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GM Wants You To Ignore Four-Cylinder Silverado EPA Rating

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2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Chevrolet’s 2019 Silverado has a fairly unique powertrain for the new generation: a turbocharged 2.7-liter four-cylinder. When it first learned the engine’s EPA rating, it talked about how its engine was making about the same efficiency as the competition for more power, but it wasn’t exactly impressing people with its mpg gains. It makes better economy in the city than the old V6, but worse on the highway. Now though, General Motors is saying to ignore that. In fact, just ignore the whole EPA rating.


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At a Silverado media drive in Phoenix, GM executive chief engineer of full-size trucks Tim Herrick said, “I don’t think we’re done with the fuel economy piece yet. We learn more and more every day.” He later added, “Don’t look at the label. We’re as good or better than [the competition] in every step.”

The argument seems to be that while the turbo-four makes the same economy as the competition at the moment, it is likely to get better as GM tinkers with it. It said that like with its diesel engines, fuel economy will be better with each new version. At the very least, it will match competitor’s V6.


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Some of this improvement already seems to have happened. An early version of the engine apparently would have needed racing gas to meet the automaker’s desired targets. It hired a third party contractor to help with development for high low-end torque (an incredibly important metric for trucks).

We will have to see whether how much better new versions will perform. For now, the turbocharged 2.7-liter four-cylinder delivers 310 horsepower and 348 lb-ft of torque, and makes 20/23/21 mpg city/highway/combined.

News Source: Automotive News (subscription required)