What do four-year-old boys and the electric vehicle (EV) market have in common? Both are obsessed with trucks.
Driving the news: Tesla missed its delivery target last quarter, shipping out 7% fewer vehicles than it did in the preceding quarter. One thing that may have contributed to this miss: The fact that its long-awaited Cybertruck has yet to be sent out to buyers.
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Despite IRL sightings of preproduction versions lighting up #CarTwitter, the promise that the giant silver polygon would come out by September did not come to fruition.
Big picture: Upstart competitor Rivian has gotten way better at getting its fancy EV pickups on the road. The problem is that its complicated assembly process costs billions — despite a price tag of US$80,000, the company loses an average of $33,000 on every pickup it sells.
Why it matters: If automakers want to get the EV transition off to the races, they need pickups, as a key segment of the driving population will simply never buy a puny sedan. Last year, the Ford F-Series was the best-selling vehicle in both Canada and the US.
Bottom line: With Ford slashing prices on its acclaimed electric F1-50, Tesla promising that the Cybtertruck will come out for realsies before the year’s end, and Rivian and a suite of other start-ups in the fray, the battle for EV truck supremacy is just getting started.—QH