Re-imagining the truck for the age of electricity

Finally, an EV truck design that breaks free from skeuomorphs

What could an electric truck look like?

We’ve had electric cars for quite some time. But only in recent years has the US auto industry begun to develop electric versions of “light trucks”. The market for old-fashioned gas-powered light trucks is massive: Americans bought over 11.5 million in 2021, while buying only one-third as many cars.

There are tons of reasons why light trucks have taken over the market for consumer vehicles, of course. For automakers, they’re incredibly profitable (so they market the hell out of them). For owners, light trucks are great for going off-road or hauling heavy loads; even if many owners never do either of these things, they like the idea that they could.

Also, many light-truck owners also say they feel safer in a big vehicle, in part because, well, everyone else is driving them. The only way to survive a collision with someone else’s brawlingly armored mecha is to pilot your own. You could think of it as the freeway version of mutually assured destruction.

The problem is that this market has made things dangerous for everyone who isn’t inside a light truck. As these vehicles get huger and huger, they become increasingly…