USA TODAY International Edition
Will Americans embrace electric pickups?
Innovation puts new charge into pickup wars
The all- American pickup is on the precipice of change with five new battery- electric versions set to arrive in the next 18 months.
That means an already uber- competitive segment is about to become even more cutthroat as the new EV pickup segment edges into sales of gasoline counterparts.
And consumer acceptance of the sleek, environmentally friendly rigs could set the stage for the future of all electric vehicles, which matters a lot to General Motors and Ford Motor Co. as they bet big on EVs.
“EV pickup trucks are a catalyst to EV ownership in general,” said Vanessa Ton, senior manager for research firm Cox Automotive. “It’s a pivotal moment. EVs started out as cars and sedans, then we started seeing more SUVs available in EVs. But a pickup is a different animal. There’s a mind- set and a culture behind it that – you’d think those consumers would not consider EVs – but they are.”
Cox, which is an investor in electric truck maker Rivian, did a consumer study late last year. It found that nearly 2 in 5 consumers looking to buy a new pickup in the next two years are considering going electric.
If preorders are any indication, there is interest for electric pickups, though the preorders are a fraction of the current sales of internal combustion pickups. Last year, U. S. consumers bought 2.3 million gasoline pickups, Cox Automotive data show.
The barriers preventing some buyers from embracing electric pickups are the high purchase price compared with internal combustion, range- anxiety and a lack of charging infrastructure, Ton said.
Still, here is what is coming and how industry experts see the pickup wars shaking out over the next five years.
Hummer vs. F- 150
Ford and GM, the top sellers of internal combustion pickups, are coming out with electric versions.
GM will launch the 2022 GMC Hummer at the end of this year. The Edition 1 trim is priced at $ 112,595. Preorders for the pickup sold out within minutes of its reveal last fall, GM has said, but it declined to say how many orders it got.
The Hummer is the only electric pickup GM has announced, but GMC dealers say an electric version of the Sierra pickup is in the works. GM has said it plans to be an all- electric car company in the future.
The Hummer is a beast. It has up to 1,000 horsepower from its top powertrain option. That option has an estimated range of 350 miles per charge. It uses three electric motors that can take it to 60 mph in three seconds. The vehicle can drive diagonally, too, when in CrabWalk mode.
In 2019, Ford confirmed it will build an electric light- duty pickup and launch it in 2022.
The F- 150 is the top- selling vehicle in the United States and offering electrification won’t dilute its overall appeal, analysts say. In the Cox consumer study, which questioned 155 people, those who said they were looking to buy an electric pickup ranked the F- 150 at the top of their consideration list, followed by Tesla’s Cybertruck and then GMC’s Hummer, Ton said.
Tesla’s Cybertruck
GM and Ford will face competition from the Tesla Cybertruck, which has a nontraditional design that looks like something from the future or the movie “Mad Max,” but it will have capabilities to match any of the top- selling pickups.
The Cybertruck starts at $ 39,900. Published reports say it’s expected to start production later this year, but Tesla isn’t talking. A request for comment went unanswered.
“The Tesla Cybertruck will appeal to the Tesla audience,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds. com.
If Tesla builds the pickup in the same design shown at reveal, it likely won’t appeal to many traditional pickup buyers, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst of E- Mobility for Guidehouse Insights in Detroit.
“I think it’ll be a competitive space,” Abuelsamid said. “I suspect that the traditional players who dominate the pickup market today certainly have a builtin advantage because of the brand loyalty they have.”
Mighty startup
Then there are the startups, Rivian and Lordstown Motors, which have the funds and customer interest to make them contenders as they roll out allelectric pickups later this year.
Rivian is backed by the might of Amazon, which plans to put electric delivery vehicles in America’s neighborhoods. This summer, Rivian will launch the R1T pickup – built in its factory in Normal, Illinois.
The R1T can tow more than 11,000 pounds. Buyers can choose between a 300- mile or 400- mile range package with pricing starting at $ 67,500.
The Lordstown Motors all- electric Endurance pickup will focus on the commercial market.
Endurance, an F- 150- sized pickup that goes into production in September, will be the first production vehicle with an electric motor in each wheel hub, Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns has said.
Hub motors allow for precise control of power and traction and reduce the number of parts in a vehicle. The other upcoming EV pickups have motors mounted on the chassis – similar to the engine of a conventional car.
The Endurance starts at $ 52,500. It has a 250- mile range and can tow up to 7,500 pounds.
Initially for the rich
By November 2022, all of these pickups will be “competing hard” against each other as well as taking on the internal combustion engine models, Abuelsamid said.
“Overall, I don’t see the pickup segment having a huge growth in the next five years, so that means every sale of an electric truck will take away the sale of a gas truck,” Abuelsamid said.
But initially electric pickups will draw in a few new and affluent buyers, said Mike Ramsey, automotive and transportation analyst for Gartner Inc. in Detroit.
“The electric pickup market will be a luxury pickup market at first,” Ramsey said. “If there’s substitution, it’s likely to be a shared mix from large SUVs and high- end pickup trucks and people shifting out of high- end cars.”
The rich will be the first adopters not only because they can afford the higherpriced electric pickups, but they also can pay to install a charging structure in a home if needed, Ramsey said.
“There will have to be another vehicle in the house too for the ‘ trip up North’ vehicle,” Ramsey said.