By Dan Neil

In the yet-unwritten history of electric pickups, the Tesla Cybertruck would appear around the end of Chapter One, when things look their darkest -- and dumbest.

First delivered to customers in 2023, Tesla's stainless-skinned, knife-edged pickup went on to become about as popular as tetanus. Propelled by CEO Elon Musk's inimitable charm, sales collapsed after the first year; resale values also cratered, as few wanted to rehome Musk's troubled teen.

At the end of Chapter Two -- roughly December 2025 -- Ford Motor Company announced a record $19.5 billion in EV-related losses, mostly owing to the Edsel-like failure of its F-150 Lightning pickup. Meanwhile, in a boardroom across town, GM was writing down its own $6 billion loss. At this point, consumers could have easily concluded electric pickups were never going to happen.

Yet at that moment -- in sequestered design studios scattered around California -- engineering boffins were up to their elbows in the next generation of EV pickups, and still are. Some work for startups, others represent legacy giants -- most notably, Ford, which has put $5 billion toward its Universal Electric Vehicle Platform. One will attempt to leverage a radical minimalism ( the Slate Truck); another a redefining scale (the TELO MT1); still others a magical name (Scout and Ram).

The title of Chapter Three? Less is More.

Demand, meet supply

Who wants an electric pickup? Americans. Early in its checkered history (December 2021), the Lightning had amassed almost 200,000 reservations. Slate Auto -- the Michigan-based, Bezos-backed startup -- has more than 160,000 reservations for its ultra-basic mini-truck, secured with $50 fees. TELO's winsome MT1 has collected 14,000 paid reservations.

Among those who aspire to buy a swell little electric pickup? Me. I'm a city dweller and homeowner who needs a pickup for innumerable small jobs throughout the year -- leaf litter in the fall, mulch in the spring, dorm-room moving four times a year -- but no big ones. Considering that millions of Americans buy pickups for daily transportation, it's natural to wonder why Tesla or Rivian didn't start with a pickup.

Because pickups are hard. They are built to meet sky-high expectations of towing, hauling and cargo versatility. As a result, they are heavy -- typically between 4,000-6,000 pounds -- with steel frame rails, a reinforced suspension and solid axles. Also, having large frontal areas with an open cargo bed, the typical pickup design generates high aerodynamic drag, a factor that increases consumption proportional to the square of the velocity. The combined effects of high curb weight, high rolling resistance (tires), and high-speed drag straight-up murders range and towing.

The Lightning, for example, could manage up to 300 miles on its 123 kWh battery pack. But once users hooked up a boat or trailer, range could drop into the 100s. Making matters worse, the battery pack was expensive -- on the order of $30,000, putting the Lightning out of reach of the very customers Ford was courting.

Fewer parts, better parts

Ford's Universal Electric Vehicle Platform (UEVP), on which the next EV pickup will be built, is in many ways a compilation of hard lessons learned with the Lightning. At a fundamental level, the Lightning erred in attempting to be a traditional American pickup, with all the size and capacity but with a fraction of the available energy on board.

Alan Clarke, the head of Ford's UEVP program, said his team focused on a single, subtle principle: Instead of making the battery pack bigger and invariably more expensive, find ways to keep it as small and inexpensive as practically possible. Clarke's team has spent the last two years sweating grams, watts, millimeters and pennies from every component, system or process, over and over. "Every decision centers on how much we can reduce the size of the battery," Clarke said in a recent video presentation. For example, lowering the pickup's roof by a single millimeter saved the equivalent of $1.30 in battery cost.

Clarke's team often had to sweep away the last vestiges of legacy car-building. Engineers managed to reduce the number of parts in the front and rear body structures to just two, using large and intricate aluminum "uni-castings," similar to those pioneered by Tesla. The UEVP is the first Ford program to use such castings, and they are expensive. But they weigh about 30% less than equivalent steel structures, more than paying for themselves in a smaller battery.

How small? Tiny. Although Ford has not disclosed the pickup's battery capacity, analysts have estimated it to be between 51-60 kWh -- about half that of the standard-range Lightning.

In the place of dozens of electronic control units (ECUs) typical in a conventional vehicle -- and the tape-wrapped wiring harness that connects them -- the UEVP adopts 48V zonal control architecture, neatly networked around five big processors. The 48V upgrade translates to shorter runs of lighter-gauge wire, helping save another 22 pounds.

