Electric Vehicle (EV) Pick-up Trucks
I had always wanted a pickup truck and in 2005 I bought my first truck, a 2006 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab (18 years old with over 230K miles on it). And I use it like a truck all the time. It has been offroad more than most of the Jeeps on the road. So, it is time to replace her, and I have been looking. I was looking at an EV truck, but then I changed my mind.Â
2006 Dodge Dakota (Not mine), but mine is identical
A few years ago, I was very intrigued by what Rivian had to offer. I like the R1T, pickup truck and all the nice features. Ford jumped in and started to talk about the E-150 and Tesla started to promise an EV truck. When Tesla revealed the Cybertruck, I was very much turned off by the looks of it. However, the Rivian seemed to not just be vaporware, it was on the road, though in limited numbers at the time. When the F-150 Lightning was released, everyone seemed to want one and I was in that boat. I liked what Ford offers in the F-150 line and the F-150 Lightning looked just like the regular F-150. It seemed like when Ford started to get negative publicity, the milage promises were not even close to what people saw in the real world. I know a person who bought one for their business but quickly found out that they were not getting anything close to the range that Ford promised. They were doing a ton of stop-and-go like a delivery-type service and they were not getting much beyond 50-75 miles of this type of driving.
Rivian R1T Electric Truck
Ford F-150 Lightning
Tesla Cybertruck
Then Rivian started to receive negative publicity, mostly because they had trouble filling orders (blamed on supply chain problems). Then GMC started to show off the Hummer EV. Those who bought a Cybertruck started to realize once the honeymoon period was done, they started to find out that the truck seemed to rust quickly, and that they didn’t dare take it through a car wash.
Today, all the buzz about EVs is quickly fading and that is mostly due to mileage ranges and the lack of charging infrastructure. Chevrolet was late to the game for some reason (it’s not like they have the only successful EV on the market with the Volt.) The Silverado hit the market in 2024, which puts them far behind their competition.
If you are considering an EV pickup truck, then there is a really great (but over two hours long) video that compares the E-150, The Silverado EV, Rivian R1T and the Tesla Cubertruck in a side-by-side test, where they run them until the batteries are drained.
The real winners in the EV truck world are the EV semi-tractors, where Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Freightliner all have full EV semi-tractor trucks on the road. There are almost 13,000 EV trucks on the road in the U.S. Sadly, that number is eclipsed by the 12.2 million trucks on the road overall.Â
For the time being, I will stick to my gas-powered Dakota, and I’m seriously considering a 1500 RHO or maybe a Rebel.
Welcome to the Average Joe Weekly blog. This is basically my place on the web where I can help spread some of the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years. I served 10+ years in the Marine Corps on Active Duty, but that was some 25 years ago.
