A couple of weeks ago, GM’s cross-town rival, the Ford Motor Company, told investors that it will offer an electric version of its popular F-150 pickup truck. Today, our sister site – Ford Authority – scored the first spy photos of the upcoming F-150 EV – confirming that Ford is hard at work on an F-150 EV.
Meanwhile, General Motors doesn’t appear to have electric variants of the Chevy Silverado or the GMC Sierra in the works, at least not as far as it has announced or that we have seen. The automaker famously announced plans for an onslaught of electric vehicles starting in the year 2021.
The future GM electric vehicles planned off the automaker’s upcoming, all-new scalable electric vehicle architecture include:
- A compact five-passenger SUV
- A luxury five-passenger SUV, which is probably the Cadillac CUV pre-announced recently
- A “shared” self-driving vehicle
- A light-commercial vehicle
- An “expressive” luxurious “low-roof” car
- A “low-roof” car
- A small SUV
- A compact crossover
- A luxury compact crossover
- A seven-passenger SUV
- A luxury seven-passenger SUV
Notably, a pickup truck is not part of the plan. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that GM won’t have an electric version of the Silverado or Sierra to rival the F-150 EV. All it means is that electric variants of the Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks will not be based on the GM scalable electric vehicle architecture seen in the product plan.
As for the Ford F-150 EV, the mule was caught while charging. The vehicle appears to be in early stages of development, featuring a charging port in the lower portion of the front bumper. The production model probably won’t have the charging port in that location, however.
In addition, the mule’s body appears to sit slightly higher due to battery packs being placed underneath the cab. Ford also added an exhaust tip out back to disguise the electric nature of the mule.
Check out the F-150 EV spy shots for yourself, and stay tuned to GM Authority for the latest Silverado news and Sierra news.
Comments
You don’t believe this to be a plug-in hybrid? Given a PHEV would still have an ICE, the battery would have to amass itself else where than the void left by not having an engine if it were a full EV
The Aviator hybrid battery is located in the passenger side floor, could this be a similar setup with a larger battery?
If the engine was removed, you would think 500lbs of battery would find itself sitting on top the front axle
In any case it is weird to have the battery sitting so low and exposed, remember the hell that was raised about the GM HD DEF tank?
If that’s the battery it looks like a fail on their part.
Is the 2020 F-150 getting all new sheet metal and a new interior, or is it simply getting a refresh? The testers I’ve seen seem to indicate refresh. (Which would be another fail in my eyes.)
If General Motors were to use the architecture found in the Chevrolet Volt, the entire fleet could be easily electrified over night as electric motors would drive the vehicles while a fuel cell would convert gas into electricity without generating greenhouse gas; the electric batteries can be charged at home or rapid charging stations besides the fuel cell method.
I’m sure GM thought of that but shareholders said “will it profit by EOQ?” and the good idea was shut down.
The truck would also cost at least $10k more than an ICE only truck – that would buy a lot of gas. Also that speaks nothing about the additional weight.
The battery weight can’t be any worse than a conventional iron-block. Li-ion batteries are quite light, and lithium itself is the lightest metal and the lightest solid chemically speaking.
I believe the Model S 85kWh battery is 1200lbs
It’s nothing more than bragging rights as look what we have. An all EV PU would be a limited market, for those to have pleasure use truck only, or government fleet users for gov subsidies that we are green. Some cities do want to go all electric for reduce carbon food print. But if only a few thousand sales would result, it’ll be a lost in dollars.