Electric Pickup Trucks

Here Come the Electric Pickup Trucks

Ford pledges to build an all-electric version of its top-selling F-150 truck. It won't be alone.

By Andrew Moseman

FORD

Ford isn't afraid to tinker with its thoroughbred. Four years ago, it gambled that truck lovers would embrace an aluminum-bodied F-150, and they did. More recently, it pledged to develop a hybrid version of the best-selling vehicle in America. Now, Ford finally has confirmed that an all-electric F-150 pickup is in the works.


This move may feel like an eventuality, given how the big car brands have pledged to make their whole lineups hybrid or electric in the 2020s. But it's still a watershed moment.

Remember that at the dawn of the 2010s, the paradigm for an electric car would've been the original Nissan Leaf—a little dumpy, decidedly unsexy, styled to signal the driver's eco-consciousness above all else. How things can change during a decade. The Tesla Model S arrived in 2012, proving electrics could be sexy and luxurious enough to challenge the likes of BMW and Cadillac. Battery power found its way into luxury crossovers like Model X and the Jaguar I-Pace, and then vehicles like the Hyundai Kona that look a lot like the everyday family crossovers Americans drive now.

Next up: trucks. In addition to building a semi that's been roaming the country on test runs, Tesla is openly developing an electric pickup truck. So are startups such as Rivian, which has released a sleek concept with staggering specs such as a three-second 0 to 60 time. Ford surely won't be alone, as rivals like the Chevy Silverado and Ram 1500 will need to adopt battery power at some point in the next decade.

How soon could we see an e-150? As Car and Driver points out, the current generation of the Ford F-150 launched for the 2015 model year and got its mid-cycle design refresh in 2018. Knowing, it seems most likely that the electric F-150 would debut in 2020 as a model year 2021 vehicle. Tesla wants to debut its pickup in 2019, but is notoriously loose with deadlines.