GM has announced the timeline for its electric pickup truck, which the automaker says will go on sale in the US in 2021.

In several comments over the last year, GM has been tentatively talking about building electric pickup trucks.

As part of its negotiations with the Union of Auto Workers during a month-long strike in September and October, GM revealed its plans to build an electric pickup at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

However, the timeline hasn’t been clear until now.

Speaking at an investor conference today, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the company’s first electric pickup truck will “go on sale” in “the fall of 2021.”

She said that she sees demand for electric pickup trucks:

“General Motors understands truck buyers and… people who are new coming into the truck market,”

The CEO made the announcement the same day that Tesla is unveiling its own electric pickup truck.

GM has been feeling pressure to electrify its pickup trucks, which represents most of its sales and its most profitable segment.

Its biggest competitor, Ford, already announced plans to launch an electric Ford F150 pickup.

Furthermore, Ford has also invested in Rivian, an EV startup that is bringing to market its own electric pickup truck, the Rivian R1T, next year.

Electrek’s Take

Here we go. The electric pickup space basically didn’t exist a year ago when Rivian unveiled the R1T and now everyone is making moves to get to market as fast as possible.

The Rivian R1T is likely going to be the first to market in late 2020.

Ford said that it is bringing its all-electric F150 pickup to market ‘before 2022’ and we will learn later today when Tesla is bringing its Cybertruck to market, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s before 2021.

Those electric pickup trucks are going to be way better in almost every way than their gas-guzzling counterparts.

They will likely be a little more expensive, but when you factor in the gas savings, which are going to be significant when compared to fossil fuel-powered pickup trucks, they are going to become no-brainers for most people.

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