This is the third new Silverado in the last 18 months.
Following its introduction this year of a newly styled half-ton Silverado, Chevy has pulled the sheets off a new Heavy Duty model. You may want to sit down for this one.
“We set out to make a statement with the 2020 Silverado HD,” said Brian Izard, lead exterior designer for Silverado HD. With that headlight arrangement, your humble author thinks they’ve actually made five or six statements, most of them ripped from the pages of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction books.
The company has shown off two different trims of the 2020 Silverado HD over the past couple of days. Kicking things off was the mid-range LT Z71 model, displayed here in an industrial grey colour with a huge CHEVROLET billboard across its snout. That truck positions its headlamps below the main grille feature, a design choice with which these jaundiced eyes have always struggled.
Reverting back to a grille bearing the Chevy bowtie is this High Country version. Its headlights are not quite as alarming, perhaps because the company refused to issue a photo of the truck from a square-ahead perspective. However, it does carry through a modern interpretation of the current truck’s High Country level of bling.
“The result is a truck that looks like a piece of heavy machinery with modern, chiseled finishes and customer-focused details,” continued Izard. In terms of useful details, they have succeeded. For example, both of the new HDs shown feature a clever step molded into the truck’s bed side, allowing owners easier access to the bed from the starboard or port side without having to use the rear tire as a launching point.
Both trucks share a more conventional rear style, with their taillights parroting those found on the new half-ton Silverado. Chevy does take care to mention the only body panel the HD has in common with its little brother is the roof. Indeed, the HD has square wheel wells rather than round ones, and the sloped bodyline found on the 1500 trucks is absent on the HD. Those towing mirrors are also of a new design, featuring a single mounting post that looks like a plumbing p-trap instead of the current two-post look.
GM isn’t releasing much detail about available powertrains other than to say the diesel puts out 910lb-ft of torque, a number that mirrors the current truck. The diesel engine will be paired to a new ten-speed automatic, replacing the present unit that has only six cogs. An “all-new” gasoline engine is mentioned but no power numbers or displacement is given.
This is the third new Silverado in the last 18 months if you count the rebranding of its enormous commercial trucks. These HD brutes will be assembled in Flint, Michigan and should appear on dealer lots next summer.
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Keyword: Pulling a Face: 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD