Will pickup truck buyers go electric?

Among EV consumers in the U.S., pickup truck drivers have been the toughest sell. In 2024, only about 0.1 million of the three million pickup trucks sold domestically were electric, a figure that reflects consumer hesitancy and limited supply—fewer EV pickup models were available compared to other vehicle segments. While car and SUV consumer choice has been widely studied, the lag in truck adoption is less understood. Understanding pickup truck buyer preferences is critical to meeting decarbonization policy goals.

A new study from Jeremy Michalek and Kate Whitefoot, both professors of engineering and public policy and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, focuses on what it will take to persuade pickup truck buyers to go electric. A survey of 534 U.S. pickup truck buyers showed a majority are willing to switch to EV trucks over conventional options if they offer comparable price and performance.

“We find that one in four of the pickup truck owners we surveyed are dead set against electric vehicles. There’s nothing plausible we can do with the technology’s cost or performance that would win them over without a change in their preferences,” says Michalek.

“But that leaves three-quarters of pickup truck owners who are open to electric vehicles. Expected near-term improvements in cost and range may be enough to make electric pickup trucks attractive to many of these consumers.”

The study acknowledges pickup truck buyers’ unique set of concerns. Compared to other types of vehicle owners, pickup truck drivers tend to live in rural areas without substantial charging infrastructure. Trucks need to have considerable towing and hauling capacity, and they are heavier, requiring more energy per mile. Though costs are rapidly dropping, EV pickup truck batteries and motors are more expensive, weakening their market competitiveness.

Despite those challenges, 74% of the study’s sample either prefer or are indifferent to EV pickup trucks over conventional options, given equivalent range, price, and towing capacity. Study results showed that respondents fell into three distinct groups. The largest group of participants (45%) were “Tech-Indifferent;” consumers who are powertrain agnostic and mainly concerned with price, range, and towing capacity. 28% were “Electric-Enthusiasts” and prefer plug-in EVs over gasoline pickup trucks when they have sufficient range. 26% of the study’s participants were “Electric-Opposed,” and sharply opposed to buying an EV over a comparable gasoline pickup truck. This group, however, demonstrated an openness to purchasing hybrid trucks.

While the study notes other factors that could affect consumer choice, including differences in maintenance, insurance and repair costs, availability of residential and public parking charging infrastructure, and dealership availability, recent technological improvements have made EV trucks more competitive, suggesting mainstream consumer adoption may improve.

One of the reasons that the U.S. lags behind many other countries in electric vehicle adoption is that U.S. households tend to own larger vehicles, including trucks, that are more challenging to electrify, and electrification has become political. “It’s encouraging that most pickup truck owners are open to electrification,” says Michalek. “Technology projections suggest that we may reach the point in the near future where many pickup truck buyers become indifferent between gasoline or electric or even prefer electric pickup trucks.”