Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Electric Vehicles

Did American Car Makers Make a Mistake with EV Pickups?

What electric car buyers really want is smaller sedans, research shows.

EV pickups in the garbage.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Over the next few months, the electric pickup truck lineup in the United States will double. Chevrolet, Ram, Tesla, and GMC are all set to release competitors to the three electric pickups already on the market: the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Rivian RT1, and the GMC Hummer EV.

That automakers are excited by the idea of electrifying one of their most lucrative gas-powered segments is hardly surprising. But what might be more surprising is how little pickup buyers seem to share their enthusiasm.

A recent survey from automotive market analytics firm AutoPacific shows that pickup truck buyers may be the most hesitant of all market segments to go electric. Only 12% of full-sized and 8% of mid-sized pickup buyers surveyed are interested in fully electric trucks. Yikes.

Get one great climate story in your inbox every day:

* indicates required
  • This research comes from AutoPacific’s Future Attribute Demand Study (FADS), an annual project which tries to gauge what exactly resonates with consumers. Between July 5 and July 17, the firm surveyed 11,000 licensed drivers all over the United States who intend to buy a new vehicle within the next three years. The survey’s sample size was split evenly between men and women and the average age of a respondent was 45.

    The survey found that out of all the segments where buyers are interested in going electric, pickups scored the lowest. “Pickup truck buyers are typically the most engrained in their roots and opinions when it comes to straying too far from the normal pickup truck DNA,” Robby DeGraff, a product and consumer insights analyst, told me over email. “Demand for ICE pickups will never fade, and it rages on in popularity, but that type of demand isn’t and likely won’t ever be mirrored for EV pickups.”

    There may be other factors at play, but it seems reasonably clear that pickup trucks aren’t yet top sellers in the EV space. GM has sold just over 1,200 Hummer EVs so far this year, while Ford has sold about 12,000 Lightnings. (Rivian does not disclose unit-by-unit breakdowns.) By comparison, GM has sold almost 50,000 units of the discontinued Chevy Bolt to date in 2023.

    AutoPacific says that although charging infrastructure and range are big reasons why pickup buyers in particular aren’t interested in EVs, price is one of the biggest for any type of EV consumer. The Rivian R1S and R1T are two trucks that easily can touch the mid $80,000 price range. Ford also dramatically raised prices on the F-150 Lightning, and it’s common for the model to hit $75,000 or above. Only recently has the brand reduced prices of the Lightning, and the new prices are still substantially higher than the initially promised $40,000 price point back in 2021.

    Similarly, the Chevrolet Silverado EV’s $39,990 base price is missing in action; GM has quietly admitted that it will now start at $50,000, but hasn’t revealed the exact price. The only pricing it has revealed is for the not-very-nice Silverado EV 3WT and 4WT fleet-only (work truck) trims, the former of which starts at $74,800. Initially, the only consumer-available Silverado will be the top-trim RST model, which starts at a whopping $106,895.

    By comparison, a basic gas-powered F-150 or Silverado starts in the mid $30,000 range.

    The low desire for EV pickup trucks doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for EVs at all. Crossovers like the Tesla Model Y and the Ford Mach-E are already selling like hot cakes. And there’s a huge opportunity, DeGraff told me, in reasonably priced sedans. “When we look at our most recent batch of data, EV powertrain intenders are much more interested in midsize and compact cars than pickup trucks, when it comes to segments. 26% of all polled EV intenders intend to buy a ‘compact car’ and 21% a ‘midsize car’… higher than demand among EV intenders for [SUVs and crossovers] that are compact, midsize, and subcompact, and even in some instances large,” wrote DeGraff.

    Although most of the respondents who wanted an EV planned on spending around $50,000 for one, it found that there was real demand for EVs in the $35,000 to $49,000 price range. The firm also found that an MSRP under $35,000 was the sweet spot that would get EV skeptics into the driver’s seat.

    Now, it’s worth asking the obvious question: Is this yet another front in the culture war, with urban, sedan-craving Democrats eager to go all-electric and rural, pickup-loving Republicans skeptical or downright hostile? It’s possible. Pickup trucks really do skew Republican, the market research firm Strategic Vision has found, and President Trump has turned EVs into a new bit. Meanwhile, Strategic Vision has also found that buyers of sedans and smaller cars skew Democrat. Democrats surveyed also said they wanted an “environmentally-friendly vehicle that is both economical and cool.”

    That might explain the Tesla Model 3’s rousing success. Not only is the base Model 3 attractively priced, starting now at about $39,000 before any tax credits or on-the-lot discounts, but its sedan-body style may make it a virtuous choice to a certain subset of buyers. It also might explain why the Chevy Bolt was doing pretty well before it was canceled — and why GM is now planning on reviving it.

