Image: Volkswagen AG
Volkswagen AG might build an all-electric truck for the U.S. automotive market’s growing and highly profitable pickup segment — reports The Wall Street Journal.
According to the publication’s sources, the veteran automaker is considering the idea and could make a final decision by the middle of this year. Scott Keogh, head of Volkswagen’s U.S. business, pitched the project to management in Wolfsburg, Germany, last year, and has since won support from company CEO Herbert Diess and other top executives.
The U.S. truck market is growing and ripe for electrification, but intense competition from domestic automotive giants Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. has so far dissuaded foreign entrants into the scene.
However, Volkswagen management believes there may be a place for an all-electric pickup from the German automaker in the American truck market.
Volkswagen’s ambitions are spurred on by the success enjoyed by Rivian Automotive Inc., an American electric vehicle (EV) startup that started delivering its electric pickups in October 2021, and Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., which has generated a lot of hype around its Cybertruck.
Rivian went public late last year in an IPO that raised a whopping $11.9 billion USD, and the company is backed in large part by eCommerce giant Amazon and Ford Motor Co., which is raking profits from its investment in the EV startup while it gears up to roll out its own all-electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning.
Tesla has made waves with its Cybertruck but has been forced to delay it time and again. Currently, the EV pioneer’s electric truck isn’t expected to go into production until 2023.
Volkswagen’s plans for an electric pickup truck aren’t even past the point of conception at this time, but they beg the question — is there really space in the U.S. truck market for yet another player?
Last week, Volkswagen unveiled the 2024 ID. Buzz and ID. Buzz Cargo electric vans.
