General Motors' GMC brand will begin offering carbon-fiber beds on two trims of its 2019 Sierra 1500 starting in early June as part of its "professional grade" ethos, the company has announced.
Purchasers will be able to add the bed to the Sierra 1500's Denali and AT4 trims. Pickups with the beds will be branded as CarbonPro editions and will provide several advantages to commercial purchasers, including increased durability, reduced weight, corrosion resistance, and increased payload, said Daniel Tigges, commercial product and sales support manager.
The carbon-fiber bed uses the same material found in high-end sports cars and some aircraft to achieve greater durability and lighter weight. The compound also resists corrosion, which helps the bed withstand weathering, according to GM.
Pickups with the CarbonPro bed also increase payload by up to 59 pounds depending on the configuration over the steel bed because the carbon fiber has less mass.
In 2018, fleets added 25,311 GMC Sierra pickups with 23,023 registered to commercial fleets and 2,275 added to government fleets. The Sierra accounted for about 28% of GMC fleet sales in 2018, which was higher than any other GMC vehicle, according to GMC.
