There Are More All-Electric Pickup Trucks Around the Corner
So, there are two truths in the US; electrification is here whether you like it or not, and trucks are what sells. Now that you know this, you’re ready for the onslaught of all-electric pickup trucks, which officially began yesterday. That’s when Ford dropped the F-150 Lightning on everyone. But there are more all-electric trucks coming just around the corner.
There was one big question facing the auto industry after absorbing our two truths. How do you make all-electric pickup trucks that can handle a decent payload without the battery fizzling out in a few minutes? Nobody was sure how durable an electric pickup could be and how much range it could muster.
It looked like the Detroit three would lazily saunter into developing all-electric pickup trucks. Then all of the sudden, there were companies that never existed magically springing up proclaiming they would be the first to develop a mean electric truck. Ford and GM had barely scratched the surface of electrification, and Fiat Chrysler-now Stellantis is still sort of scratching its collective head.
The final prod came when Tesla premiered its Cybertruck in November 2019. Within a few weeks, orders had topped half-a-mil. Sometimes Detroit needs to have stacks of facts and figures before it even considers entering a new segment. The facts and figures didn’t matter after the Cybertruck gobbled up attention and reservations over the next several months.
Suddenly, everyone was off to the electric races. So who is developing their first, or next electric pickup? And when will they be coming out? We have that info below.
2022 All-Electric Tesla Cybertruck
Though not the first to start development, it kicked off the frenzy to electrify commercial trucks. A lot has been claimed by Sir Elon Musk and Tesla about the features coming with the Cybertruck. First, it looks like nothing close to anything that has ever rolled on four tires. Nothing.
So there’s that. But bulletproof windows, a $39,990 base price, and 500 miles range, are making it tough for the others to compete. And it is still at least a year off. Whether any of those features-even the styling, will end up on the production Cybertruck, no one knows.
But in spite of missing deadlines and some quality hiccups, Tesla has proven it can produce. And has slammed down the gauntlet for features and sheer audaciousness. Though others will beat it to production, everything in the segment is being compared to it.
2021 Rivian R1T
The thing about Rivian is that there have not been extreme claims or pronouncements. It has maintained a steady drip, drip of development. In many ways, it looks like the most likely of the new startups springing up like dandelions to make it.
There is nothing extreme about its specs or styling. But neither is lacking. And what it has revealed seems realistic and, well, real.
Like the $67,500 base price and the claimed 400-mile range. Or its 750 hp and 825 lb-ft of torque. And 11,000 lb tow rating with 1,760 lbs of payload. Nothing here is segment busting. But nothing made right now, and that includes the Ford Lightning which won’t begin production for a while, has specs like Rivians.
And it spinning off the pickup design to also build an SUV makes a lot of sense and adds interest while diversifying its portfolio. Plus, it looks like Rivian will beat the others to production with trucks set to appear later in the year.
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning
As it premiered only yesterday, we have a ton of info on it on the MotorBiscuit website. Suffice it to say that this is the first EV truck salvo from a major manufacturer. It is a serious, groundbreaking attempt by Ford to maintain the F-150’s best-selling vehicle in the US status. So it is a billions of dollars gamble, and worth way more than that looking into the future.
2022 GMC Hummer All-Electric Pickup Truck
Another serious player that won’t see daylight for another year or more is the GMC Hummer. Still, for the exorbitant price of $112,595 it has a backlog of reservations already. While range claims are a bit underwhelming at 350 miles, it will feature some of the fastest charging capabilities of the bunch. Like 100 miles range in less than 10 minutes.
And 1,000 hp bragging rights ain’t too shabby. That is combined with 11,500 lb-ft of torque. So while it is high-priced, it has figures that dominate the segment. We still don’t know its towing or payload ratings but we expect them to better most of the other claims.
2023 Chevy Silverado EV
GM had to get its Ultium battery platform dialed in before reaching out too far on production cycles. But with that done we’ll be seeing a Chevy rival to the Lightning. You knew we would. And GM is already bragging.
GM President Mark Reuss is saying all of GM’s electric vehicles will change the world, and world views of EVs in general. “It will delight retail and commercial customers alike,” he proclaims. OK, then! While we know little of the Silverado EV’s specs, we expect them to fall slightly below those of the Hummer.
2021 Bollinger B2 All-Electric Pickup Truck
Hailing from Provo, Utah, Bollinger is developing two SUVs and a pickup variant. It better be stellar because it is estimated to cost around $125,000. With claimed 200 miles of range and 614 hp the numbers don’t seem worthy of the price.
It does claim to have a 7,500 tow rating and a 5,001 payload rating, which ain’t bad. We would expect Bollinger to increase some of these numbers and possibly lower the price of entry before it hits the streets later this year. Otherwise, it will be hard to justify the lower numbers with the higher price.
2022 Lordstown Endurance
Let’s be honest and say that with Lordstowns changing business and feds sniffing around for improprieties it is looking a little iffy for Lordstown Motors. Specs have changed and fake orders were discovered as well. But, it has a factory, and that’s a concrete start. Let’s just call it a wait-and-see deal.
2022 Nikola Badger
Nikola’s founder recently stepped down due to fraudulent claims and faking videos of testing vehicles. So things seem rather shaky from a company that seemed to have a unique spin on the clean pickup truck. That’s because it was combining electrification with fuel cell technology. As with Lordstown, it is a wait-and-see proposition.
2021 Vanderhall Navarro All-Electric Truck
While most of these boutique startups have never built much of anything, Vanderhall has a history in three-wheel production. Another Provo, Utah, company, little is known right now about the Navarro. But we’ll include Vanderhall here just because it almost seems more likely to develop something than some of the others we’ve included.
There are others we could have included in the mix like Canoo. And Ram must have something in the works. The perennial late starter, with the combined strength of its Stellantis collection, we expect something to almost pop up from out of the blue. Ram and Jeep are essentially the whole kit and kaboodle for Stellantis.
By the end of 2022, we’ll know better where the state of all-electric pickup trucks. That’s only 18 months or so for the new guys to shine or not and to see what Ford and GM can really do. Fasten your seatbelts, it will be a bit bumpy.