’re using electricity. Yep. When it goes down, it’ll turn green. That means you’re regenerating the battery breaking and breaking. Yeah. Right. Now I do have you set up in the standard two pedal drive mode. So it’ll drive like a normal vehicle. Yep. I can set you up into the one pedal on our way back. So you can try it both or you

Gale Banks (22m 16s):

Throttle And it breaks.

9 (22m 16s):

Correct? Yep. Yeah, exactly.

Gale Banks (22m 18s):

Okay. This is battery condition.

9 (22m 21s):

That’s battery life on the left. Yep.

Gale Banks (22m 23s):

And what are we reading here?

9 (22m 25s):

So that’s basically like a fuel tank almost your battery. Exactly. So you’re about a quarter tank roughly. You have 122 miles range. It’s,

Gale Banks (22m 32s):

It, it’s not giving me a percentage. So we’re estimating it’s a quarter half, three quarters.

9 (22m 38s):

Yeah. Top over and I think it’ll four. That’s 26.9%. Gail, there you go.

Sean P. Holman (22m 44s):

I thought it was 26.952.

9 (22m 46s):

Don don’t know if it reads out

Gale Banks (22m 47s):

When I Oh, it’s an energy efficiency. Two miles

9 (22m 49s):

Per ki hour. You want whichever screen you prefer So. I personally like this one. But it’s up to you.

Gale Banks (22m 55s):

Yeah. ’cause this will give you speed and power consumption versus speed. Correct. Yep. Okay. So I. Just release the brake. Try not to snap everybody’s heads off.

9 (23m 5s):

Everyone’s buckled. Yes. Oh

Sean P. Holman (23m 6s):

Yeah. Absolutely.

9 (23m 9s):

Feel free to accelerate hard. That’s what it’s here for. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (23m 14s):

All. right. We’re accelerating out onto the main road here. So 50 55.

Gale Banks (23m 22s):

It’s so smooth. The sensation of going through the gears. It’s not there. Nor is the engine noise. Of course it’s deceptive. It just pulls and we’re getting braking here. I’m using the pedal and I’m getting regen braking and we’re on the dual pedal setup. Alright.

Sean P. Holman (23m 49s):

Now, last time I took this driver out with Gale, I was giving him a ride in my 3 92. And this is completely different.

Gale Banks (23m 58s):

Yeah. We don’t say don’t Think,

9 (23m 59s):

We don’t say give a gas anymore. Give us some voltage. Right? Yes.

Gale Banks (24m 2s):

Well, we can still say no, not throttle, not foot feed. What are, what are

9 (24m 8s):

I Think? we gotta say give it some voltage. Yeah, I

Sean P. Holman (24m 10s):

Think you could still say give it the beans, give

Gale Banks (24m 12s):

It some kws. How about that?

9 (24m 14s):

There we got some kws. I like

Gale Banks (24m 15s):

It. Yeah.

9 (24m 17s):

And when you’re ready, I can swap it to the, the one pedal drive mode for you. Yes. So you wanna do that now or a little

Gale Banks (24m 22s):

Later? Well, that’s like a topia at Disneyland when I was a kid, you know.

9 (24m 28s):

Did you say yes to

Gale Banks (24m 28s):

Doing it now? Well, I never let off the, the th No, don’t do it yet. Okay. I never let let off the throttle

9 (24m 36s):

One’s all you need, right?

Gale Banks (24m 38s):

Well I get, you know, one of my kids in front of me and then I run into ’em repeatedly. Just an Oh, so slight electric motor sound.

Sean P. Holman (24m 52s):

That’s not the supercharger.

Gale Banks (24m 54s):

If It is, it’s a, it’s really a punk ass supercharger. And 60 60.

Sean P. Holman (25m 10s):

So that is 510 horsepower and a so far unknown amount of torque.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 15s):

How did that feel? Just listening to this, enjoying it? Like did, did it feel, have, have you been in a Tesla plaid?

Sean P. Holman (25m 22s):

I have not been in a plaid, but it would be nowhere close to that. Okay.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 26s):

Did it feel like a three? I guess those are pretty quick as well. Right?

Sean P. Holman (25m 29s):

I mean it just felt devoid of soul Did it felt like a really nice refrigerator. So

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (25m 34s):

This is not as nice as the rivian?

