GMC Sierra with carbon fiber box starts at nearly $67,000

DETROIT — A GMC Sierra with General Motors' new carbon fiber pickup box will start at nearly $67,000, the company said Friday.

The industry-first feature will be part of a "CarbonPro edition" package offered on the Denali and AT4 top-end trims beginning in limited availability by July, followed by an increase in production for the 2020 model year.

An AT4 model with the CarbonPro box will start at $66,635. The package also includes a "Premium Package" and top-end "Driver Alert Package," among other things. The Denali model will start at $70,020 – roughly $13,725 more than the starting price of the high-end trim.

It also includes a "Denali Ultimate Package," 22-inch premium wheels and other features. Both also include a 6.2-liter V-8 engine and an audio speaker system that integrates into the pickup's six-function MultiPro Tailgate. All pricing includes $1,595 destination.

Duncan Aldred, global head of GMC and Buick, declined to comment on how much the box individually costs, but based on current pricing for other options in the package, there's no premium for the carbon fiber box.

"We certainly made it into a very good value package but we also wanted it to be associated with the best of everything we offer in GMC," he told Automotive News Friday at a press event. "That's why we've really packaged it like that."

Driving sales of the top-of-the-line Denali and AT4 trims also is part of the strategy, according to Aldred.

GM, Aldred said, plans to produce less than 1,000 of the carbon fiber boxes for the 2019 model year, followed by less than 20,000 for 2020.

"You're getting absolutely state-of-the-art technology here with true capability that's better than anything else out there in the pickup truck segment," Aldred said, previously referring to the box as "basically indestructible."

Ramping up availability of the carbon fiber box is one of several updates for the upcoming model year, a year after GM redesigned the pickup as well as its Chevrolet Silverado 1500 sibling for the 2019 model year.

Other updates include expanding availability for its forthcoming 3.0-liter Duramax turbo-diesel inline-six engine and 10-speed automatic transmission and offering additional technologies such as adaptive cruise control, which the automaker was criticized for not having at the pickup's launch.

The brand also will add an available transparent trailer view, which debuted this year on its heavy-duty sibling. For 2020, the Duramax diesel engine also will be available with the CarbonPro Edition of the Denali and AT4 models.

The quick updates, according to Aldred, were planned and not a knee-jerk reaction to the increasingly competitive landscape for pickups.

GM expects a "minimal" price increase on the pickup for the 2020 model year, but pricing has not been finalized.

The carbon fiber box is being produced at a Continental Structural Plastics facility outside Fort Wayne, Ind., near where GM produces the Sierra and Silverado 1500 models.

The process is similar to the production of a traditional steel box but includes presses and other equipment specifically developed for carbon fiber, including a massive, GM-owned 3,600-ton press that makes the main components of the box, including the bed and sides.