Pinpointing the first-ever electric pickup truck is hard, more so if you consider electric motive power started in 1827 with Hungarian priest Ányos Jedlik. Scottish inventor Robert Anderson then came up with an electric carriage in the 1830s, and the first mass-produced EVs started roaming America in the 1900s.
As it happens, Studebaker experimented with EVs before turning its focus to internal combustion and fossil fuels in 1904. Given these circumstances, there’s no denying that some automakers offered electric pickup trucks at the beginning of the previous century.
But what about the modern era? Ford prepares to introduce the F-150 EV after the F-150 Hybrid launches in 2020, but Tesla and Rivian called dibs on the segment with their own designs. The thing is, both General Motors and the Ford Motor Company were ahead of the competition before Tesla and Rivian were even founded.
Tinkering Thomas uploaded a clip on YouTube regarding both efforts, based on the Ranger and S-10 pickup trucks. Ford and Chevrolet introduced their electric workhorses in 1997, with production ending in 1998 for the S-10 EV (marketed as the S-10 Electric) and 2002 for the Ranger EV.
As you’d expect, neither made a lasting impression and both were extremely limited in… well, everything because BEV technology wasn’t in full bloom during Bill Clinton’s second term as President of the United States of America.
Before discounts and subsidies, the e-Ranger used to retail at $52,720, a lot of green dollar bills compared to the EcoBoost-powered Ranger available for the 2019 model year. The three-phase AC induction motor could churn out 90 horsepower and 149 pound-feet of torque, and the range was rated at 74 miles or 115 miles at 45 mph.
What about the General Motors alternative? As it happens, the S-10 EV was more powerful (114 horsepower) but didn’t cut the mustard in terms of range (72 miles). In colder climates, Chevrolet equipped the electric workhorse with a diesel heater and a 1.7-gallon fuel tank, operating at temperatures below 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
Whichever way you look at it, EVs in this day and age are extremely different from the trailblazing experiments of the 1990s. In addition to leaps and bounds in battery technology, automakers are pouring increasingly more green dollar bills in EV development. The Volkswagen Group's MEB vehicle architecture is the perfect case in point, capable of up to 550 kilometers (342 miles) of range in the case of the ID. Neo compact hatchback.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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