New electric trucks are expensive, but do you know what isn’t? This 1997 Chevy S-10 Electric that’s for sale on Facebook Marketplace. That’s right, folks. This ultra-rare GM EV1-based electric pickup is just sitting on Zuck’s website, waiting to be bought by you for just $15,000.
I know 15 grand sounds like a lot of cash for a mostly-broken 27-year-old compact truck, but trust me: this is the exact vehicle you need in your life. First of all, it’s probably the rarest vehicle you can actually afford to get your hands on. According to the post, just 492 S-10 Electrics were ever built, and most of them were crushed when their leases were up (similar to the EV1), but 60 were sold outright to commercial fleets, and they survived. This little truck – number 145 – is one of those 60. Thank God.
Unfortunately, this S-10 Electric has seen better days. Its lead-acid battery pack is very much dead at this point, and it has been removed from the truck. I did a little bit of Googling on your behalf, and apparently, you can swap BMW i3 battery modules into these things. That’s so sick. There’s also some sort of lithium battery update kit available from Trajectory Electric Customs. That’ll run you about $12,000 (or $0 because the price seems to be messed up on its website.) Say you were to get that kit, add $15,000 for the truck and a few grand for other little things, and you’re looking at $30,000 for a 27-year-old Chevy S-10. That’s not the greatest value, but it’s cool as hell, and who can put a price on cool? Regardless, it’s still a lot cheaper than other electric pickup trucks for sale right now. That’s for damn sure.
Anyway, we should probably talk about the bones of the S-10 Electric a little bit, shouldn’t we?
It was only produced for two years at GM’s plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, and since it was related to the EV1, it was front-wheel drive rather than rear. It also had a bit less power than the EV1 – just 114 horsepower (compared the 137 of the EV1) to account for extra weight. Because of this, it was very much not fast. Zero to 50 took about 10 seconds and full charge and nearly 14 at 50 percent charge, according to this ancient stats sheet I found online. It also topped out at just 71 mph, which took over a mile of acceleration to achieve. So, it’s not fast, but what rush are you in?
In a forward-thinking piece of engineering, the batteries were stored in the floor of the S-10 electric – in the rails of the truck’s ladder chassis. There were two battery packs you could choose from: a standard 15 kWh lead-acid battery array that would get you about 60 miles of range. That’s what our truck originally had, so not much is lost by it being dead. High-rollers could step up to a 29 kWh nickel-metal-hydride battery pack that would give owners about 130 miles of range. That’s still not good, but it’s definitely much more livable than the other pack. Regardless of the battery pack, the S-10 Electric was charged by the Magne Charge paddle you’d get on the EV1.
So, my friend with about $30,000 just sitting around, please go to Peru, Indiana, buy this really neat little piece of automotive history and return it to its former glory. Oh, and once you do, please let me drive it. Thanks!