As of 2019, buyers who want an electric pickup truck are out of luck. The segment is currently barren, but it’s going to get really crowded, really quickly. And now, startup Fisker Automotive has released an enigmatic teaser image that suggests it’s planning to throw its hat in the ring in the coming years.
Company founder Henrik Fisker published the image (shown above) on his official Twitter account. He opined that every automotive segment needs to be electrified, and said the automaker has already decided how it will expand its portfolio after it brings its upcoming SUV to the market. While the tweet makes no specific mention of a truck, the computer-generated image shows the back end of a vehicle that looks suspiciously like a pickup.
It’s much boxier than Fisker’s other designs, including the aforementioned SUV and the Tesla Model 3-fighting EMotion sedan it’s working on. The company’s name appears in big capital letters on what resembles a tailgate. It almost looks like a removable hard top, Jeep Wrangler-style, but zooming in reveals the top ends well before the back end.
While most of this is speculation, Fisker revealed the model it’s teasing — whether it’s a pickup, or an open-top SUV — will ride on the same basic platform as the people-mover it’s currently bringing to production. The automaker has previously hinted at an 80-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that delivers about 300 miles of range. Pickups are less aerodynamic than SUVs and the cargo box creates drag, so it might be difficult to reach the 300-mile threshold without using a bigger battery pack.
Fisker has a proven track record of teasing upcoming models one picture at a time on its founder’s official Twitter account, so odds are we’ll hear much more about the truck — assuming it is one — in the coming months. It’s scheduled to reach production after the SUV, which will make its debut in 2021, so don’t expect to see it until 2022 at the earliest.
By that point, the Fisker truck will face stiff competition from startup Rivian, which plans to begin production on its own battery-powered pickup, the R1T, by late 2020, as well as the model Tesla has teased for years but not shown yet. Ford is also developing an electric version of the hot-selling F-150, and General Motors is open to the idea of electrifying the Chevrolet Silverado, the GMC Sierra, or both.
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