American EV Buyers Want Sedans, Not Electric Pickup Trucks

We’re still waiting on Tesla to actually deliver a production Cybertruck, but if you’re an electric truck-loving guy, gal or non-binary pal, Ford, GMC and Rivian will happily sell you one of theirs. And it won’t be long before Chevrolet and Ram join the club with electric pickup trucks of their own. Clearly, American automakers see electric pickup trucks as a priority, and considering how many trucks they sell every year, it isn’t terribly surprising. But a new report suggests that perhaps they’ve gone about electrifying their lineups the wrong way.

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Heatmap reports that industry analytics organization Auto Pacific’s latest Future Attribute Demand Study found pickup truck buyers were the most resistant to going electric, citing poor charging infrastructure, lack of range and price:

“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.

If you could get a somewhat affordable electric truck, that would be one thing. But despite initial promises of a $40,000-ish starting point, both Ford and Chevrolet have since increased the starting prices on their trucks (although, in Chevrolet’s case, the electric Silverado has yet to go on sale.) Meanwhile, the least expensive Rivian R1T that you can get costs $73,000, and the Hummer EV is even pricier. Most people don’t have that kind of money even if they might be interested in an electric pickup. Less expensive electric sedans, however, have much more potential. According to Heatmap:

“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.

Additionally, as prices go lower, there’s more interest in EVs. Keep the price under $50,000, and interest goes up. At less than $35,000, even EV skeptics could be persuaded. Considering the popularity of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the Chevrolet Bolt before it was canceled, that’s not terribly surprising.

One other aspect of this whole thing is the massive political divide in this country. Research has found that pickup truck buyers are much more likely to be Republicans, while those more interested in smaller vehicles tend to be Democrats. And while Democrats tend to want an “environmentally-friendly vehicle that is both economical and cool,” Republicans want something “powerful, rugged, and prestigious.”

Sure, electric pickups are some of the most powerful trucks you can buy, and Elon Musk is a bigoted far-right antisemite, but the image of electric pickups isn’t exactly rugged or powerful. You can’t even roll coal in an F-150 Lightning, and Punisher decals and Moron Labe stickers would look ridiculous on an R1T. Thieves might still break into such a truck for the free guns, but with the environmentally friendly stigma that EVs have acquired, it’s not like a Rivian is going to fit in among all the lifted trucks in the Walmart parking lot.

And yet, whether there’s really that much demand for them or not, the electric pickup trucks are coming. Meanwhile, the remaining supply of new Chevrolet Bolts, an EV people actually buy, dwindles by the day.