While it is still in its infancy, the full-size North American EV pickup truck sector has already selected a worthy candidate for its pantheon of sales greatness. That would be the Ford F-150 Lightning, of course.
Many automakers – big and small – plus a bunch of startups, have taken an interest in the EV revolution. But few of them dared to venture into the great unknown with an adventurous full-size EV pickup truck proposition for United States buyers. And even fewer prevailed.
Alas, after 2022 has gone by, we can say the sector has exited the first stages of life – and now it will fight to establish itself as a viable alternative to the ICE-powered siblings with help from the GMC Hummer EV, Rivian R1T, as well as the Ford F-150 Lightning. Then, it will be off toward the distant horizon of ICE-beating sales while also dealing with the eternal ‘Big Detroit Three versus The Rest of the World’ wars. And there is no need to take our word for granted, as we have an explanation.
So, currently, the Ford F-150 Lightning was crowned as America’s most popular EV pickup truck for 2022 with almost 16k sold units. That’s not a big figure, but we all know the ordeal the automotive industry is going through. Plus, it was more than enough to beat the Rivian R1T as well as the 854-unit deliveries of the GMC Hummer EV. Going forward, Ford has plans for a 150k-unit production capacity before 2023 concludes!
And it would not be a moment too soon, as competition looms on the horizon. Remember, General Motors is not only going to sell the Hummer EVs (truck plus SUV) but also the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV as well as the posher 2024 GMC Sierra EV. Stellantis is also going to be fashionably late at the party but well-equipped to fight everyone with the production version of the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept – including the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck.
Plus, even the Asian automakers have vowed to intervene in this new pickup truck EV war, and the imaginative realm of virtual automotive artists quickly took notice and heeded the promises. As such, here is the digital vehicle content creator better known as SRK Designs on social media, who decided to play with the CGI pickup truck perspective of the recently teased Kia EV9 SUV.
The latter’s concept was promised by Kia India for the Auto Expo in New Delhi held earlier this month and the pixel master seems enamored with Kia pickup trucks as of late. As such, after recently witnessing the morphing of the Telluride SUV into a mid-size pickup truck, now it is also time for its EV sibling, the upcoming EV9, to suffer the same transformation. So, does it get our CGI hall pass, or not?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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