It’s the auto trade’s weirdest market. There are six EV vehicles on sale within the U.S., made by extra manufacturers than the blockbuster half-ton gasoline truck market. But nobody is promoting big-truck volumes. It’s a costlier model of what’s usually an automaker’s most worthwhile automobile. But virtually nobody is making a living.
It’s the intersection of two automobile sorts People are shopping for in droves. However lots of them sit on tons for weeks. It’s the EV truck market in 2025, and no person’s successful.
Not but, a minimum of.
(Welcome to Energy Strikes, a column on the winners and losers of the EV transition. I’ll break down what’s occurring, why you must care and who’s going to come back out on high.)
A Stilted Begin
Rivian and Ford have been the primary movers on this section, for what good it did them. Rivian has constructed a profitable enterprise out of promoting high-end, life-style, electrical off-roaders. However the enterprise is weighted closely towards R1S SUV gross sales. The R1T—which arrived first—is a slower vendor, and has been far eclipsed by vehicles just like the Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertruck.
Regardless of that, the image isn’t so rosy at Ford. The corporate made an enormous deal out of launching the all-electric model of its Most worthy nameplate. And the F-150 Lightning is promoting nicely now, however not F-150 nicely—which was what Ford had hoped for.
Its historical past has seen worth hikes, huge manufacturing cuts, worth cuts, manufacturing pauses and heavy incentive schemes.
Photograph by: Ford
A 12 months in the past, issues appeared particularly bleak.
“(Ford) was doing horrendous, admittedly very poorly in the beginning of 2024,” Ivan Drury, head of insights at car-buying web site Edmunds, advised InsideEVs. “They’ve right-sided that. You realize, they introduced manufacturing according to what shoppers really need.”
By the top of 2025, Ford put some juice again into the Lightning. David Greene, an analyst with Vehicles.com, compiled an inventory of the most well liked EVs in December 2024, primarily based on demand relative to stock and common “flip fee,” or the time that the common automobile sits on a seller lot.
To my shock, the F-150 Lightning was on there. Greene and Drury each famous that right-sizing manufacturing and together with free charger set up had helped Ford get some momentum behind the Lightning.
However the fundamentals are nonetheless robust. CEO Jim Farley famous earlier this 12 months that giant, heavy autos might have been the moneymakers within the internal-combustion period, however the reverse will likely be true for the electrical period.
I purchase it. It’s just too costly to make a automobile that giant with the vary and functionality shoppers demand proper now. Trendy battery know-how means full-size vehicles with acceptable ranges will likely be heavy, inefficient and expensive.
Once they’re offered alongside gasoline vehicles that may typically present comparable functionality for much less, it’s a troublesome promote. After road-tripping a Lightning throughout the Midwest this summer season, I positively wouldn’t pay a $10,000 premium for that have over a gasoline truck.
GM’s Gambit
If Ford’s technique relies on offering a adequate expertise at an appropriate worth, Basic Motors’ gambit is that customers can pay a premium for a gasoline truck that exceeds their functionality expectations. The Sierra and Silverado EVs supply as much as 450 miles of vary—beating every thing however the Lucid Air for probably the most miles out there in a manufacturing automobile.
They boast blazing-fast charging speeds due to 350-kW split-pack charging assist. They’re the one vehicles that provide a major vary whereas towing.
Present variations additionally price $100,000.
Subsequent.
I child. There are new, cheaper fashions arriving this 12 months, just like the $75,195 LT. That mannequin gives 408 miles of vary and usually serves as the quantity mannequin for Chevy vehicles. Plus, after over a 12 months of Chevy solely providing “Work Truck” fashions to fleet clients, common shoppers can now purchase a Work Truck with a 422-mile vary. The catch is it prices $69,495, and nonetheless comes with the comparatively spartan WT inside. It is unclear what demand will likely be like for that mannequin, however early WTs have already been offloaded by Hertz at cut-rate costs. That is not a terrific signal.
“It’s not very confidence-inspiring to see this. Abruptly you’re getting these vehicles dumped again in the marketplace at fairly important reductions,” Drury mentioned.
