GM confirms third electric pickup truck ahead of Hummer production

• GM on Monday confirmed it will offer an electric GMC full-size pickup truck, its third such vehicle under a $27 billion investment in EVs and autonomous vehicles.
• It follows the GMC Hummer EV, which is expected to begin deliveries later this year, and confirmation in April of an electric Chevrolet Silverado.
• Automakers are bullish on the segment due to the popularity of pickup trucks with fleet/commercial buyers as well as the amount of reported consumer reservations.

DETROIT – General Motors on Monday confirmed it will offer at least three large electric pickup trucks in the coming years, as excitement about the segment continues to grow.

The latest to be announced by the Detroit automaker is an electric full-size pickup for its GMC truck and SUV brand. It follows the GMC Hummer EV, which is expected to begin deliveries later this year, and confirmation in April of an electric Chevrolet Silverado.

"I'm very confident GMC will be a big winner in this space," Duncan Aldred, global head of GMC, said Monday during a digital media event. Aldred said the vehicle is "pretty advanced" in its planning, however he declined to disclose timing of the vehicle.

The GMC full-size electric pickup is expected to be more of a traditional pickup than a "lifestyle" vehicle like the upcoming GMC Hummer EV, which is priced between about $80,000 and $111,000. Aldred declined to say whether the new pickup will be named Sierra – the name of its current full-size traditional pickup.

The electric pickups are part of GM's plan to release 30 new EVs globally by 2025 under a plan to invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles. By then, the company intends to sell at least 1 million EVs annually – on its way to transitioning to be a fully electric automaker by 2035.

GM is expected to be among the first automakers to offer an electric pickup later this year. Others include EV start-ups such as Rivian and Lordstown Motors, followed later in the year, potentially next year, by Tesla and Ford Motor by mid-2022. Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, recently confirmed it will offer an electric Ram pickup by 2024.

Despite the amount of electric pickups expected in the coming years, it remains a completely unproven market. No major automaker has sold such a vehicle before.

Automakers are bullish on the segment due to the popularity of pickup trucks with fleet/commercial buyers as well as the amount of reported consumer reservations for the vehicles that have already been unveiled.

Less than a year after its debut, Tesla in September said it had received well over 500,000 orders for its Cybertruck. Ford this month said it had received more than 100,000 reservations for its electric F-150 lightning pickup since the vehicle's debut in mid-May. The orders are $100 deposits that are fully refundable so they may not directly translate into sales.

"Do we feel confident about our ability to win in that environment? Absolutely, we do. I think we're already showing our excellence in terms of electrification; we've done that through Hummer EV," Aldred said.

– CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this article.

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