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Chevy Silverado EV RST First Edition Sold Out in 12 Minutes, It Means Absolutely Nothing

Chevrolet introduced the electric version of their Silverado pick-up truck at CES on Wednesday and the hyped EV was met with great enthusiasm. GM’s CEO Mary Barra has revealed the First Edition RST model sold out in 12 minutes, even though it will not be available until 2024. Other trims are still available to order but expect lengthier waiting times.
Chevy Silverado EV RST First Edition sold out in 12 minutes 30 photos
Photo: GM
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Say what you will, but the Chinese are amazing when it comes to sales tactics. They should be, considering they manufacture almost one-third of all the products in the world. One such clever trick is to release new products in limited batches that quickly sell out, thus creating the hype of a hard-to-get product. All the phone brands in China sell their phones in small batches. This allows their makers to claim “it was sold out” several times in a row, despite the fact they intend to sell that phone for at least another year to come.

Straight out of that book comes the page a lot of carmakers wave now in our faces, especially when it comes to electric models. Time and again, electric cars that are still in the vaporware stage are announced as sold out. They might very well be, but as long as we don’t know if we’re talking about 10 cars or 10,000 cars we have no idea how successful a car really is. And this is a secret the automakers religiously keep to themselves.

This is why Mary Barra’s announcement that Chevrolet Silverado EV SRT First Edition sold out in 12 minutes means absolutely nothing. GM’s CEO revealed that in an interview with Bloomberg Technology, but, as you'd expect, she did not say how many cars were part of the First Edition launch model. The car is only supposed to hit the market two years from now, so we will refrain from judging. We know the orders for other Silverado trims are still open, including the more affordable WT trim.

Mary Barra also boasted the GMC Hummer EV's deliveries started in December, although the sales reports mention only one Hummer EV was delivered during the last quarter of 2021. This kind of statement does not serve GM very well, especially as its arch-rival Ford had to put F-150 Lightning orders on hold for fears it could not keep up with the demand. Did we mention GM only delivered 26 electric vehicles in Q4 2021?

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About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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