Sean P. Holman (25m 36s):

No, no. And it’s not. You can feel the heaviness, like absolutely. You can feel the heaviness. Hmm. It just like, I’m not, I’m not gonna say I was underwhelmed. I know this is quote unquote the only, the 510 horsepower version. I think this one has 615 pound feet of torque compared to the RST, which elevates those numbers quite a bit. But it’s girth, it’s fast, it’s, it’s zero to 60, even four and a half seconds. If you took the sound away from my 3 92 when it was stock, it would be really similar to that. But it lacks the visceralness, you get the adrenaline dump, you get push back in your seat and you get nothing else.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 11s):

So there’s no audio. Like the Hummer has,

Sean P. Holman (26m 14s):

The Hummer has a soundtrack that allows you to kind of feel what’s going on. This is just like nothing.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 20s):

I can’t recall. Did the Rivian have a soundtrack or no? No. So just silence. Just

Sean P. Holman (26m 24s):

Silence.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 25s):

How does the rivian have more, how does it make you feel

Sean P. Holman (26m 29s):

The The Rivian is different because it’s a smaller vehicle. It feels tighter in the cabin. You wear it more. Whereas this feels more like you’re in a full-size Chevy or a Tahoe. It’s really big. There’s a lot of round heavy.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (26m 41s):

So you’re saying the R heavy, the Rivian has skinny jeans

Sean P. Holman (26m 43s):

And the Silverados overalls? It’s cargo shorts. Oh, cargo. Okay.

Gale Banks (26m 47s):

I thought the, the, the stool motor was,

Sean P. Holman (26m 50s):

That’s on the RST

Gale Banks (26m 51s):

Version. This is the wt. Ah yeah the R,

Sean P. Holman (26m 55s):

So the RST is goes from five 10 to 754 horsepower. And from the work truck we were in at six 15 pound feet of torque. It goes to 7 85. Yeah, that’s a pretty big difference. A big jump. Yeah.

Gale Banks (27m 7s):

RT is 7 54 or something like that.

9 (27m 9s):

That’s what it will be when it’s in production.

Gale Banks (27m 11s):

Yeah. Will that be a three motor?

Sean P. Holman (27m 13s):

That’ll be a two. ’cause I think the threes are being reserved for the Hummer EV. Yeah.

Gale Banks (27m 16s):

Let’s do the single pedal. Okay.

9 (27m 19s):

So single pedal. All we do is hit this button here and it’s in high sensitivity mode.

Gale Banks (27m 23s):

Okay.

9 (27m 23s):

And now you’re ready to drive in single pedal mode

Gale Banks (27m 25s):

And you, you can set the level

9 (27m 28s):

Sensitivity. So there was the setting there that we could change the sensitivity. Okay.

Gale Banks (27m 40s):

That’s serious braking Can, you regulate that as well. The braking.

9 (27m 46s):

So there’s only two settings. One is just on and the other is high sensitivity. Yeah. Which is what we’re currently in.

Gale Banks (27m 51s):

So up to about 30 miles an hour drop throttle. Whoa. It decels like a champ. We’re charging the hell outta the battery pack there. I would think. I

Sean P. Holman (28m 3s):

Saw a story the other day talking about some r and d research going into whether you could eventually replace traditional hydraulic braking with motor regen braking. Oh. It’ll

Gale Banks (28m 13s):

Come to virtually no velocity. Boom.

9 (28m 16s):

It’ll stop completely. Yeah. If you let it

Gale Banks (28m 20s):

I don want your heads to come off.

8 (28m 26s):

Wow

Gale Banks (28m 27s):

Man. That’s stopping a lot of weight real quick. Isn’t that, that’s serious. I wonder what 60 to zero is in this thing. Nothing broke loose.

Sean P. Holman (28m 41s):

Just Matt and I in the back.

9 (28m 46s):

Now when you get a moment, do try to make a U-turn on this. The turning radius is quite impressive for a vehicle of this size.

Gale Banks (28m 52s):

Alright, I’ll do it on that back street U-turn here. See what I can do. Amazing. You me

Sean P. Holman (29m 7s):

Just made a complete U-turn within a city street here.

Gale Banks (29m 11s):

Why don’t you take it on the back street? Because I can gamble. Yep. All right.

Sean P. Holman (29m 16s):

All right. Well after that I pulled over and let Matt Gamble drive and we had a chance to experience it with him at the helm. And then Gail and I got out and had this brief discussion of I guess a down, a download. A debrief. A debrief I like Yeah. Of of what we both thought. Alright. So now that the adrenaline has left both of our bodies from that, that hardcore hot EV action. So what do you think driving one of those for the first time?

