Despite a lack of information, the Ford F150 Electric is leading Tesla Cybertruck on appeal with potential electric pickup buyers, according to an interesting new survey.
Electric pickup trucks
The electrification of pickup trucks is critical to accelerating electric vehicle adoption in the US, where they were 2.9 million pickups sold last year.
It’s the biggest segment of passenger vehicles in the country, and electric options are finally coming this year.
A new study from Cox Automotive shows that about two in five consumers who are in the market for a pickup are considering going electric within the next two years.
Nearly 2-in-5 consumers in market for a pickup truck in the next 2 years are considering an electric pickup truck. Research shows that younger consumers are more likely to consider an electric pickup truck with 44% of 18-34-year-olds indicating that they are interested in both internal combustion engine (ICE) and EV options.
That doesn’t sound like much, but with the size of the pickup market in the US, that could be over 1 million electric pickups per year.
Ford 150 Electric vs. Tesla Cybertruck
The study also looked into the opinions of pickup truck buyers on different upcoming EV options in the segment.
The Ford F150 Electric and the Tesla Cybertruck are seen as two of the biggest upcoming entries, along with other vehicles like the Rivian R1T and Hummer EV.
In Cox Automotive’s study, they approached people who were looking to buy a pickup truck and showed them pictures of the four previously mentioned electric pickups without branding (left) and later with branding (right) and asked them which they found most appealing:
Interestingly, Tesla did poorly without branding, but it did very well with branding – showing the strength of Tesla’s brand.
But when it comes to brand strength in pickup trucks, Ford is showing that it is still the leader even when it comes to electric pickups.
However, the only pictures we have of the Ford F150 Electric are of early prototypes based on current gasoline pickups.
Also, little is known about the Ford F150 Electric’s specs while we know almost everything about the Tesla Cybertruck, Hummer EV, and Rivian R1T.
Electrek‘s take
What is interesting about this study is that they went directly after people who are right now looking to buy a pickup truck.
Honestly, I am surprised that already almost two out of five pickup buyers are even considering going electric already.
I would have guessed closer to one out of five.
But what I’m most surprised about is the kind of weight Tesla’s brand has with pickup truck buyers already. The change in the results from without branding to with branding is significant.
On the other hand, I am not surprised by Ford’s strong performance despite only having little information on the F150 Electric.
Rivian is also unsurprisingly last with branding as it is the most recent brand of them all, but the company still has a strong following that should support it until it gets more recognizable.
If they play their cards right and they ramp up production without too many issues, they could change those results significantly within the next few years.
Either way, the electric pickup race should be interesting.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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