GM Will Beat Tesla To Market With An Electric Truck: Can It Beat Ford Too?

GM (GM) has been hush-hush on its plans to launch an all-electric pickup truck until now. The automaker has announced that it is entering the market with an electric truck, which it said it plans to launch in fall 2021.

The news that GM will introduce an electrified pickup truck to the consumer market came on the same day that Tesla (TSLA) launched the Cybertruck for the first time. The Cybertruck is set to arrive in late 2021, which makes it clear that GM is ready to beat that launch date with its fall 2021 release.

Ford (F) is also launching an electrified F-150 pickup truck, which is also thought to come late in 2021 as well. Ford hasn’t given an official release date for the EV but has given some clues into the power of the electrified truck in a teaser video that shows it pulling 1 million pounds of train cars. When it will officially release to the market is still an unknown that GM may have to contend with.

Mary Barra, CEO at GM, said at an investor conference on Thursday (via Reuters), “General Motors understands truck buyers and ... people who are new coming into the truck market. It will be a very capable truck, I’m pretty excited about it.”

Barra also said that GM “intend[s] to create an all-electric future that includes a complete range of EVs, including full-size pickups.”

Other details on the electric trucks were not provided by Barra, who said they would be unveiled “when competitively appropriate.”

Shares of GM stock were up 2.29% as of 1:20 p.m. EST on Friday while shares of Ford stock were up 2.01% at the same time. Shares of Tesla stock were down 5.81% also at the same time.