Ford’s Tiny $30,000 EV Pickup Totally Counts As A Truck, And It Could Be A True People’s Car

“It’s really not a pickup,” Ford’s CEO Jim Farley told The Verge about his company’s upcoming $30,000 Universal EV Platform-based truck. Ever since The Autopian published its exclusive spy photos of a prototype, the world has been abuzz about whether or not this little vehicle is a real pickup truck, and now The Autopian’s Carbage Time podcast is here to let you know what we think. And we think: OF COURSE IT’S A PICKUP TRUCK! Also, in this episode Jason and I realize that this truck could end up being an amazing people’s car if Ford does it right.

“I would say it’s a new silhouette. What I mean by that is that it has more room than a RAV4, the best-selling passenger car in the US. That doesn’t include its frunk and pickup truck bed. It is very fast, it’s rear-wheel drive, it’s super fun to drive, and it has a digital experience that no one’s seen — at least that we’ve seen — even in China,” Farley continued in the interview on The Verge.

It’s clear Ford does not want us really even thinking about this new vehicle in the same way that we think about even the Ford Maverick. On Ford’s website, the company answers an FAQ about Maverick sizing thusly:

Q: The truck will be comparable in footprint to a Maverick, but because it is a clean-sheet EV design, the only similarity to Maverick is the size comparison.

If so, that would be amazing. The fact that Ford’s goal is a range of 300 miles on the base vehicle, at a price of $30,000, is impressive.

Unlike the Subaru Baja, the truck is going to be rear-wheel drive, per Farley. So, considering the diminutive dimensions of the truck overall (here’s our best guess at its size), the small bed, and the fact that this clearly isn’t going to have tons of off-road capability, we ask ourselves in The Autopian’s Carbage Time podcast: Is this really a truck?

Jason feels strongly that it is, citing numerous vehicles over the years that are also as small, but that are known as hard-working trucks around the globe.

Is the Suzuki Mighty Boy a truck? Of course it is! In fact, our very own Australian contributor Laurence Rogers has one in his household, and the thing is a workhorse, even with a two-foot bed.

There are tons of tiny workhorses out there, with Europe’s cutest one being the Piaggio Ape (the Ape 50 below has a little 4.5ft bed):

Japan’s workhorses are tiny Kei trucks:

And while the T360 and Acty above have 6-foot beds, the Suzuki Super Carry below has a bed with an effective bed length under 5-feet (I say “effective” because there’s a slot under the rear seats where one could slide a 6-foot board or some other slim item):

So yes, the new Ford EV truck is small, but it is still a truck:

The obvious move for a company trying to build an economical vehicle with 300 miles of range is to develop a sedan or wagon — something small frontal area, little ground clearance, and low weight. The issue — and I think Ford understands this — is that Ford hasn’t had tons of success selling sedans lately, likely in part because competition is stiff.

Ford has faced this conundrum before: How can the brand sell a fuel efficient, small vehicle that doesn’t doesn’t have to fight against the Kia K4 or VW Jetta or Toyota Corolla (or even the CR-V or Rav4 or million cars in the midsize CUV space)? The answer was a truly outside-the-box one — one that will go down in auto history as one of the most brilliant product decisions ever — the Ford Maverick. It’s a vehicle that leverages Ford’s reputation as a truck manufacturer, while offering a low-cost, efficient machine with a totally unique character when compared to the standard sedan or crossover. And because of this unique character, Ford doesn’t have to be fight to sell the vehicle for the very lowest price on the market; people want Mavericks because they’re cool.

To successfully sell an EV today, the vehicle has to be cool on its own. It can’t just be “cool for an EV.” For Tesla, the Model 3 worked because it was a Tesla — a luxury brand. Ford knew that competing with the Tesla brand would be hard, which the company named its first EV the Mustang Mach-E. Mustang, the thought went, could perhaps compete with Tesla in a way Ford maybe couldn’t. Trying to build character into an EV is critical, and building a unique, small pickup is, I think, genius. I’m very, very excited, especially if this thing is $30 big ones for 300 miles, and especially if it looks cool and has some fun, useful features.

Watch/listen to our Carbage Time podcast above to see how Jason Torchinsky and I find ourselves more and more pumped for this truck the more we think about what it could be.