General Motors has just pushed one example of its formerly-known-as-Ultium EV hardware well beyond what government officials — and, frankly, us at Road & Track — was possible. That’s because the automaker just revealed that its employees recently took a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV on a ridiculous 1,059.2-mile trek across Metro Detroit without stopping for a battery top-up. That journey has now secured a EV range world record for the brand, besting Lucid’s 749-mile journey earlier this year.
The truck in question is a Silverado EV in Work Truck spec with the Max Range battery pack, which provides 205 kWh of juice. The automaker says that the truck’s hardware and software were entirely untouched and representative of a customer vehicle, though a few slight adjustments were made for efficiency's sake. These included a tonneau cover to smooth out airflow, tires inflated to maximum pressures for a lower rolling resistance, a specialized alignment, and lowered wiper arms.
The drivers were also largely left solo in the vehicles to reduce weight, while the spare tire was ditched for the same reason. The test was done in the summer due to favorable ambient temperatures, climate control was turned off, and — perhaps most importantly — speeds were limited to 20–25 mph when possible to limit excess consumption. Drivers rotated in one-hour shifts, taking turns driving around the area near GM's Milford Proving Grounds before ending at Detroit’s Belle Isle.
“Getting this kind of range on a full charge doesn’t happen by accident,” said Kurt Kelty, vice-president of battery, propulsion, and sustainability. “It takes deep integration across battery chemistry, drive unit efficiency, software and vehicle engineering—and that’s exactly what the team delivered. This achievement is a great example of how far our EV technology has come, and the kind of innovation we’re building on every day at GM.”
While the test might not exactly be representative of real-world driving — we, for one, would rather not drive from Philadelphia to Orlando at 25 mph without air conditioning — we'd love to see some of GM’s other EVs take on this challenge. Perhaps more of these sorts of experiments will help GM improve the hardware that underpins all of its current EV offerings. The brand certainly doesn’t seem like it's given up on improving its EVs quite yet, even if the industry is in a bit of policy whiplash; and hey, more research can only lead to more improvements.
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