General Motors revealed two new V-8 engines for its 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups on Wednesday, doubling down on gas and diesel power as electric truck demand stays weak.
The redesigned lineup, released after a media event at GM’s Flint Engine plant near Detroit, pairs the two new V-8s with a carryover inline-six-cylinder diesel and an enhanced four-cylinder turbocharged option. The V-8s belong to GM’s sixth generation of small-block engines, a family the company first produced in 1955.
“If we don’t stomp the competition with these trucks, then I’d be very sad and questioning myself. That’s the goal,” GM President Mark Reuss said at the Wednesday event. “That’s what success looks like: continued truck leadership.”
Full-size trucks remain the profit engine for Detroit automakers. Chevrolet and GMC combined have outsold Ford since 2020, though Ford’s F-Series remains the single top-selling truck brand. Both companies updated their engine offerings for the 2027 model year.
The renewed truck wars arrive as EVs continue to weigh on the industry. All-electric pickups have not sold well, in part because towing and hauling sharply cut an EV’s range. The shift has been reinforced by the Trump administration’s removal of federal EV incentives of up to $7,500 and its rollback of fuel economy rules and penalties. GM said the decision to build a new generation of V-8 engines came well before those changes, with development of the Gen 6 small-block starting in 2018.
V-8s still dominate GM’s truck sales. The company reports that 55% of Chevy Silverado sales and roughly 61% of GMC Sierra 1500 sales this year carry V-8 engines. Its 3.0-liter TurboMax diesel accounts for 20% of Sierra 1500 sales and 35% of Silverado 1500 sales.
Hybrids have gained ground across the wider market this year, but pickups remain an outlier. Hybrid leader Toyota reports that only 18.7% of its Tundra full-size pickup sales this year have been hybrids. “No one has the efficiency on a diesel that we have,” Reuss said, arguing that hybrids fall short on range and raw performance for truck buyers.
The competition among GM, Ford and Stellantis intensifies each time one automaker refreshes its full-size lineup. GM’s redesigned trucks are its bid to extend six consecutive years of sales leadership in the segment against those rivals.