It Looks Like the Electric Pickup Truck Revolution Is Dead in Its Tracks

Not long ago, when Ford and Tesla, for example, announced they would build zero-emissions all-electric pickup trucks, the traditional customers laughed hard at the perspective of getting stranded somewhere remotely without access to a power source or being unable to tow their favorite (heavy) trailer. Nowadays, there are behemoths like the GMC Hummer EV with 1,000-hp powertrains in Edition 1 and 246.8 kWh (total) Ultium batteries that provide a range of up to 329 miles (529 km). There is also a discussion regarding how these heavy vehicles impact safety for other traffic participants because the humongous Hummer EV is a worthy heir of the ICE-powered Humvee in terms of heftiness – towering above the 9k pounds mark with absolute ease and virtually no grace.

Actually, its final gross vehicle weight rating of 10,400 pounds (4,700 kg) makes it a class 3 medium-duty truck in the United States so that it can tow and haul just about anything in the high-load bed with a payload capacity of 1,300 pounds (590 kg) or behind it. Performance is also impressive, but even more so is the criticism, and as we have seen from the sales charts, General Motors actually didn't sell too many Hummer EVs. Frankly, they did not sell too many Ultium-based models, period. And they're just about ready to pull the plug from their Bolts – which were the ones that helped it tower above Ford's EV sales not long ago.

Speaking of the Blue Oval, of course, it has on sale America's most popular battery-electric full-size light-duty truck – aka the Ford F-150 Lightning. Which, by the way, has had numerous price hikes since it was introduced to the market – now the Pro version is almost $60k, but it's also sold out for the 2023 model year. Next up on the ladder comes the $65k XLT with an estimated delivery time frame of October 2023!

Even if you go higher in terms of trims – with the $77k Lariat or $98k Platinum, you won't get your hands on this highly sought-after commodity until the fall or even winter! So, is anyone surprised that with the high inflation and high consumer demand, automakers are crushing the dream of 'affordable' EVs when it comes to zero-emissions pickup trucks?

Even Rivian, which has the slightly smaller R1T, doesn't act like a startup and sells their contender from $73k while also bundling the delivery figures with the related R1S sport utility sibling so that we get confused every time we try to ascertain who's the real king of the EV pickup truck hill – F-150 Lightning or R1T? Anyway, the battle between the GMC Hummer EV, Rivian R1T, and Ford F-150 Lightning will soon be interrupted by a few other contenders, such as the Tesla Cybertruck, the Chevrolet Silverado EV, and GMC Sierra EV twins, as well as the Ram 1500 REV. For what it's worth, the Elon Musk-hyped pickup truck is still nowhere near your driveway even in 2023, as currently, we only have footage of the Cybertruck on the production line at Giga Texas while testing is still underway with some excellent winter sessions in the distant setting of New Zealand. Yep, this one will undoubtedly be 'fashionably' late at the party.

With all these considerations, I feel that it's absolutely possible to see the Ram 1500 REV hit the market before the Tesla Cybertruck – although the former was announced at an event for the ages in November 2019, and the latter was first shown in pre-production form during the 2023 edition of Super Bowl! That's a difference of almost four years that was eaten away by Musk's pride and Stellantis' ambition to catch the EV bunch even after a slow start. And the Ram 1500 REV promises to be a significant contender for the EV pickup truck title with the looks of a modernized fifth-gen Ram, a frunk, and 800-volt charging capabilities. Naturally, this Mopar also wants to have the most extensive EV range of them all, which naturally involves humongous battery packs of 168 or 229 kWh (usable – the total is 246.8 kWh).

A simple calculation shows that even though GM, for example, expects that battery cells will cost as low as $87 for each kWh (down from thousands of dollars not long ago) in 2025, a pack like the one in the GMC Hummer EV or Ram 1500 REV of 246.8 kWh would still cost the automaker more than $21,471 two years from now. So, it's basically impossible to see these monsters with 'low' MSRPs in the $40k to $50k range. Plus, there's also the inflation to account for, of course. So, you see, it's only natural that GM decided to kill the Silverado EV's promised $40k base variant and will start fleet sales first with something twice as expensive – the 4WT Silverado EV at $79,800. Next up will be the marginally cheaper 3WT variant for $74,800 with a smaller battery pack, while the first retail version – RST – will go out for $106,895 during the fourth quarter with a 400-mile range. That's about as much as a GMC Hummer EV Edition 1, so the question will be – why bother having one or the other? Well, only time will tell if there is an answer or not.