Is America ready for the electric car? Yes. “Cue half an hour of shouting, no way, you’re lying, disbelief.” They get even more amped, then he tells them that’s the EV. Darren Palmer, VP Electric Vehicle Programs (aka the Brit heading up Ford’s $50bn bid to upend Tesla as the biggest EV maker in the world) tells a lovely story about asking some grizzled Texan truck lovers what kind of animal would an electric truck be? “A Chihuahua.” OK, what drink would it be? “Pink champagne.” He then proceeds to distract them by talking about the new F-150 Raptor before rattling off the specs of one more exciting future model.
Problem is, dazzling Silicon Valley types tired of waiting for their non-existent Cybertruck to be delivered is the easy part… tempting its core audience over to an EV is going to be trickier. Ford had to turn the tap off at 200,000 reservations, over a year’s worth of production, because it didn’t want things spiralling out of control and customers having to wait years for delivery. Rivian, by all accounts, is having difficulty ramping up production, the four-tonne Hummer is $100k+ and the Chevy doesn’t arrive until next year. What makes the Ford unique is it looks (by and large), like any other F-150, it’s affordable (prices start from under $40,000) and it’s ready. True, there are suddenly quite a few about, like the new Hummer EV, Chevy Silverado EV and Rivian R1T, as well as Elon’s stainless-steel wedge, the Cybertruck. What is it about electric pick-up trucks at the moment?
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