LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Detroit 3 are pushing rapidly toward an electric future for their light-duty pickups, but it’s a different story for the biggest trucks in their lineups, according to an Automotive News report.
Heavy-duty pickups are among the few vehicles still seeing big investments toward development of more powerful gasoline and diesel engines. Although the segment isn’t huge, the money at stake is. Ford Motor Co. says it gets more revenue from Super Duty sales alone than Southwest Airlines, Marriott International and many other Fortune 500 companies generate.
These big trucks are high-margin profit machines that will be key to funding automakers’ electric ambitions, but executives say they’ll likely be among the last vehicles in the industry to get battery power — if they ever do.
“If you’re pulling 10,000 pounds, an electric truck is not the right solution. And 95% of our customers tow more than 10,000 pounds,” Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley told media at the Churchill Downs horse track, where it revealed a redesigned Super Duty line. “This is a really important segment for our country and it will probably go hydrogen fuel cell before it goes pure electric.”
In 2023, Ford is rolling out new gasoline and diesel engines on the 2023 Super Duty, General Motors is giving the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD a stronger diesel engine and the 2023 Ram HD lineup is gaining a Rebel performance variant.
Read the full Automotive News report.
Source: https://rvbusiness.com/heavy-duty-trucks-will-keep-status-quo-to-get-job-done/
