The Sad Truth About Buying an Electric Pickup Truck in 2022
Some Americans will drive electric pickup trucks for the first time ever in 2022. Electric pickup trucks are finally available for purchase. Whether the electric vehicles are easy to purchase or not is your decision. Here are the facts on buying an electric pickup truck in 2022.
Buying an electric pickup truck in 2022 is pricey
Electric pickup trucks are finally here! Affordable electric pickup trucks are another story. The first mass-produced electric pickup truck to come to market in America was the American-made Rivian R1T Launch Edition. Rivian became a company to watch and is slowly becoming a household name after investments from companies like Tesla and Ford Motors.
The Rivian R1T Launch Edition is historic. It’s also expensive. The R1T Launch Edition starts at $85,000. The average American consumer doesn’t have $85K to shell out for a new electric pickup truck. Even the R1T’s entry-level trim is expensive compared to gas-powered full-size pickup trucks.
The R1T Explore trim starts at $67,500. Availability is another issue that makes the R1T hard to buy. Many potential consumers have speculated that a large percentage of R1T Launch Edition deliveries went to Rivian employees. Rivian isn’t the only electric truck maker struggling to get enough trucks out for consumers.
Some Ford F-150 Lightning trims are already sold out
The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck is another electric pickup truck that is on the market for 2022. Ford’s first electric pickup truck is in incredibly high demand.
Apparently the entry-level F-150 Lightning Pro is already sold out thanks to early reservations. The F-150 Lightning XLT is also sold out as well. Now, the most affordable F-150 Lightning model available for purchase is the $67,474 F-150 Lightning Lariat.
Buying an electric pickup truck without a pre-order or reservation in 2022 can easily cost you upwards of $67K. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average new vehicle price in the fourth quarter of 2021 was $47,077. The Lightning Lariat and R1T Explore trims exceed the average new vehicle price by thousands. Even after electric vehicle tax incentives, these vehicles are much more expensive than the average new vehicle.
The truth about buying an electric pickup truck
The cold hard truth about buying an electric pickup truck is that it’s a transaction that needs to be carefully planned. Assuming you have the funds, there’s still the matter of the electric truck’s availability and delivery time. Electric trucks are in their infancy, and that means there’s still plenty of room for error in the manufacturing and delivery process.
If you want a new electric pickup truck, the easiest most affordable option is to try and place an order for the F-150 Lightning Pro in the future. Orders will be backlogged for at least a year to meet the overwhelming demand. Ford is stepping up production, but you could be in for a long wait if you want an entry-level F-150 Lightning. Electric trucks will become ubiquitous in America one day, but for now, we wait.