    By comparison, Republicans want a vehicle that is seen as “powerful, rugged, and prestigious.” Trucks like the Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning are more powerful than most trucks – the Rivian R1T has 835 horsepower, and the F-150 Lighting is the second-fastest truck in Ford’s lineup. Yet, misinformation from Trump and a political identity centered around “drill, baby, drill” might be keeping truck buyers from lusting after EVs (which is particularly odd, considering Elon Musk’s politics).

    Still, what AutoPacific’s research unequivocally found is that we need cheap EV shapes to satisfy the underserved demand of drivers already out there. As our production capacity grows, we’ll need to figure out a way to get truck buyers into EVs or we won’t decarbonize. But for now, there’s an enthusiastic segment of buyers just waiting for the right form at the right price.

    Read more about electric vehicles:

    A Car Buyer’s Guide to the New EV Tax Credit

    Blue

    You’re out of free articles.

    Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
    To continue reading
    Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
    or
    Please enter an email address
    By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
    Adaptation

    The ‘Buffer’ That Can Protect a Town from Wildfires

    Paradise, California, is snatching up high-risk properties to create a defensive perimeter and prevent the town from burning again.

    Homes as a wildfire buffer.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    The 2018 Camp Fire was the deadliest wildfire in California’s history, wiping out 90% of the structures in the mountain town of Paradise and killing at least 85 people in a matter of hours. Investigations afterward found that Paradise’s town planners had ignored warnings of the fire risk to its residents and forgone common-sense preparations that would have saved lives. In the years since, the Camp Fire has consequently become a cautionary tale for similar communities in high-risk wildfire areas — places like Chinese Camp, a small historic landmark in the Sierra Nevada foothills that dramatically burned to the ground last week as part of the nearly 14,000-acre TCU September Lightning Complex.

    More recently, Paradise has also become a model for how a town can rebuild wisely after a wildfire. At least some of that is due to the work of Dan Efseaff, the director of the Paradise Recreation and Park District, who has launched a program to identify and acquire some of the highest-risk, hardest-to-access properties in the Camp Fire burn scar. Though he has a limited total operating budget of around $5.5 million and relies heavily on the charity of local property owners (he’s currently in the process of applying for a $15 million grant with a $5 million match for the program) Efseaff has nevertheless managed to build the beginning of a defensible buffer of managed parkland around Paradise that could potentially buy the town time in the case of a future wildfire.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Spotlight

    How the Tax Bill Is Empowering Anti-Renewables Activists

    A war of attrition is now turning in opponents’ favor.

    Massachusetts and solar panels.
    Heatmap Illustration/Library of Congress, Getty Images

    A solar developer’s defeat in Massachusetts last week reveals just how much stronger project opponents are on the battlefield after the de facto repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act.

    Last week, solar developer PureSky pulled five projects under development around the western Massachusetts town of Shutesbury. PureSky’s facilities had been in the works for years and would together represent what the developer has claimed would be one of the state’s largest solar projects thus far. In a statement, the company laid blame on “broader policy and regulatory headwinds,” including the state’s existing renewables incentives not keeping pace with rising costs and “federal policy updates,” which PureSky said were “making it harder to finance projects like those proposed near Shutesbury.”

    Keep reading...Show less
    Yellow
    Hotspots

    The Midwest Is Becoming Even Tougher for Solar Projects

    And more on the week’s most important conflicts around renewables.

    The United States.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    1. Wells County, Indiana – One of the nation’s most at-risk solar projects may now be prompting a full on moratorium.

    • Late last week, this county was teed up to potentially advance a new restrictive solar ordinance that would’ve cut off zoning access for large-scale facilities. That’s obviously bad for developers. But it would’ve still allowed solar facilities up to 50 acres and grandfathered in projects that had previously signed agreements with local officials.
    • However, solar opponents swamped the county Area Planning Commission meeting to decide on the ordinance, turning it into an over four-hour display in which many requested in public comments to outright ban solar projects entirely without a grandfathering clause.
    • It’s clear part of the opposition is inflamed over the EDF Paddlefish Solar project, which we ranked last year as one of the nation’s top imperiled renewables facilities in progress. The project has already resulted in a moratorium in another county, Huntington.
    • Although the Paddlefish project is not unique in its risks, it is what we view as a bellwether for the future of solar development in farming communities, as the Fort Wayne-adjacent county is a picturesque display of many areas across the United States. Pro-renewables advocates have sought to tamp down opposition with tactics such as a direct text messaging campaign, which I previously scooped last week.
    • Yet despite the counter-communications, momentum is heading in the other direction. At the meeting, officials ultimately decided to punt a decision to next month so they could edit their draft ordinance to assuage aggrieved residents.
    • Also worth noting: anyone could see from Heatmap Pro data that this county would be an incredibly difficult fight for a solar developer. Despite a slim majority of local support for renewable energy, the county has a nearly 100% opposition risk rating, due in no small part to its large agricultural workforce and MAGA leanings.

    2. Clark County, Ohio – Another Ohio county has significantly restricted renewable energy development, this time with big political implications.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Yellow