Photograph by: Out of Spec Testing (YouTube)
Analysts agree that it’s too early to see whether or not GM’s truck technique will repay. David Greene, the analyst from Vehicles.com, famous that the GMC Sierra EV was one of many hottest EVs in December. Our personal Patrick George appeared to love it, even when he wasn’t a fan of the Silverado. However it’s not clear how large the attain will likely be. Whereas the vehicles are succesful, they’re additionally far costlier than internal-combustion options. That makes it fairly unlikely, in my opinion, that they’ll characterize a big proportion of total GM truck gross sales within the brief to medium time period. Nonetheless, it is solely the beginning for GM.
“I feel it’s virtually too quickly to inform,” Drury mentioned.
The Cybertruck Issue
One entrant calls for consideration. It beckons with shining trapezoids. It dominates each newsfeed. It’s the Tesla Cybertruck, the best-selling electrical pickup truck by fairly a big margin. It can’t simply be in comparison with its “opponents,” in the event you may even name them that. However it did fortunately dunk on them on the gross sales charts, with 38,965 deliveries per Cox Automotive information, smashing the section report.
Nonetheless, there are cracks within the stainless-steel armor.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
“I feel there was loads of pent-up demand, so that they began off the 12 months actually robust. However then we began to see a gross sales decline in This autumn” Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of trade insights at Cox Automotive, advised me.
Cybertruck gross sales fell 22% from the third quarter to the fourth, as my colleague Tim Levin defined in his glorious piece on Cybertruck demand. That’s brutal when you think about that client spending is cyclical, with much more spending towards the top of the 12 months. Plus, Tesla tried to juice numbers by introducing a non-Basis Sequence truck for $20,000 much less, then providing free lifetime Supercharging on high of it. The corporate is pulling each demand lever, and but gross sales fell.
A Rocky Street Forward
No person is aware of how that is going to shake out. Present vehicles are already leveraging tax credit and heavy lease subsidization to drive gross sales. Leasing a Lightning is commonly the most cost effective means into an F-150 of any stripe. Plus, automakers are juicing residual values to offer much more aggressive leases. Nonetheless, although, EV vehicles characterize a tiny proportion of total truck gross sales.
Ford offered 33,500 F-150 Lightnings final 12 months, up 38% from 2023. A severe quantity. However the firm moved 765,649 F-Sequence vehicles over the identical interval. GM’s EV vehicles represented an excellent smaller share of its truck enterprise. Ram doesn’t even have an electrical truck on the market.
Clearly, these merchandise haven’t discovered a successful formulation. Sure tech-conscious consumers who desire a truck for residence enchancment or for adventures appear , however many conventional truck consumers haven’t proven curiosity. Few are enthusiastic about coping with America’s patchwork EV infrastructure—an even bigger drawback for vehicles, which frequently take longer to cost, require higher-power chargers to hit their marketed charging speeds and which can not be capable of use any charger with out first disconnecting their trailers.
Photograph by: Scout Motors
Ram and Scout present maybe probably the most direct reply to those issues. Each corporations plan to supply Prolonged Vary Electrical Car (EREV) vehicles. EREVs have gas-powered turbines to offer road-trip and towing endurance with out the price and weight of a 200-kWh battery, which seems like a stable resolution for the truck section. Ram has already realized some lesson’s from GM’s truck technique, killing its personal 200-kWh behemoth earlier than it left the cradle. Scout’s pricing suggests it, too, is banking on the EREV possibility to offer functionality parity with out a loopy worth premium.
Scout CEO Scott Keogh advised me just lately that he expects the take fee for the vary extender to be far increased for the truck than the SUV, because it’ll remedy the towing and hauling issues individuals have about electrical vehicles. Sooner or later, although, he argues that making a compelling product is extra essential than powertrain alone.
“I feel this debate of ICE truck vs. EV truck for Scout is irrelevant. I feel the talk goes to be about, like ‘I bought a cool truck,’” Keogh advised me. “Yeah, we bought a cool truck all day.”
Contact the writer: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
