The $100K Electric Truck Market Is Here

Detroit- Tesla, General Motors, Rivian Automotive and Ford Motor Company They've created a new market in the U.S. auto industry for expensive, powerful, and dangerous electric trucks that sell for $100,000 or more.

Just five years ago, the idea of ​​a customer paying a premium for a pickup truck—essentially a work vehicle designed to haul and haul—made national headlines. But it’s quickly becoming the norm, as automakers try to maximize profits from conventional trucks and simply profit from electric trucks.

“Customers are willing to spend, so automakers are going to give them that,” said Stephanie Brinley, principal auto analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “In general, pickups getting more equipment, better features and better materials really reflects the general consumer attitude that they want more.”

But unlike traditional $100,000 pickup trucks with internal combustion engines that offer superior capabilities compared to their lower-priced counterparts, electric trucks have higher prices in part because of their technologies, including the expensive batteries needed to power the vehicles.

“If you think about who is actually buying these new electric vehicles, it’s certainly, for automakers, a different demographic,” said Stephanie Valdez-Streetti, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “They’re very expensive, very specialized vehicles.”

There are currently a few electric trucks available for purchase in the US market: the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and General Motors GMC Hummer EV, GMC Sierra Denali, and Chevrolet Silverado. SUV versions of the GMC Hummer and Rivian are also available, which feature similar functionality to their pickup truck counterparts but in different shapes.

All of these vehicles can easily reach or exceed $100,000, including Tesla’s Cyberbeast for around $120,000 and a limited-edition GMC Hummer for more than $150,000. Both vehicles sold for more than $100,000 in the past month, Kelley Blue Book reported — and the Tesla Cybertruck became the best-selling vehicle in the United States with a price tag of six figures or more.

That compares to the average price paid for a conventional full-size pickup truck of $65,713, including the average 7 percent rebate incentive, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Overall, the electric truck market, including SUVs, sold about 58,000 vehicles in the first half of this year, according to Motor Intelligence estimates. That’s less than 1 percent of the roughly 7.9 million new light-duty vehicles sold in the U.S. during that period, but a 35 percent quarter-over-quarter increase from the first quarter to the second, the data shows.

The market is expected to continue to grow, but for now, I’ve driven each of these $100,000 vehicles for varying lengths of time. They all perform well, but in different ways. Here are some thoughts on each:

The Tesla Cybertruck is unique when it comes to almost everything – design, function, polarization, and features.

It's more of a “cyber” than a “truck.” It has some truck capabilities, like a truck bed and other practical features, but it's not a truck in the traditional sense of the word.

The Cybertruck features tight steering, including a steer-by-wire system; a solid, sports-car-like body; and, while arbitrary, the design is more about form than function, which has historically been one of the main reasons to buy a pickup truck.

Like its GM competitors, the Cybertruck also features a “four-wheel steering” system where all four wheels of the vehicle help turn. Compared to a traditional two-wheeled vehicle, this makes maneuvering larger vehicles much easier.

What the Tesla Cybertruck lacks in terms of traditional “truck”, it makes up for in technology, as well as the human-machine interface (HMI) of the vehicle with the driver.

It can be said that this car represents an experiment for the company in many respects regarding its technologies.

Pros: Design, technology, software, weight (lowest in its class), four-wheel steering. Cons: Design, bed access, interior space, quality.

The GMC Hummer EV — the first electric truck to hit the market — is the most comparable to the Cybertuck in terms of performance, price, and overall luxury.

Driving the car, whether on or off the road, is a fun experience. General Motors has called it the world’s first “supertruck.” It’s fast, big, and the least efficient electric vehicle on the market today, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The SUV version is also smaller and easier to drive than the pickup truck version.

Both versions of the Hummer bear the weight of GM’s rapid development of the vehicle. They are heavy — an estimated 9,200 pounds for the truck — compared to every other consumer vehicle on the market today, including their all-electric counterparts.

While the Hummer EVs are capable of reaching 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds or less and are very capable with their performance parts, the weight of the vehicles can be easily felt when driving them.

GM designers have done a good job updating the exterior design of the Hummer for the new electric vehicle, including the ability to remove the roof panels. But the interior, like the vehicles themselves, can seem quite bulky.

Pros: Design, capability, durability, four-wheel steering, Super Cruise hands-free advanced driver assistance system Cons: Design, efficiency, huge interior, range

GM's latest all-electric pickup trucks are the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500, both of which offer high-end models that cost close to $100,000.

While GM's design team has done an exceptional job of separating the look of the vehicles to appeal to their respective brands, the vehicle parts and functions are largely the same.

Both vehicles have an EPA-rated range of 440 miles, offer up to 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque, and, importantly for many truck customers, they also tow up to 10,000 pounds and can charge 100 miles in about 10 minutes on a DC fast charger (as long as you can find a compatible charger).

The Sierra is more elegant and luxurious than its Chevy counterpart: It has open-pore wood, larger overall screens, GMC's “crab” mode with four-wheel steering—shared with the Hummer—and other features.

A unique feature that stands out in the Silverado and Sierra EVs compared to other vehicles is the ability to offer a “middle door,” where the rear seats of the vehicle fold down and the rear window can be removed to create a nearly 11-foot-long truck bed and class-leading cargo area.

Both the Silverado and Sierra EVs drive well and feel like “trucks,” but they also remain significantly heavier than their non-GM competitors.

Pros: Power, charging speed, range, Super Cruise, center door, 4-wheel steering. Cons: Efficiency, interior (especially Silverado), weight.

Rivian's flagship R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV remain standouts in the electric truck segment when it comes to outdoor adventure and lifestyle vehicles — emulating vehicles like Jeep.

The second generation of the vehicle, launched earlier this year, has improved the driving experience and quality of the trucks. The R1S’s driving experience was noticeably smoother than the first generation of the vehicle.

While the vehicles’ exterior designs remain largely unchanged in the second generation, Rivian says they offer 10 times more computing power than before. The company has also changed more than half of the hardware components.

The R1T and R1S have a minimalist interior, much like Tesla products, but still have enough other controls to satisfy traditional buyers. The functionality and user interface are also impressive.

Pros: Design, software, interiorCons: Fast charging capability, no four-wheel steering, advanced driver assistance system

The F-150 Lightning is the most accessible all-electric truck on the market. That includes its starting price of around $63,000, its driving dynamics and its functionality. It operates much like a traditional F-150—but electric. That’s because it shares many of the same parts as its internal combustion-engine siblings.

When the F-150 Lightning hit the market, it was the first “mainstream” electric truck. It followed the Hummer “supertruck” and the Rivian R1T, but it was the first real test of such an all-electric vehicle for traditional truck owners.

When it was launched, the vehicle was a standout, but the competition has largely caught up to or surpassed it when it comes to range, driving dynamics, and overall performance, especially when compared to the $100,000 trucks mentioned above.

The F-150 Lightning, which can top $90,000, remains a solid vehicle but for buyers looking to spend around $100,000 or more, the competition is tougher than it was when the truck launched in 2022.