2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali First Drive: This Truck Is Expensive, But Not Overpriced

• An upscale and high-tech interior distinguishes the Sierra EV Denali from its Silverado EV twin.
• The Sierra's MultiPro MidGate offers compelling cargo management.
• Starting at $91,995, this truck isn't cheap but maybe not overpriced either.

The Sierra EV also incorporates some other cool chassis tech. Four-wheel steering helps tighten up the turning circle, and GMC’s CrabWalk feature turns the rear wheels the same direction as the fronts to move the truck laterally sideways. The adaptive air suspension adjusts ride height depending on the drive mode — Normal, Off-Road, Max Power, Tow/Haul or a customizable My Mode — and you can manually set it, too.

Midgate’s day in the sun

One shortcoming of every electric pickup on the market right now is that they’re all short-bed body styles, which limits utility. Normally the Sierra EV is also a short-bed truck, with 5 feet, 11 inches of length from bulkhead to tailgate. But it also comes with a MultiPro MidGate, which lets you fold down that bulkhead to extend the load length. When it’s folded the bed stretches to 9 feet, 1 inch, or nearly 11 feet if you lower the tailgate and use the built-in load-stop. If you need to carry something even bigger — think couch — you can remove the rear glass as well, or you can only fold half of the bulkhead to retain a rear passenger seat.

There are a few catches and levers to flip to fold the midgate, but it’s easy enough once you’ve done it a couple of times. I think it's a cool feature, one that I can see being a definite deal-maker for buyers who want an EV but also need to haul large items they don’t want sticking out of the bed.

Drive time

It should come as no surprise that the Sierra EV feels pretty similar to the Chevrolet Silverado EV. There’s plenty of power, especially in the Max Power mode, but even just driving around town in Normal mode, you'll never feel short-changed. This truck isn't quite as ponderous as I expected in city driving; it's about the same as any other full-size pickup truck. It's also better than I expected on the tightly twisted two-lane roads in the hills around Silicon Valley thanks to the four-wheel steering. But make no mistake, this is no canyon carver.

In its maximum setting, the regenerative braking is exceptionally aggressive, and you can use a paddle on the steering wheel to bump that up even further if you want. The air suspension does a good job of soaking up road imperfections, and overall the truck quiet is inside, owing to the extra sound insulation and acoustic glass used in the Denali. That said, the massive 24-inch wheels and high-pressure tires transmit a lot of road imperfections to the cabin, and like the Silverado EV, I think smaller wheels with more tire sidewall would help settle some of those judders.

Denali makes a difference

“Denali” is GMC-speak for “luxury,” which means the Max Range Denali sits at the tippy-top of the Sierra EV lineup. The exterior design cuts a more truck-like profile than the Silverado EV, but the brand-specific interior is where the GMC really stands apart from its corporate cousin. There’s open-pore wood grain on the dash, nicer materials throughout most of the cabin, better sound insulation for a quieter highway ride, and soft leather on the seats. The weather in the hills west of San Jose vary from cool to cold, so I appreciate the front seat heaters integrated into the climate control system, and the fast-acting steering wheel heater.

The Sierra EV Denali comes with a wide array of driver assistance technologies such as a surround-view camera system, blind-spot warning, and GM’s excellent Super Cruise hands-free highway driving function. Super Cruise now works on more than 750,000 miles of premapped roads, and it's definitely nice to have considering that the prodigious range of this truck encourages road trips, and it can even incorporate your trailer, which is a pretty sweet trick.

The instrument panel is an 11-inch screen with multiple driver-selectable functions, many of which are redundant to the 14-inch head-up display. But those pale in comparison to the comically large 16.8-inch touchscreen that dominates the center of the dash. It’s the primary gateway to controlling just about everything in the Sierra EV, although thankfully there are physical buttons for the climate controls and a volume knob. The size certainly makes it easy to read everything, and the icons are big and clearly labeled. You can drag and drop frequently used items to a dock at the top of the screen to reduce menu spelunking, and the Google Maps and voice commands all worked well, as long as you have reception.

The caveat, of course, is that you can’t get Apple CarPlay in the Sierra EV, and I miss the tight integration it provides. GM’s work-arounds are similar to what you get with Tesla, but they’re similarly inelegant. My hope is that GM customers will complain loudly enough that the company changes its mind on this one.

Compelling despite the price

Right now the Sierra EV is only available in luxed-up Denali trims, which means they aren’t cheap. The Extended Range will set you back $91,995 with the $2,095 destination charge included, or a whopping $100,495 for the Max Range. In the spring a less expensive Elevation model will be available, along with a more off-road-ready AT4; exact prices will be announced closer to their on-sale dates.

Despite the high price, the Sierra EV Denali makes a good case for itself as a luxury electric truck. It’s appropriately posh without losing sight of its mission as a truck, and none of its competitors can go as far on a charge as the Max Range model. While it’s true you can pay around $65,000 for an F-150 Lightning, you won’t get nearly the range or tech features, although you will get CarPlay. But no other truck (besides some trims of the Chevy Silverado EV) comes with the super-handy midgate. If you’ve got the money to burn, I say have at it.