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- Updated with new information for 2023, the latest upcoming electric trucks, and current availability.
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Electric cars and trucks are all the rage right now. Everyone wants a piece of the action, and almost every major auto manufacturer in the U.S. is building EVs. Americans are also super excited about electric trucks, but there's still one big problem---actually buying one.
UPDATE: 6/13/23
Updated with new information for 2023, the latest upcoming electric trucks, and current availability.
Tesla announced the Cybertruck back in 2019, and since then, all the big players have slowly shared plans to make a truck, including newcomers like Rivian. We have the new Ford F-150 Lightning, the Rivian R1T, GM's Hummer EV and Chevy Silverado E, a RAM 1500 EV, and others.
It's an exciting time to be a truck fan patiently waiting for electric pickup trucks. But, unfortunately, we'll all need a lot of patience.
Good Luck Buying an Electric Truck
While every significant player in the automotive sector is working on all-electric trucks, a few big problems still make buying one a pipedream, at least for now. The demand is enormous, but the supply is tiny. We're talking about supply constraints, production speed, and woes, not to mention sky-high prices.
A prime example is the new F-150 Lightning EV, which Ford expected to build and sell roughly 20,000 vehicles in 2022, but only shipped 15,000. For comparison, Ford sold over 700,000 gas-powered F-150s in 2021, which is roughly 36x more regular trucks than EVs. Moreover, gas-powered numbers are still expected to climb this year.
Initially, Ford said it wanted to build 50,000 F-150 Lightning's throughout 2023 but increased that to 80,000, then 200,000, but we're not sure if they'll come remotely close to those numbers. Ford shipped less than 5,000 in Q1 2023, and that's not nearly enough.
For comparison, Tesla sold over 1.2 million electric cars in 2022. The difference in electric truck numbers is staggering.
The new Rivian R1T truck is pretty amazing, and it was the first electric pickup to hit the market back in 2021. Initially, we learned that Rivian was only producing two R1T trucks a day, which is far from a practical production volume. After several increases, the company managed to deliver over 20,000 vehicles in 2022 and hopes to produce and ship over 50,000 this year.
Remember that Rivian is still working through a backlog of 80,000 preorders. If you try and order one of its $75,000 trucks today, it likely won't arrive until 2024.
Other rivals in the truck space are even further behind. The all-electric Chevy Silverado E didn't even start production until mid-2023, it hasn't arrived yet, and we have no clue how many Chevrolet will be able to build once it finally gets released. The more expensive GMC Sierra E has a similar timeframe.
Stellantis is working on a RAM 1500 EV that should arrive sometime in 2024. We're also light on details surrounding Tesla's Cybertruck. After initially saying it'll come in 2021, then 2022, then in 2023, it's finally in early production, and volume deliveries should start sometime in 2024. But I'll believe it when I see it.
Are you noticing a trend yet? Every electric pickup available now or coming in 2023 will be extremely limited in supply or wildly expensive.
Ramping Up Production
I get it. New technology takes time and undergoes all sorts of growing pains. It's just frustrating that all these companies are pushing the dream of fast, powerful, capable electric trucks. In reality, it'll be tough for the average buyer to get one in the foreseeable future.
We do have good news, though. Due to the overwhelming response to the F-150, Rivian, and Hummer EV being so positive, every manufacturer is working as hard as possible to ramp up production, meet demands, or fast-track plans and get as many EV trucks on the market as possible.
Ford plans to meet the soaring demand by doubling production at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Rivian keeps boosting its production capacity, and GMC's global VP Duncan Aldred claims production is on track, and the company has put several plans in motion to expedite the process.
Speaking of production, several manufacturers have plans or deadlines on when they'll stop selling ICE (Internal combustion engines) completely. Most of those aren't until like 2030, but EV production needs to improve rapidly to meet those goals at the current rate.
When Can I Buy an Electric Truck?
So, when can you get an electric truck? That's a complicated question. Ford finally shipped the F-150 Lightning back in May, but finding one in stock is still extremely difficult, and dealers are price gouging. GMC is still slowly shipping its Hummer EV. And Rivian is still playing catch-up on its pre-order list, increasing pricing, and working hard to produce its R1S at the same time.
If you want one bad enough, you'll likely be able to get an F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1T this year, but other manufacturers aren't even on the market yet. Without a pre-order, most people likely won't be able to find and buy an electric truck until early 2024.
Based on everything we're seeing so far, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Chevy double down on production, RAM hurrying things along, and Tesla pushing hard to ship its Cybertruck by the end of 2023.
Unless you pre-ordered an electric truck or get lucky and find a used Rivian R1T or F-150 Lightning, good luck getting one anytime soon. Even if you find a used electric pickup for sale, due to supply and demand, the resale value will skyrocket.