After being delayed by over a year due to the chip shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the refreshed GMC Sierra HD has finally arrived as a 2024-model-year vehicle.
GMC unveiled the 2024 Sierra HD today, releasing full details on the truck’s style, performance, towing capabilities, and more (basically everything but mileage and pricing) plus a gallery of images of the truck in its top trims — the Denali Dually, the new Denali Ultimate, and the AT4. The lower-level Pro, SLE, and SLT trims are not pictured, but are detailed; while the off-road-prepped AT4X, scheduled to arrive sometime in the near future, remains largely under wraps. The lineup is available as 2500HD and 3500HD models in regular-cab, extended-cab, and crew-cab guise, with dual-rear-wheel options for the 3500HD.
With the semiconductor clog mostly cleared, GM has enjoyed a particularly strong third quarter this year, claiming the top spot for sales in the full-size truck, large luxury SUV, and full-size SUV categories, with its Chevy Silverado HD (which also recently dropped as a 2024 model) and GMC Sierra HD playing a crucial role in that. Seems North Americans still want their trucks and SUVs big and fancy. No real surprise, there.
From off-road ready trims, to trailering tricks and tech, to new interior perks, here’s how the 2024 GMC Sierra HD aims to aid GM in its efforts to stay on top of the full-size pickup pile.
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate Photo by General Motors
Fresh Exterior and (Mostly) New Interiors
While a pickup truck’s utility is an inherent selling feature, it’s no secret that those forking out the year’s salary required to own them do so also because of the style and comfort they offer.
To that end, GMC has upped the game inside the Sierra HD, fitting it with new interiors on the SLE and SLT trims, including new colours, stitching, and materials, as well as novel designs for the AT4, Denali, and Denali Ultimate trims.
Willing customers can opt for up to 40 inches of digital display with a new class-leading 13.4-inch diagonal touchscreen, a 15-inch head-up display, and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. Split-screen view allows for the simultaneous use of multiple apps at once, such as navigation on one side and entertainment on the other. Base-level Pro models won’t have Google built in, which works with Wireless Apple CarPlay and Wireless Android Auto, but all others do.
The biggest news for those shopping for cushy seats and the latest tech, however, has to be the addition of the Denali Ultimate trim, which GMC qualifies as “the most advanced and luxurious pickup in its class.” That may or may not be a matter of opinion, but there sure are a lot of interior goodies. The exclusive Alpine Umber interior contains full-grain leather on the door panels and on the 16-way adjustable and massaging front seats, a 12-speaker Bose Premium sound system, standard sunroof, standard head-up display, open-pore Paldao wood trimmings, and Denali Ultimate badging on the seatbacks and console lid.
“The new and enhanced 2024 Sierra HD builds on an already winning foundation,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of Global Buick and GMC, in a prepared statement. “This truck elevates the HD segment with the introductions of the Denali Ultimate trim and will soon add the seriously off-road-capable AT4X trim, further strengthening the dominance of the GMC truck portfolio.”
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate
On its exterior, the Denali Ultimate features a special grille; 20-inch machined aluminum wheels with gloss black accents; a fender with badges depicting North America’s highest mountain, Mount Denali in Alaska; and a six-way MultiPro tailgate with embedded audio system and power assist step below it.
Scale down in trim to any of the other levels and there’s still a revised front bumper, fascia, and grille meeting the eye. The SLE, AT4, and Denali trims with dual-rear-wheel setup all wear 18-inch aluminum wheels, with available 22-inch accessory wheels. For an extra cost, buyers can opt for one of six new exterior colour finishes: Sterling Metallic, Redwood Metallic, Meteorite Metallic, Titanium Rush Metallic, Downpour Metallic, and Volcanic Red Tintcoat.
Same Engines, More Power
2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4 Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4 Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4 Photo by General Motors
2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4 Photo by General Motors
GMC’s same 6.6L Duramax Turbo-Diesel returns for the 2024 model year, but with more power and more low-end torque production to increase towing capability. The newly fettled powertrain includes a brand-new and more efficient turbocharger, boosted engine braking thanks, new cylinder heads with better cooling jackets, a new combustion system that uses higher-flow injectors capable of handling more pressure, and a new engine controller.
Output is listed at 470 horses at 2,800 rpm (up from last year’s 445 hp) and 910 lb-ft of torque at 1,600 rpm. The latter figure remains the same as the current model, but engineers have enabled it to offer up to 25 per cent more twist at the low end.
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate Photo by General Motors
With that, the 2024 Sierra HD 2500 Crew Cab should lead its class in towing with the power to pull 21,900 lbs, and 22,500 when fitted with the Max Tow Package. For the real cowboys (i.e. those individuals pulling trailers loaded with literal livestock or heavy machinery) there’s the 3500 dual-rear-wheel that can manage the lineup’s highest trailering capacity of 36,000 lbs max.
The 6.6L gas engine remains virtually the same, but is now paired to a 10-speed Allison transmission instead of the old six-speed auto, which allows the truck to maintain near-peak revs and provide “a more confident feeling of on-demand power, regardless of whether the truck is towing a trailer.”
Trailering Tricks and Tech
2024 GMC Sierra HD Denali Ultimate
In addition to the engine mods that provide more available twist for towing, the new Sierra HD comes loaded with trailering assistance technologies packaged in the Prograde Trailering System, which now includes 14 unique camera views.
This means blind-spot alerts, weight notifications, a trailer-length indicator to help visualize lane changes, hitch-guidance cams, adaptive cruise control that now works with trailering, and the brand’s transparent trailer view that’s now available for goosenecks and fifth-wheels – an industry first – and uses a rear-mounted camera and a corresponding device on the trailer to render the load see-through.
GMC expects the refreshed 2024 Sierra HD in dealerships in the first few months of 2023, with the AT4X to follow later in the year. Pricing has yet to be announced.
Keyword: First Look: 2024 GMC Sierra HD