In order to hit a starting price promised to be "around" $30,000, Clarke's team chose low-cost lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) cells, with technology licensed from Chinese battery giant CATL. These cells will be manufactured and assembled into packs at Ford's facility in Marshall, Mich. -- shorter supply chains and vertical integration being another two lessons learned in the last episode.

Economies of small scale

There is another path to an affordable electric pickup -- a shortcut, if you like. Make it smaller. In the case of California-based TELO Trucks, much smaller.

Jason Marks, founder and CEO of TELO, started his quest in 2022 with a set of nonnegotiable capacities, including five-person seating; interior space comparable to his Toyota Tacoma; and a cargo bed able to carry a 4×8-foot sheet of plywood. All this he hoped to squeeze into a vehicle with an overall length of a Mini Cooper SE. With some masterful help from Swiss-American designer Yves Behar (also an investor), Marks turned his numbers into the cute-maxxing MT1, an electric mini-truck that he hopes will go into limited production this year.

For the MT1, small is quite the enabler. The single-motor version can extract 350 miles of range from its 106-kWh battery, according to Marks. The dual-motor/AWD variant will sprint to 60 mph in four seconds, carry a payload of 1,700 pounds and tow up to 6,600 pounds.

The cab-forward design naturally leads people to ask about crash protection. "Safety was the first and highest consideration," Marks said. "The physics suggest a car needs to have at least 12 inches of frontal crush zone. We are at a little over 14 inches, and the way we've engineered the front end of the vehicle gives me confidence that it will be an extremely safe vehicle."

The Build-A-Bear pickup

Where the MT1 puts small on a pedestal, the Slate Truck worships simple. This single-cab electric pickup -- as bare-boned as a Willys Jeep, as boxy as a 4-year-old's drawing -- is expected to go on sale late this year or early 2027, with a starting price under $30,000. How much under will be revealed Wednesday, when the company begins taking preorders. Founded four years ago and headquartered in Troy, Mich., the Jeff Bezos-backed startup initially counted on a federal tax credit of $7,500 for EVs, allowing the company to talk up a starting price under $20,000. But that was before. Industry-watchers will be clocking how many of the 160,000 reservations convert to real buyers.

Taking a page from the Build-A-Bear store, Slate's pickups will start life with a minimum of equipment beyond that required by law -- windshield, wipers, headlights, brakes, that sort of thing. Some of the typical standard features not included: audio system, power windows (manual crank windows are standard) and alloy wheels. It will come with 17-inch steelies standard. The company calls it the Blank Slate, reasonably enough.

Buyers will choose features and amenities, a la carte, from a catalog of cost-added personalization features. The exterior panels of dark gray thermoplastic are designed to be wrapped, not painted; buyers will be able to choose colors, decals, paint schemes and patterns when ordering the truck online (like Tesla, Slate Auto will sell directly to the public, without using dealerships). The body panels have exposed fasteners, allowing -- even encouraging -- DIY'ers to swap out panels and upgrade exterior features, such as fog lights, signals, headlights and taillights. If buyers tick the right box on the order form, their Tonka-like little pickups can be transformed into an SUV, with a bolt-on roof kit.

Fitted with a rear-mounted 201-hp motor and a 53-kWh battery pack, the Slate Truck is targeting 150 miles of range; an optional long-range battery pack (84.3 kWh) will extend that to 240 miles. The battery can charge at up to 120 kW, restoring 20%-80% of charge in 30 minutes.

Not every automaker stepped forward; some stepped back. Stellantis had been preparing an all-electric Ram pickup for the U.S. market, but canceled it in favor of an extended-range (EREV) version, using a gas-powered V6 as an onboard generator. GM has no plans to cancel its Chevy Silverado EV or GMC Sierra EV pickups. However, in April the company announced it would postpone any replacements.

VW Group's reboot of the Scout brand was initially set to be all-electric. However, engineers were sent scrambling when the firm fast-tracked EREV versions of the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup, requiring extensive re-engineering and delaying Scout's relaunch party.

At least one more EV pickup could be heading our way soon, though it remains officially unconfirmed. Rivian, maker of the R1T (truck) and R1S (SUV), has just released its midsize R2 SUV. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to conjure a pickup-shaped variant.

Who will win, who will lose, and who will survive the EV truck wars of our near future? Turn the page.

Smaller, Lighter, More Efficient

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June 19, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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