Tesla News: Could The Electric Pickup Truck Be Better Than Ford, GM?

CEO Elon Musk hopes Tesla can break into the American pickup truck market, announcing that he would unveil the company's electric Cybertruck on Nov. 21 near the SpaceX factory in Los Angeles. The vehicle will cost less than $50,000.

Musk claims that his electric pickup will "be better" than Ford's F-150, America's best-selling vehicle. Ford sold 909,330 F-Series pickups in 2018 alone.

The "cybertruck" will be designed to "meet or exceed an F-150. If the F-150 can do it then a Tesla truck should be able to do it," Musk has said.

Tesla may have major competition in the electric pickup market. General Motors is also building a battery-electric pickup, which will likely go into production in 2021 and be released in 2022.

Ford will also make an electric battery version of its popular F-150 model, along with a hybrid version. To show that the electric vehicle is "built Ford tough," the company had the model pull 10-double decker freight cars with 42 F-150s loaded inside, weighing nearly 1.3 million pounds.

The futuristic Rivian R1T is set to be released in 2020, with the price to reportedly start at $69,000. The vehicle will come with three battery sizes, and will likely include autonomous driving technology.

In 2019, the pickup truck segment of the automobile market has brought in over $81 million in revenue in the United States. In addition to the Ford F-150, the GM Silverado and the Ram 1500 are also popular pickup models in the U.S. market.