Primm, NV – Off-road racing is the ultimate test for a truck, and few events on earth are as punishing as the Mint 400. Held in the vast empty lands outside Las Vegas, this race takes place over two days as drivers haul their race-prepped rigs around a long-distance course through the unforgiving Nevada desert.
So when Chevy wanted to prove the capability of the all-electric Silverado EV pickup truck architecture, the Mint 400 was the obvious choice.
The Silverado EV ZR2 Race Truck Concept you see here has the radical look of a purpose-built desert race truck, but it’s made of 98% General Motors production parts. Raised off-road suspension with prototype Multimatic Adaptive Spool Valve dampers offer more than 13 inches of wheel travel at each corner and make room for 37-inch BF Goodrich KM3 Mud-Terrain tires on custom 18-inch wheels. Locking differentials provide unsurpassed off-road traction, and beefy underbody skid protection was added to stand up to the toughest punishment the Mint 400 could dole out.
Aside from these upgrades, and the necessary safety equipment required for off-road racing, the ZR2 Concept Race Truck shares its bones with the production Silverado EV. The production-based three-motor electric drivetrain pumps out 1,100 horsepower and 11,500 lb-ft of torque, and this ZR2 features Chevy’s largest-capacity EV battery pack.
The ZR2 Concept Race Truck was developed over a five-month period, then given to Chad Hall, an off-road racing legend and the primary driver and owner of the Hall Racing team. The plan was for Hall to drive the ZR2 Concept Race Truck in the Mint 400’s Open Production EV Class, alongside Hall Racing’s gasoline-powered Silverado ZR2 and Colorado ZR2 race trucks. Chevy engineers would be embedded with Hall Racing to witness firsthand how the all-electric ZR2 Concept Race Truck stood up to the Mint’s harsh racing environment.
The ZR2 Concept Race Truck competed in the Limited class, a 73-mile lap of the grueling Mint course. The all-electric Chevy completed its lap in 2 hours, 32 minutes, and when it finished, it still had 40% battery left.
“Racing really provides a great playground to develop new parts,” said Tim Demetrio, manager of off-road performance for Chevy Trucks. “Find out what works, what doesn’t work, break some things, fix some things, and then truly make a better vehicle for the customer.”
Driver Chad Hall agreed. “One off-road race is equivalent to a lifetime of wear and tear,” he said. “Whether a customer plans on taking their truck off road or not, they will get a better truck from top to bottom because we race.”
Racing gives Chevrolet the chance to test vehicles and components in the most extreme environments. The lessons we learn in motorsports allow us to develop stronger, more durable, safer vehicles. Events like the Mint 400 challenge our vehicles far beyond what the everyday customer experiences, and allow us to improve our products in ways big and small.
