Advertisement

Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck

173
José Rodríguez Jr.
·3 min read
Photo: Toyota
Photo: Toyota

Truck fans are already cooling on EV pickups despite more options on the market and news of upcoming models from the likes of Chevy and Ram. The Silverado EV and Ram 1500 REV have yet to be released, while the Tesla Cybertruck has recently joined the Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning for sale in the U.S. And, yet, all of these current and upcoming EV trucks are trailing the electric Toyota Tacoma in popularity, according to a survey from Autolist.

The Toyota Tacoma EV doesn’t even exist yet, nor is there a timeline for its release. Toyota has committed to making an electric version of its popular midsize truck, but what form it will take and when it will debut is unknown. Toyota previewed a Tacoma EV concept in 2021, and it turned out the concept looked a lot like the 2024 Tacoma.

Read more

ADVERTISEMENT

In 2023, The Toyota Tacoma EV overtook the Ford F-150 Lightning to become the most popular EV truck in America. Autolist notes that the survey presents a hypothetical matchup because it includes EV trucks that are yet to be released.

But that hadn’t prevented the Ford F-150 Lightning from taking the top spot in the same survey for the last two years, when it was voted the number one choice for prospective EV truck owners consecutively in 2021 and 2022. Now, nearly one quarter of survey respondents say the Tacoma is the EV truck they’re most likely to buy, which may point to how underwhelmed people are with current EV trucks, according to Autolist CEO Corey Lydstone:

While the Toyota moved up four percentage points from 2022 to 2023 to claim top spot, the Ford Lightning fell by the same percentage year-over-year.

“We would attribute some of this decline by the Ford to the fact that it’s less of a novelty for consumers these days,” Lydstone said. “With more than a year of deliveries under its belt, the Lightning may not hold the same gee-whiz cache as the rest of the top-ranking models on our list, all of which have yet to launch.”

[...]

“For Toyota to outrank Ford here means either truck owners have high hopes for the electric Tacoma or they’re underwhelmed by what they see in the current F-150 Lightning, possibly both.”