According to Automotive News, GM is considering a small pickup truck that’s actually down in size from the Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz—and it would be all-electric, too. A reporter for the publication saw one such design under consideration this week (at the kind of press event where they show you secret stuff but also cover up your phone cameras, usually) and she confirmed it’s a real thing. Or at least, a thing that exists in studio form while bean counters, engineers and product planners figure out the details. The best part is that the truck “would be part of GM’s lineup of affordable EVs priced under $30,000,” meaning it would, at least as of right now, have no real and direct competitors. And it would be one of the very few truly affordable EVs on sale, not to mention the only truck with a sticker price that cheap. Ford is said to be working on an electric Maverick eventually to go with its popular hybrid version, so maybe these two could duke it out in an EV mini-truck war. From that story: GM did not provide a name, brand, image or production timeline for the mini truck. “We’re creating these to get a reaction and then to try to modify it or move on. What does work? What doesn’t work? What’s expected?” Michael Pevovar, director of Chevrolet affordable EV and crossover design, told reporters. “Affordability is the key portion of this, and there’s lots of different ways to approach it.” It’s important to take this with a grain of salt, as always. Automakers frequently consider internal design studies and ideas that never see the light of day, even if they show them off to the media in controlled settings. Not every idea on the drawing board ends up at a dealership lot a few years later. If that were the case, the Porsche Panamera would’ve come out back when Def Leppard was still reliably putting out hit albums. All of this is to say: build it, GM! And make sure it has steelies like the Maverick, too. It’s hard to see this idea not being successful in the marketplace. I told those jokers at Hyundai to build the Santa Cruz concept for years, and then they finally did, and guess what? It’s a major hit. Because of course it is. The important lesson here is that I am always right. That is a hill I will die on. Even the new Ford Maverick pickup is 5.9 inches wider and 6.6 inches longer than my 1994 Toyota Pickup which has seating for 5 AND a 6.5FT long bed UNLIKE the new Maverick. Honestly I think our best bet for small single cab pickups are BEV ones. They have no footprint rule that makes it so they have to be made artificially larger in order to meet fuel economy standards and BOF construction makes a ton of sense for BEVs.
