GM, Please Build My Dream Baby EV Pickup • TechCrunch

In an industry obsessed with making everything huge (at least here in the US), you might not expect GM to be interested in an electric baby pickup, but here we are. .

GM is considering a pickup truck design “smaller than the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz,” with a “low roofline” and a 4- to 4.5-foot bed, according to Automotive News. The publication reportedly saw a prototype of the EV in a GM shop and said it could come in at a price tag of under $30,000 (that would be pretty cheap compared to most new EVs these days). Judging by this description, the little truck could serve as a spiritual successor to the Chevrolet S-10 EV, which briefly made history as one of the first electric pickups in the late 90s.

The design is certainly not final, GM design director Michael Pevovar reportedly told Automotive News, saying the automaker “creates them to get a reaction and then try to modify it or move on.” “.

There’s still no sign that American companies will ever embrace Kei-size ultra-thin pickup trucks, but I’m glad to see that GM is considering making something that isn’t huge. My dream is for American automakers to go further in this direction, but alas, the market doesn’t seem to share my appetite for undersized trucks.

The baby pickup report preceded a busy day for GM. Although the automaker says it will phase out its gas guzzler lineup by 2035, it announced a plan on Friday to pump $579 million into its Flint plant to launch another generation of its V-engines. 8. GM manufacturing boss Gerald Johnson explained the somewhat contradictory decision in a statement to reporters.

“Our commitment is to an all-electric future, there’s no doubt about that,” he said, with a major caveat: “There are a lot of internal combustion engine customers that we don’t want to lose. “

GM also said it plans to invest an additional $339 million in three other facilities, which will produce components for electric vehicles. We also learned that GM has dropped plans to partner with LG on a fourth battery plant in the United States. One of these factories is already active in Ohio, while two others are still under construction in Tennessee and Michigan.