Meet the ‘Sierra Grande’ concept truck: a challenger to the F-150 Raptor’s throne?

American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has teamed up with GMC to bring to life the ‘Sierra Grande’ concept, which takes the already-strong foundations of the Sierra HD AT4X and cranks the pickup’s off-road credentials to 11. Prepare for your spinal to be very tapped.

To kick things off, AEV has reworked the stamped steel front bumper by adding a revised prototype brush guard for even greater strength. Other upgrades to the front-end include the addition of a 12.5k winch and a quartet of 7000 series off-road lights.

Arguably the most eye-catching of all is a snorkel that aims to filter through the cleanest air possible to the 6.6-litre Duramax diesel engine; something you’ll be particularly grateful for in extreme driving conditions, like, for example, the M25 during rush hour.

AEV has also carried over the stamped steel front skid plate, IFS skid plate and transfer case skid plate from the AT4X. In case you missed it, that’s more skid plates than The Independence had in Armageddon.

The suspension has also been heavily influenced by the AT4X, with the control arms, dampers, rear suspension and steering knuckles all making their way into the Sierra Grande, and allowing for an additional 1.5 inches of lift over its donor car.

At this point, it’s fair to question if there’s actually anything on the Sierra Grande that hasn’t just been nicked from the AT4X. Happily, there is. 

Thanks to the extra 1.5 inches of lift, AEV has added a beefy set of flared arches, the domino effect of which is that it has also been able to fit the Sierra Grande with some massive 40-inch Goodrich tyres to cocoon a set of Salta XD alloys. 

Rounding off the notable additions is an eight-foot aluminium bed, vertical tyre mount and ARB on-board air system. A custom green paint scheme wraps it all up.

Matt Feldermann, marketing manager of AEV, said: “The idea behind this concept stems from our team envisioning the most adventure-capable truck possible. With that in mind, we needed the best platform to build upon which of course led us to the GMC Sierra HD as the foundation.”

The Sierra Grande will be on public display at AEV’s booth at the 2023 SEMA motor show, which runs between Tuesday 31 October and Friday 3 November.