{"id":28585,"date":"2022-01-11T11:54:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T15:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=28585"},"modified":"2022-01-11T11:54:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T15:54:23","slug":"payne-charge-it-pricey-detroit-ev-pickups-target-premium-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/payne-charge-it-pricey-detroit-ev-pickups-target-premium-customers","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Charge it! Pricey Detroit EV pickups target premium customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The electric truck wars are in full swing with the Chevy Silverado EV and Ford F-150 Lightning going toe-to-toe with starting prices of $40,000 for their first EV pickups.<\/p>\n

Consider the number $50,000, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how much more the Silverado EV\u2019s RST trim costs than a comparable, diesel-powered Silverado RST. Ford has also released its price configurator for Lightning, and EV models run from $18,000 to $25,000 more than their gas-powered counterparts. They will also be shopped against startup EV trucks like the $74,000 Rivian R1T and the $125,000 Bollinger B2.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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While manufacturers advertise EVs as the future of autos, their initial offerings have a decidedly premium feel. Like Teslas or Mustang Mach-E electric SUVs, American pickups appear targeted at a niche market of luxury customers with multi-car garages \u2014 or wealthy corporations with trendy\u00a0environmental sustainability goals to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, automakers know that EVs are a premium market. Particularly wealthy first adopters in places like Silicon Valley,\u201d said California-based auto analyst Karl Brauer of iSeeCars. \u201cThese are the same people who have bought Tesla Model Ss for their high performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chevy\u2019s all-wheel-drive Silverado EV RST first-edition model will debut in late 2023 at an eye-watering $105,000 \u2014 about the same price as Porsche\u2019s AWD electric car, the Taycan. The RST\u2019s sticker is just shy of the GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 price of $112,595.<\/p>\n

The Ford Lightning\u2019s top-trim, loaded Platinum model stickers at $92,569 (compared with a loaded, $72,000 Platinum gas-hybrid model) \u2014 more than\u00a0$8,000 north of the standard, rear-wheel-drive Porsche Taycan EV. Lightning will be offered in a variety of lower trims when it hits the market this spring, a year ahead of the Chevy.<\/p>\n

\"Ford's<\/p>\n
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All trims carry a hefty premium over their gas-engine siblings. Ford’s base\u00a0Lightning Pro model starts at $41,669, about $10,000 (32%) above the starting price of the $31,685\u00a0gas-powered F-150 XL.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s similar to the $10,000 premium that buyers have paid for Chevrolet\u2019s first electric vehicle, the Bolt EV, over a comparably-sized, gas-powered Chevy Trax SUV that starts at $22,595. The Bolt EV was hyped as a volume EV seller when it was revealed in 2016, but its sales have hovered around 20,000 units annually \u2014 or just 20% of Trax sales.<\/p>\n

Lightning will initially only be offered in a SuperCrew cab (four-door) configuration. In XLT trim, that would align it with the F-150\u2019s meat-and-potatoes XLT gas model,\u00a0one of the Blue Oval\u2019s best-selling vehicles. Load up a Lighting XLT and gas XLT, however, and the prices diverge.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
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An AWD Lightning XLT, for example, costs $75,000 compared with its $57,000 hybrid-gas XLT counterpart before a $7,500 federal tax credit. That\u2019s also on par with the luxury-market, $74,000 Rivian R1T. The price spread is comparable to the gulf between a top-trim, $57,000 mainstream Ford Explorer three-row SUV and a luxury, $75,000 BMW X7 three-row SUV.<\/p>\n

Automakers like Ford and GM have targeted EV sales to be half their volumes by the end of this decade \u2014 with GM aggressively forecasting all-EV sales by 2035. Initial market offerings point to less bullish expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not volume pricing. Automakers don\u2019t think they can sell EVs in volume,\u201d said analyst Brauer. \u201cEVs don\u2019t make sense at volume right now because automakers wouldn\u2019t be able to make the profit they make on gas cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Coming<\/p>\n
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Consistent with selling luxury compared with a mainstream brand, Ford emphasizes the capabilities of Lightning versus the gas F-150, such as a whopping 563 horsepower (versus 430 for the hybrid V-6 engine) and 775 pound-feet of torque (versus 570 for the hybrid). Similarly, a Silverado EV specs 775 pound-feet of torque versus a $56,600 diesel Silverado\u2019s 460 pound-feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cLightning has a number of capabilities only an all-electric powertrain can deliver,\u201d said\u00a0Ford spokesperson Hannah Ooms. \u201cSuch as 9.6 kilowatts Pro Power Onboard (charging), Ford Intelligent Backup Power, vehicle-to-vehicle Charging, 400-liter front trunk, 775 lb.-ft. of torque, and 0-60 mph time in the mid-4 second range,\u201d compared with the hybrid F-150\u2019s 5.3 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"2022<\/p>\n
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In addition to its price advantage, the hybrid-gas F-150 boasts other its own advantages such as 700 miles of range (versus 300 for the Lightning) and a significantly higher\u00a0towing capacity (12,700 pounds vs. 8,000 for the EV).<\/p>\n

So distinct in pricing and features are the Detroit EV trucks that car buff sites like Car and Driver list them as separate models.<\/p>\n

The premium EV message plays out in work truck models as well. Detroit automakers sell huge volumes to fleets serving everything from landscape to construction businesses. But Chevy and Ford are targeting EV work trucks at billion-dollar corporations that need to meet Environmental Social Governance quotas demanded by activist investors and governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work truck is about supporting our fleet customers and their sustainability goals with wanting to have a sustainable future (and the) ESG demands of their green investors. So we\u2019re starting with our fleet model first,\u201d said Silverado chief engineer Nichole Kraatz in an interview, previewing the Silverado WT\u2019s debut in early 2023.<\/p>\n

The activist push to electrify big fleets follows other trendy solutions in recent decades like ethanol and natural gas. In the wake of 9\/11, the Bush administration in 2005 mandated the federal government’s vehicle fleet be capable of operating on corn-based ethanol. And FedEx, one of GM\u2019s key partners with the Silverado Work Truck, invested in natural gas-powered vehicles last decade to meet sustainability goals.<\/p>\n

Startup automakers like Rivian and Bollinger also see the opportunity to take corporate fleet share from legacy automakers. Rivian has benefited from Amazon capital as the tech company builds a fleet of delivery vehicles on the bones of the pickup-maker\u2019s battery platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig corporations have a symbiotic relationship with Big Auto. They both need to claim how green they are,\u201d said Brauer. \u201cThe mantra among the tech and government crowd is sustainability. Big corporations also have money they can put into charging infrastructure, which is ideal for commercial trucks with set routes in an urban area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expensive EV trucks also dovetail with the premium pickup phenomenon of recent years. While Detroit luxury brands like Cadillac and Lincoln have concentrated on SUVs, top-trim trucks like the Chevy High Country, Ford Platinum, and Ram TRX now compete with top-drawer German luxury brands with big screens, high tech\u00a0and gilded interiors. A special Ignition Edition of the 702-horsepower Ram 1500 TRX, for example, retails for $93,280.<\/p>\n

Can pickup makers translate premium EV cache into mainstream sales volume?<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows what will happen in 10 years?\u201d smiled\u00a0Brauer.<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The electric truck wars are in full swing with the Chevy Silverado EV and Ford F-150 Lightning going toe-to-toe with starting prices of $40,000 for their first EV pickups. Consider the number $50,000, too. That\u2019s how much more the Silverado EV\u2019s RST trim costs than a comparable, diesel-powered Silverado RST. Ford has also released its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28586,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28585\/revisions\/28586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}