Gale Banks (29m 42s):

Smooth.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (29m 44s):

I’m gonna go see Hot EV action. They’re playing the, the Guardian playhouse. Thank in

Sean P. Holman (29m 48s):

The Irvine. See what you did there? Yeah.

Gale Banks (29m 50s):

Powerful. I don’t know about the range. Yeah. You know, they talk about 400 miles. I’m skeptical

Sean P. Holman (29m 56s):

Maybe as a air hauler.

Gale Banks (29m 57s):

Yeah. Empty bed. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about this off mic and basically the zero 60 thing is something they’re giving you that. Yeah. But if it’s a work truck,

Sean P. Holman (30m 11s):

You don’t

Gale Banks (30m 11s):

Need it. You don’t need it. You don’t

Sean P. Holman (30m 12s):

Want it. Yeah. Tune it down for your guys. Right. You

Gale Banks (30m 14s):

Don’t want Yes. Yeah.

Sean P. Holman (30m 15s):

I I I think that it’s great to see the technology be interesting to see what the adoption is. I think the, the Silverado’s a little different than say an F-150 Lightning because they don’t have the same bed accessories. Right. It doesn’t use the same cabin bed as the normal. This totally unique, brand new. So you have to create a new accessory market for it. So that, that kind of stuff aside, I, I think it’s interesting to see the technology and what they’re doing because if nothing else, I’m sure for different use cases we could pick apart, you know, this aspect of it or that. But to ignore all that for a minute, just sit in the vehicle and drive it. Yes. I think it was really impressive. Engineering feat.

Gale Banks (30m 49s):

Very solid vehicle. No squeaks. No rattles, no nothing. Acoustically kind of cool for your sound system. Yeah, right. You know, It is a solid vehicle. We’re interested in the technology. What can we buy from GM and use in our military stuff. So the battery system, it really intrigues me. Yeah, I understand. It’s modular.

Sean P. Holman (31m 12s):

Yeah. The o TM system is is their big play into batteries and there’s a lot of technology there. I understand that there’s patents coming out all the time. I know there’s just a patent that GM got for a fire suppression system within the battery pack itself. So it’s interesting to see the things they’re thinking of as we progress more toward EV adoption. Yeah.

Gale Banks (31m 32s):

And the newer technology, the chemistry and the batteries.

Sean P. Holman (31m 36s):

It’s difference between lithium ion and solid state. Yeah. And you know, there’s a bunch of different things happening right now,

Gale Banks (31m 41s):

But fire resistance if you will Yeah. Can be engineered as you engineer a new battery chemistry that’s getting better and better. I know we’re testing with the army back at the Aberdeen Test Center right now and with our hybrid Humvee program we’ve done for the Army. They didn’t want us to be in a building.

Sean P. Holman (32m 2s):

Oh sure. ’cause they didn’t know what your Yeah. What the batteries could, they

Gale Banks (32m 5s):

Put a maximum value on the building we could work in. Okay. And then they found us a building that was beneath that maximum value. So there’s a lot of fear.

Sean P. Holman (32m 15s):

Yeah. A lot of things you gotta work out. There’s

Gale Banks (32m 16s):

A lot of unknown about this battery management. Bad battery management can cause battery fires.

Sean P. Holman (32m 23s):

Oh. And there’s been all sorts of issues.

Gale Banks (32m 25s):

Not necessarily the chemistry, it’s Sure. It’s the management of the battery. The cooling for one hot environment, your cooling fails, whatever.

Sean P. Holman (32m 33s):

Well it’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I’m, I’m thankful for GM for bringing that by. And I appreciate the invite over to Banks so that I could get behind the Wheel because well I haven’t done that yet.

Gale Banks (32m 45s):

Well thanks for coming up. Appreciate

Sean P. Holman (32m 47s):

It. Let’s go get tacos. Yeah.

Gale Banks (32m 49s):

Tacos we’re on.

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (32m 51s):

You and Gail wandered into my office, wrangled me, and we went over to LA to Teca and you got the world’s largest wet burrito.

Sean P. Holman (32m 59s):

Yep. It was a day filled with futuristic trucks and old school Mexican food. My favorite

Jay “Lightning” Tilles (33m 5s):

The Truck Show Podcast is a production of truck famous LLC. This podcast was created by Sean Holman and Jay Tillis with production elements by DJ Omar Khan. If you like what you’ve heard, please open your Apple podcast or Spotify app and give us a five star rating. And if you’re a fan, there’s no better way to show your support than by patronizing our sponsors. Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.