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Are Capable Electric Pickup Trucks on the Horizon?
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk talks, people listen. In fact, even with he responds to fairly innocuous questions about Tesla pickup truck production timing, people get excited. During a recent YouTube interview, Musk talked about possibly bringing an all-electric pickup to market ahead of schedule. As you might imagine, that's got some other companies thinking, too.
Beyond the idea of bringing an all-electric pickup to market, there is the reality of actually doing so, which could involve some large hurdles. First, pickup truck buyers are typically cautious about new, untested technology and usually aren't the early adopters that many fans of other electric vehicles are. Second, those same early adopters often aren't the biggest fans of or knowledgeable about pickups. But that could be changing if Atlis Motor Vehicles follows through with its plans for a new kind of electric pickup.
Atlis is in the early stages of creating an electric pickup truck platform that can deliver all the function and capability of current full-size pickups (half ton or heavy duty), as well as provide a few new surprises that could allow for more customization and modular functionality. Additionally, if Atlis Founder and CEO Mark Hanchett can keep his company focused on function-first priorities, the company could create waves in the auto and recreational vehicle industries with a possible subscription-based sales strategy.
Atlis is in the early stages of development with some interesting designs and new charging technology that could provide a full-range charge in as little as 15 minutes. There are plenty of issues to figure out and refine before a prototype makes a world debut. Still, from the way Atlis executives are talking, that could be as soon as next year. For now, they've enlisted a crowd-sourcing strategy, similar to what Tesla has done in which early investors will get discounts and preferential treatment when the pickup (or other products) finally goes on sale.
Here are some early artist renditions of the coming XT Pickup Truck from Atlis. If you want to provide your input about this vehicle, the comment section below is the place to do it. More to come.
