Power Shift In The EV Race

First quarter figures are officially in and General Motors GM is now ahead of Ford Motor F in the EV race, as it earned the title of US’ second best-seller of all-electric-vehicles.

First Quarter Figures

During the first three months of the year, GM said it sold 20,670 EVs while Ford sold only 10,866 over the same time frame. Although both are planning to overtake Tesla in EV sales in the coming years, they are still far behind with Tesla also planning an expansion to produce 20 million EVs by the end of the decade. Although Tesla does not report sales by region, Motor Intelligence estimates that it sold 161,630 EVs in the U.S. during the first quarter.

Ford’s Drop

From second place, Ford has dropped to fifth place, and it is now behind U.S. Hyundai Motor and Volkswagen AG VWAGY. However, Ford is ramping up production as it expects to expand annual production of F-150 Lightning at a Michigan plant to 150,000 this year.

Outlook

On Monday, GM confirmed it plans to build 50,000 electric vehicles during the first half of the year and twice as many during the remainder of the year. Ford is aiming for a global annual production capacity of 2 million by 2026 while GM promised to hit that target in 2025.

The Craze For Electric Pickups

The game changer this year will be the eagerly anticipated all-electric pickup trucks. Also on Monday, Rivian Automotive Inc RIVN confirmed it’s still on track to produce 50,000 EVs this year, as it is currently building the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, along with electric delivery vans for Amazon.com Inc AMZN. Tesla promised to start the production of its futuristic Cybertruck by the end of the year, but it has rescheduled production many times already so that promise remains questionable. Unfortunately, production of many eagerly anticipated models such as Atlis XT pickup remain unknown, although their specs promise to be nothing short of impressive. Atlis has an agreement with a solar-tonneau cover manufacturer Worksport Ltd WKSP to use its breakthrough technology. Worksport also has a supply partnership with Hercules Electric Mobility who is also due to release its luxurious electric pickup, Hercules Alfa. Even Hyundai has turned to Worksport to gain access to its solar-powered tonneau covers. Worksport is a player who promises to disrupt the pickup landscape and electric future as a whole with its proprietary technology as it is not only building the Solis solar-powered tonneau covers, but also developing the COR portable energy storage system which provides the possibility to power remote locations. 

All in all, 2023 promises to be an exciting year on the EV front with many new developments and power shifts between contenders.