Paying $80,000 or more for a new Chevy Silverado EV may churn your stomach, but there is a more affordable option (with some risk).
Plenty of folks reel and hiss at the thought of ever owning an electric truck like the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV. If you’re one of those folks, I totally understand if you’d like to go on your merry way and discount everything here. For those who are a little warmer to the thought of taking the plunge but just can’t square the high price tag — again, definitely don’t blame you — then pay attention. While GM is picking up electric truck production at the Factory Zero plant in Detroit, Hertz’s second-hand sales site currently has nearly three dozen Silverado EVs for sale for thousands less than you’d have to pay to pick up a new one.
As InsideEVs reports, the rental giant is purging 35 Chevy Silverado EV 3WT models from its rental fleet, as part of a larger effort to cut its losses on a huge EV bet it made last year. As a result, trucks that were at least $74,900 to buy new will now set you back roughly $63,000, give or take a couple hundred bucks.
Okay, that’s still not “cheap”, but it is a price-saving of $12,000 or more for a truck that has 16,426 miles on the odometer, at worst. In some cases, some trucks Hertz is trying to offload have less than 3,000 miles on the clock. So, basically new, in other words.
Retail buyers can only buy the Silverado EV RST brand-new right now, and that truck will set you back a massive $96,495…and that’s just the start, before you factor in accessories. The 3WT trim, being a “Work Truck”, obviously isn’t as swanky or have as much range as the RST or the 4WT trim, which can manage up to 440 miles on a charge per official ratings. Still, the 3WT can drive up to 393 miles on a charge, while towing (12,500 pounds) and payload (1,750 pounds) are a bit better than the larger (and heavier)-battery models.
A gas Silverado is still way less expensive…
Relatively speaking, if you’re strictly looking to get into an electric truck, getting $12,000 or so off the Silverado EV 3WT’s price tag or a whopping $30,000 cheaper truck than the eye-wateringly priced RST is worth a second glance. Nevertheless, I’ll grant you the indisputable fact that even $62,000 is an expensive pill to swallow against any of the ICE-powered Silverado 1500s. These EVs don’t exist in a vacuum with no other options, which is why Chevy dealers shifted 184,746 light-duty Silverado trucks so far this year, against 3,257 Silverado EVs.
Pricing for a gas-powered, 2.7-liter 2025 Chevy Silverado 1500 WT starts at $38,795 for the base model, assuming you’re happy with rear-wheel drive and a two-door, regular cab configuration. For a more apples-to-apples comparison, a WT 4WD crew cab with a short bed and the 5.3-liter V8 engine will set you back $49,785 before options. Even a more heavily featured Silverado 1500 LT 4WD will cost $62,495 before any dealer discounts or incentives.
All that said, new Silverado EV trucks are also getting pretty steep discounts because they’ve been sitting on dealer lots. This one for example, at Bomnin Chevrolet in Miami, is on sale for an asking price of $55,400 including the dealer’s own $6,000 discount and $7,500 “Ultium Promise Bonus Cash” (GM guaranteeing the “tax credit”, even though the Silverado EV doesn’t qualify for the federal EV tax credit on its own right now).
Bottom line, you can get a cheap ex-rental Silverado EV if you’re willing to take a bit of risk (not a lot, considering most of the trucks still have under 10,000 miles). You can also score a relative deal, in EV terms, if you snap up a truck that’s been sitting for awhile. Or, if you loathe the idea of buying an electric pickup truck — thanks for reading/scrolling this far regardless — you can get a Silverado 1500 Work Truck with a choice of 2.7-liter turbo-four or the 5.3-liter V8. Let us know your thoughts!
H/T to Mack Hogan with InsideEVs for his research and reporting on Hertz’s Silverado EV situation.
