People often say that EVs are the future, and I can agree with that sentiment. Not only do they drive faster and smoother than traditional all-gas powered vehicles, but they sometimes come with innovative features, such as the night vision driving of the Cadillac Vistiq or the augmented reality head-up display of the Audi Q6 e-tron.
But then there’s the 2025 GMC Sierra EV’s unconventional CrabWalk driving experience. Without a doubt, it's the weirdest driving experience I’ve come across testing out the best electric cars over the past year — even stranger than the 360-degree spinning abilities of the Mercedes-Benz G 580.
I was skeptical and would have dismissed CrabWalk as yet another one of those novel features that reads gimmicky on paper. But I found out I was dead wrong after borrowing the GMC Sierra EV to try it out. Here’s why.
What is CrabWalk?
CrabWalk is one of the specialty driving modes with the GMC Sierra EV, which puts the car into a 4-wheel steering mode that allows it to move diagonally. It does this by angling the front and rear wheels identically, but it doesn’t technically allow the GMC Sierra to move side-to-side like how a crab actually walks.
GMC says that “you can traverse off-road trails or maneuver more easily in parking situations” with CrabWalk. However, this driving mode is limited to speeds of less than 20 mph. When you do drive above that, the wheels won’t have the ability to turn at the same angle — which will disengage entirely if the vehicle continues to drive above 25 mph for more than 10 seconds.
CrabWalk's a lot more practical than you think
If you watch my video above to see me using CrabWalk with the 2025 GMC Sierra EV, you’ll see how it exactly works. I wish the vehicle could actually move side-to-side because that would be game changing with parallel parking. But it doesn’t because the wheels don’t rotate all the way to a 90-degree angle.
Initially, I thought CrabWalk was just another gimmick GMC was trying to give the Sierra EV for a distinguishing feature. But now I know that it isn’t after testing out CrabWalk on a rocky lot.
Once I got a hang of how to engage CrabWalk, I soon began to realize how helpful it could be with off-road driving. Driving at a diagonal when the terrain is tricky has its merits, especially when I was coming up to an obstacle on the road.
Since the closed lot was cramped to begin with, CrabWalk makes it way easier to move around these obstacles compared to conventional driving. I can also see this being helpful in more urban situations, like parallel parking.
While I wouldn’t use CrabWalk exclusively to pull into a spot, I can see myself using it to make minor adjustments. Rather than moving the vehicle forward and backward multiple times to close the gap, I could use CrabWalk to pull me closer to the curb with one motion — and then even use it to get out of the spot later on.
A hefty cost to experience
With the GMC Sierra EV's $91,995 MSRP, I’m not surprised you’ll have to pay this much to experience this unique form of driving — but the Sierra EV is an all-electric pickup that has a lot of utility. You’ll also find CrabWalk available on the GMC Hummer EV, which is even more expensive.
I understand why we don’t see this feature in more vehicles. No, the average driver doesn't need to drive diagonally, but having it as an extra feature you can tap into in an EV that’s overflowing with utility makes more sense to me.
I know CrabWalk's not the sole reason you buy a GMC Sierra EV, but for drivers who frequently find themselves in tight spots, this gives them an extra dimension of movement to make an oversized vehicle such as this less overwhelming to maneuver.
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