Is There a Future for Electric Trucks?

Full-size pickup trucks have consistently topped the sales charts for new vehicles in Canada for decades. For the 15th straight year, the Ford F-Series was the country’s best-selling vehicle. It was no surprise, then, that when companies like Tesla, Ford, and General Motors began unveiling plans for battery-electric trucks that would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of truck owners, pre-order lists were quickly being filled.

The excitement was understandable. Since Tesla's rise in the 2010s, battery-powered cars have become status symbols. Now, with an all-electric pickup, there was the potential to deliver environmental benefits, cost savings, superior performance, and technological innovation in North America's most popular automotive segment.

However, since the first Ford F-150 Lightning deliveries in 2022 and later the Tesla Cybertruck, and General Motors' family of Chevrolet, GMC, and Hummer models, interest in electric trucks has waned. So why has the electric truck market gone from boom to bust?

The Initial Launch Hype for Electric Trucks Was Massive

When it was first unveiled in 2019, Tesla's Cybertruck created an immense amount of buzz. Its futuristic, stainless steel exterior was unlike any other vehicle on the market. Initial interest was enormous. The company boasted about taking deposits for over a million reservations and an annual target of 250,000 Cybertrucks being sold.

With so much hype, it didn't take long for the competition to jump on the electric truck bandwagon.

Ford was the first of the traditional truck makers to respond with its F-150 Lightning in 2021. Unlike the quirky Tesla truck, the Ford was fundamentally an existing F-150 with a battery pack and electric motors replacing its internal combustion engine. Like the Cybertruck, the Lightning's combination of a pickup truck bodystyle with EV power was met with strong demand. After securing over 200,000 reservations, Ford nearly quadrupled its initial annual production of 40,000 units to 150,000 Lightnings by mid-2023.

By 2022, several small electric truck startups, including Bollinger, Nikola, and Lordstown Motors, had emerged to capitalize on the excitement. General Motors had thrown its hat into the electric truck rodeo, announcing a trio of full-size electric trucks: the Chevrolet Silverado EV, the GMC Sierra EV, and the GMC Hummer EV Pickup. Volkswagen then announced plans to revive the International Scout brand with its electric Terra truck, Stellantis debuted its Ram 1500 REV full-size electric truck, and the Rivian R1T mid-size electric truck had started production.

The Dream of the Electric Truck Becomes a Nightmare

Fast-forward to 2025, and the electric truck market has shifted from boom to bust. High prices, impractical driving ranges (especially when towing), and a challenging charging infrastructure meant that consumer expectations for utility, which are inherent in gas-powered pickups, were not being met.

First, the advertised waiting list prices disappeared by the time the trucks went on sale. The promised USD $40,000 Cybertruck base price ballooned, and a more expensive model later replaced the Ford Lightning's base commercial version. To this day, going electric remains a premium proposition for truck buyers. For example, the Canadian starting price for the current Ford F-150 Lightning is approximately $10,000 more than the $53,000 base model for the gas-powered version, and the Chevrolet Silverado EV is about $15,000 more than the gas model's $52,000 starting price. For most Canadian truck buyers, the math doesn't work out. Then there's the recent cancellation of various government electric vehicle incentives and challenges with U.S.-imposed tariffs, which has only added to the final sale prices.

Second, buyers who needed their electric trucks to do truck-like towing and hauling duties were left wanting. In theory, any electric vehicle makes for a great tow vehicle. They carry their batteries lower in the chassis, which allows them to be stable on the road. Their electric motors provide ample towing torque. Their regenerative braking systems aid the regular friction braking system, and there's no transmission to overheat. However, real-world testing has shown that driving ranges can drop significantly when electric truck drivers tow a trailer. Consumer Reports found that the maximum towing range for the Lightning is less than one-third of its estimate.

Compounding these issues was the need for more frequent charging stops. Not only was this more time-consuming for electric truck owners travelling longer distances, but the majority of charging stations are not equipped to handle vehicles with trailers, which meant extra time was spent unloading and connecting chargers to the trucks.

All of the above created a perfect storm, with electric truck sales consistently falling short of their makers’ optimistic projections. Based on American sales data for the first three months of this year, Tesla only delivered 9,000Cybertucks, which projects to only 36,000 annually — about 10 per cent of the original 375,000 annual projections. In the same period, only 7,000 units of the Ford F-150 Lightning were sold. Combined sales of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV totalled just over 3,600 units, and Rivian sold only 1,600 R1Ts. As for the Ram 1500 REV, it was cancelled before it ever went on sale. The Scout Terra has yet to reach production, and Bollinger, Nikola, and Lordstown Motors have gone bankrupt or ceased selling to the public.

Is There a Future for Electric Trucks?

All the evidence suggests that the current electric truck offerings don't meet buyers' expectations. It doesn't help that today's gas-powered trucks are highly capable, competitive, versatile, and offer a wide range of choices. The only real negative is that they burn fuel. But despite the disappointment of the current offerings, it doesn't mean the idea of an electric truck is dead.

Slate Auto has announced plans for a compact electric truck with a price under USD $30,000. In contrast to the first batch of electric trucks, Slate addresses the high cost issue by offering a minimalist design: two seats, a flat cargo bed, and a simple dashboard gauge. Buyers could also convert the truck into an SUV or fastback using bolt-on roof panels.

Ford is taking a similar approach to an affordable electric truck. At the cost of the popular Maverick compact truck, which starts at around $38,000 in Canada, Ford is now promising an electric mid-size truck. Set to launch in 2027, it will utilize a new electric vehicle platform and a manufacturing process to reduce costs and enhance efficiency by employing lithium-iron phosphate batteries.

Once automakers can implement solid-state batteries and manufacture them at scale, the technology will address many of the shortcomings of current electric trucks, but until then, the benefits seem to be outweighed by the downsides.