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The future of towing doesn’t rumble, it glides. And on a humid Sunday morning in the rolling hills of Morris County, New Jersey, one man did what many keyboard warriors and barstool engineers have long claimed was unthinkable: he hitched his 3,500-pound boat to a 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali Extended Range, dialed in tow mode, and descended from the Appalachian highlands with electricity in the battery and hesitation in the rearview.
It was a real-world test, not a brochure fantasy. And it was delivered in a recent Facebook Post.
“Towed my boat (~3500 lbs) from my house in Morris County, NJ to the Leonardo State Ramp. Had the wife and kid on board, too. It was my first time towing w this truck.
The truck handled everything great. Started today w a 100% charge. The range started at ~230 miles in tow mode and got even higher as I drove down through the mountains where I live. Once I got to the highways, I super cruised it from 280 down the GS Parkway. Got to the boat ramp about 54 miles away and still had an 81% SOC with a 203-mile range.
Boated down the Navesink and back w a stop for lunch and towed home, super cruising through the stop-and-go traffic. By the time I got home, I had driven a total of 116 miles at 1.3 miles per kWh. I had 54% SOC, which translated into 209 miles in normal mode once I disconnected the trailer.
The best part for me was that this ramp is probably the furthest I will ever tow my boa,t and I didn’t even have to stop to recharge at all. This was my biggest holdup about getting an EV truck vs an ICE truck, and I’m glad to see the reviews of the Sierra were not exaggerating the capabilities of this thing.”
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That’s David Kuperberg, a rising voice in the GMC Sierra EV Group on Facebook, posting not a sales pitch, but a snapshot of what real EV ownership looks like in 2025. His post sparked a simple yet telling exchange. Mario Lopez asked, “Is it a max or extended range?” and Kuperberg responded: “25 Denali extended range.” Just a Denali owner doing what truck owners have always done: haul their toys, take the family, and get home without a fuss.
2025 GMC Sierra EV Extended Range Towing Capacity
- The Denali trim equipped with the 170 kWh Extended Range battery can tow a maximum of 10,500 pounds, matching GM’s highest trailering rating for the Sierra EV lineup.
- 500 lbs more than the Max Range pack. Whereas the Max Range battery is rated for 10,000 lbs of towing, choosing the Extended Range pack boosts capacity by half a ton, giving owners extra flexibility under heavy loads.
- Standard ProGrade Trailering System simplifies hookup. This suite includes Hitch Guidance with camera-based alignment, a trailer light test feature, custom trailer profiles, and up to 15 camera views to monitor the hitch area and trailer while driving.
- Towing impacts the driving range. Real-world tests show towing roughly 9,000 lbs at highway speeds can reduce achievable range from the Max Range pack’s 460 miles down to about 440 miles, and similar proportional drops occur with the Extended Range pack.
Let’s get into the numbers. Kuperberg started with a full charge, roughly 200+ kWh usable in the Extended Range model, and completed 116 miles of towing with a 3,500-lb boat, averaging 1.3 miles per kWh. Crucially, he still had 54% battery remaining when he pulled into his driveway.
That’s about 209 miles of available range once he unhitches the trailer and switches back to normal drive mode. That matters because this wasn’t done under controlled conditions. It was hills, traffic, highway, lunch stops, and family logistics. And still, the system held strong.
Descending into the valleys of New Jersey, regen braking added energy back to the battery, turning gravitational potential into practical mileage. It’s a feature that’s becoming routine for EV drivers, but for a truck towing a boat, it’s a technological pivot point. That’s efficiency ICE powertrains simply can’t replicate. You burn gas going up and burn brakes coming down. The Sierra EV does the opposite, pulls with torque, recovers with smarts.
And then there’s Super Cruise. From Route 280 to the Garden State Parkway, Kuperberg reported that the Sierra handled stop-and-go traffic with hands-free ease. For anyone who’s white-knuckled a loaded truck through a weekend crush of Jersey drivers, that kind of capability matters.
It’s not just about battery range anymore; it’s about brainpower. GM’s lane-centering and adaptive cruise system adds more than comfort; it adds precision. And in the world of towing, precision is currency.
This wasn’t just a one-off success story, either. Over on Reddit and Facebook, other Sierra EV and Silverado EV owners echoed similar experiences. One wrote,
“I tow with my RSX Silverado EV all the time. It’s a monster. Blows away my Ford 450 Diesel. Hands down.”
Another chimed in, “Been using her as a truck since I got it. Towing this trailer full of tools, probably 2k pounds, starting seeing 1.4 mi/kWh.”
2025 GMC Sierra EV Interior Dimensions & Bed Size
- Spacious front cabin. Drivers enjoy 43.9 inches of headroom, 44.8 inches of legroom, 64.0 inches of shoulder room, and 61.3 inches of hip room up front for a comfortable driving position.
- Generous rear accommodations. Second-row passengers have 38.7 inches of headroom, 44.3 inches of legroom, 63.3 inches of shoulder room, and 60.8 inches of hip room for ample comfort on longer rides.
- Standard bed and Midgate expansion. The cargo-box floor measures 70.59 inches in length. Folding down GMC’s MultiPro Midgate extends the bed to 10 feet 10 inches, enabling transport of longer items without a trailer.
- Ample cargo volume. The bed offers roughly 57.5 cubic feet of volume, enough to stow tools, gear, or luggage for work and play.
Perhaps the most telling detail from David’s post wasn’t the math; it was the mindset.
“This was my biggest hold-up about getting an EV truck vs an ICE truck.”
That hesitation is the same friction point that’s defined the EV pickup debate for years…
This is the present, paved by the bold. A 9,000-pound electric pickup just did the job that a diesel dually used to dominate.
Today, that freedom hums quietly under a GMC badge, rolling past gas stations and into a new definition of what a truck can be.
Image Sources: GMC Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
