When my boss, Patrick George, picked me up earlier this week in a GMC Sierra EV he was testing, we both couldn't help but be stunned at just how big it was. It towered over Toyota Tacomas and barely squeezed through cramped New York City streets. (We had an event we had to drive to, don't worry; operating a massive truck in the Big Apple, electric or otherwise, is not advisable.)
Full-size trucks have gotten enormous over the last few decades. And, sure, that's annoying when you're trying to sneak your cruise ship of a truck past a double-parked Uber. But it's an even more supersized challenge for automakers trying to pivot to electric vehicles.
That kicks off this Friday edition of Critical Materials, our daily roundup of the news driving the future of transportation. Elsewhere in the EV universe, Teslas seem to be overcoming their stigma in some parts of the world, and one legacy automaker just hit a big EV sales milestone. Let's dig in, folks.
30%: Ford And GM's Big EV Problem
Back in 2022, Ford kicked off production of the F-150 Lightning. This felt like a watershed moment in the industry, and in a lot of ways it was. America's best-selling vehicle—the F-Series truck—was going battery-powered, and the general thinking was that EVs would explode into the mainstream as a result.
The Blue Oval ratcheted up its production plans several times as the preorders flooded in. In 2022, it said it planned to produce 150,000 of them annually by 2023. That never happened. Years later, Ford has only sold some 86,000 Lightnings in total.
I don't mean to pick on Ford in particular here. I like the Lightning a lot. The point is that electric pickups in general have not taken off. Electric trucks are really expensive, thanks to their giant batteries. Real truck stuff like towing and hauling can deal a big blow to range. And then there's the political element. EV buying has been a largely coastal and largely liberal phenomenon thus far, and truck buyers tend to be the opposite.
But that's a huge problem for car companies like Ford, General Motors and Ram that have come to depend on truck sales and the fat profit margins they bring. The Big Three, in particular, have basically become truck companies that make other models as a kind of side-hustle.
A recent Bloomberg Businessweek story dives into how the industry missed the mark. For starters, the numbers this story lays out are rather staggering:
Automakers collectively sold about 35,000 electric pickups to US drivers in the first half of 2025, down 4% from the year before. Meanwhile, 1.6 million gasoline-powered full-size pickups flew off lots during the same period, according to market research firm AutoForecast Solutions. Now automakers who rushed to invest billions of dollars to build plug-in pickups can’t help but wonder how they overestimated interest from their most loyal customers so badly.
Pickups are immensely popular in general, but battery-powered ones like the Tesla Cybertruck, Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV and Lightning can't hang. What gives?
Besides all of the above about cost, range and capability, Bloomberg chalks it up to many of the social issues we've reported on before. Here's more on that:
Part of the misreading of the market has also been political: In a nation where nearly everything is fiercely divided, choosing an electric motor over a gasoline engine can be as much an identifier of one’s political tribe as sticking a “science is real” sign in your front yard.
Sooner or later, American truck makers will need to figure out how to pivot away from the gas trucks that have padded their bottom lines for decades. Maybe fuel economy rules are out the window during this administration, but that's a temporary reprieve at best. How do they make it work?
Ford this week announced one solution: A smaller, more aerodynamic truck that's simpler to build and can make do with a small battery. That's supposed to arrive in 2027 with a price tag starting at around $30,000. We'll see if Ford can make it work.
Other types of powertrains may be the key to letting full-size trucks live on while also polluting less and embracing the benefits of electrification. Ram and Scout, a new offshoot of Volkswagen, are working on extended-range EVs, which use a small gas generator to boost range. In fact, Ram has delayed its purely electric 1500 truck and is now coming out with an EREV variant, the Ramcharger, first. Might be a smart move.
60%: Norway Still Likes Teslas, Despite... Everything
A lot of friends and family ask me if Tesla can ever recover from the brand damage that Elon Musk has wrought. Over the last year, Tesla has lost its shine thanks to CEO Elon Musk's forays into right-wing politics around the world. As a result, the automaker's sales have plummeted across Europe and in the U.S.
But Norway is still snapping up Teslas like it's 2023, Reuters reports:
In the first half of this year as Tesla sales plunged by half or more in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, they grew by 24% year-on-year in Norway, making the country of 5.5 million the company's second-largest European market.
Why highlight Norway? Aggressive government subsidies have turned it into a beacon of the EV transition. As Reuters notes, EVs now account for 94% of car sales in the country. In the U.S., we're still stuck in the single digits.
The gist of the story is that Tesla and Norway have a special bond as two EV pioneers. And I recommend you read the whole story, as I learned a lot. Did you know that the first Tesla Supercharger built outside of North America went up in Norway? And that the country was the first outside of North America to get the Model S?
90%: Volkswagen Hits A Milestone
We write a lot about how incumbent manufacturers are struggling to nail the EV transition in one way or another. (See above.) But from a 30,000-foot view, it's clear that progress is happening.
Take the news today out of Volkswagen, for example. As of Friday, the brand has sold 1.5 million of its ID-series electric cars in the last five years. Not too shabby.
The vehicle in question is a VW ID.7 Tourer, which is sadly not available in the U.S.
100%: Can Electric Trucks Work?
How do you think automakers should address the conundrum I laid out in the first section? Do they need to shrink their trucks? Focus on efficiency? Embrace alternative powertrains?
Let us know in the comments below!
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
