If I have one really major criticism of General Motors these days, it’s that it sometimes feels like a follower in various areas, not a leader. Ford’s got an electric truck coming out? Ditto, says the General. Mustang Mach-E selling out like Taylor Swift tickets? There’s a Camaro EV thing happening eventually, too. The Maverick is an unexpected success? Oh shit, better get on that! But GM does have chances to get ahead—way ahead—of the competition, and this design under consideration would do exactly that.
According to Automotive News, GM is considering a small pickup truck that’s actually down in size from the Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz—and it would be all-electric, too. A reporter for the publication saw one such design under consideration this week (at the kind of press event where they show you secret stuff but also cover up your phone cameras, usually) and she confirmed it’s a real thing. Or at least, a thing that exists in studio form while bean counters, engineers and product planners figure out the details.
The best part is that the truck “would be part of GM’s lineup of affordable EVs priced under $30,000,” meaning it would, at least as of right now, have no real and direct competitors. And it would be one of the very few truly affordable EVs on sale, not to mention the only truck with a sticker price that cheap. Ford is said to be working on an electric Maverick eventually to go with its popular hybrid version, so maybe these two could duke it out in an EV mini-truck war.
From that story:
The pickup, seen by Automotive News Wednesday at GM’s affordable EV design studio in Warren, Mich., is futuristic and sporty. Marketing images behind the pickup showed consumers using it for recreational activities, such as surfing.
GM did not provide a name, brand, image or production timeline for the mini truck.
“We’re creating these to get a reaction and then to try to modify it or move on. What does work? What doesn’t work? What’s expected?” Michael Pevovar, director of Chevrolet affordable EV and crossover design, told reporters. “Affordability is the key portion of this, and there’s lots of different ways to approach it.”
It’s important to take this with a grain of salt, as always. Automakers frequently consider internal design studies and ideas that never see the light of day, even if they show them off to the media in controlled settings. Not every idea on the drawing board ends up at a dealership lot a few years later. If that were the case, the Porsche Panamera would’ve come out back when Def Leppard was still reliably putting out hit albums.
But hey, this seems like a lovely idea, doesn’t it? I’ll give GM credit for this: its lineup of affordable EVs like the $30,000 Equinox should be quite impressive, and could break it out of the follower status I complained about up top. And the success of both the Maverick and the Santa Cruz proved that us enthusiasts were right all along, and people do demand smaller, cheaper pickup trucks when they don’t want or need an $85,000 crew-cab behemoth they have to finance over 12 to 15 years. Adding electric power to that recipe just makes sense; it’s where the market is going, and EV trucks are increasingly proving themselves in the towing and hauling department with all the prodigious torque they offer.
All of this is to say: build it, GM! And make sure it has steelies like the Maverick, too. It’s hard to see this idea not being successful in the marketplace. I told those jokers at Hyundai to build the Santa Cruz concept for years, and then they finally did, and guess what? It’s a major hit. Because of course it is. The important lesson here is that I am always right.
I do not like how the Santa Cruz looks.
Hopefully this looks better.
Sounds like an e-L Camino to me
This illustration annoys me since it’s about a supposed 2-door pickup
$30,000 HA! I remember when the maverick came out. You could only get the cheap on if you ordered it directly from ford. With markups and additional equipment you will be lucky to find one of these under 40k.
I’m in, but only if they call it the Bolt ET and sell it in a greenish grey with dayglow green DRLs.
I still insist Hyundai should have called their offering the “Elantruck.”
That is a hill I will die on.
I’ve got a radical idea. How about not requiring every pickup to have 4 doors and a tiny bed?
Buy a few thousand pickups with 2 doors and a long bed so they see the demand.
I’ve got one, an 06 GMC, with the 4.3l V6 so it’s both slow AND get’s lousy mileage.
Seriously though if I want a new 3 seat pickup (Including the driver’s seat) my only option is “full size” (more like plus size) Trucks. I don’t need a Truck that big, and I don’t want one without a manual transmission (if ICE powered) and Ford hasn’t made anything but short bed “super crew” crew cab F-150 Lightnings.
Even the new Ford Maverick pickup is 5.9 inches wider and 6.6 inches longer than my 1994 Toyota Pickup which has seating for 5 AND a 6.5FT long bed UNLIKE the new Maverick.
Honestly I think our best bet for small single cab pickups are BEV ones. They have no footprint rule that makes it so they have to be made artificially larger in order to meet fuel economy standards and BOF construction makes a ton of sense for BEVs.
How does the Maverick match up to Toyotas current 4-door, 5-passenger hybrid pickup offering?
Har Har. Funnily enough Toyota has a Hybrid 4 door 5 passenger Tundra, and it’s much bigger than the already too big for me Maverick.