Automotive News Canada - June 2019 - v2 - 12

* JUNE 2019

For electric
pickups,
no home on
the range
Ford's investment
in Rivian lays the
groundwork for
an electric pickup,
but such a vehicle
appears to be an
answer to a
question that no
farmer has asked
By KELLY TAYLOR

WINNIPEG CORRESPONDENT

IN ALBERTA'S FARM
country, they like their meat
red, their roads dusty and
their trucks powered by
internal combustion. Don't
talk to them about electric
trucks just yet.
"On the farm, we're not so
worried about fuel economy,"
said Jason Lenz, a farmer
near Bentley, Alta., about 50
kilometres northwest of Red
Deer. "I mean, it's important.
But first and foremost, the
truck needs to do the job."
News that Ford Motor

Co. is investing US $500 million (Cdn $665 million) in the
Michigan-based electric-truck
producer Rivian, which plans
to launch an electric pickup
by the end of 2021, is generating more guffaws than interest among rural dwellers in
Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"No, haven't heard that
one at all," Lenz said, laughing.
Said Kurtis Hicks, general manager of Sherwood Ford
in Sherwood Park, Alta.: "I
probably have just a handful of customers asking about
electric cars, never mind
trucks.
"It's going to take a lot
more convincing with the
buyers of F-150 trucks."

F-150? GOOD GUESS
Alberta is truck country, with 75 per cent of
Hicks' sales either F-150 or
SuperDuty F-250s and F-350s.
Most of the remaining 25 per
cent is Escape, Explorer or
Expedition utility vehicles.
If a groundswell of demand
existed for electric trucks,

Alberta Ford dealer Kurtis Hicks says few customers ask about electric cars, let alone trucks.
"It's going to take a lot more convincing with the buyers of F-150 trucks," he said.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY KURTIS HICKS

Alberta dealers would be
among the first to hear about
it, he said.
In Canada, truck sales of all
types - light-, medium- and
heavy-duty as well as buses
- outpaced passenger cars
by about three-to-one in 2018.
A total of 1.46 million trucks
were sold, versus 578,025
cars, according to Statistics
Canada. But in Alberta and
Saskatchewan, more than 10
trucks were sold for every passenger car.
"When people come in,
you can assume they're an
F-150 buyer, and you're pretty much always correct," said
Hicks. Still, the investment in
Rivian and electric vehicles
as a whole will help improve
Ford's average fuel economy,
while raising the bar in the
development of EV technology, he said.
"My gut feeling is they're
going to ease their way into
the market."
Hicks expects Ford's push
with electric trucks, as it is
with electric cars, to be about
the performance initially,
with functionality as a work
vehicle coming to the fore
later.
At the 2018 North
American International Auto
Show in Detroit, Ford said
it would market its electrics
based on performance, on the
instant torque available from
electric motors. Its investment in Rivian is in addition
to the automaker's US $11-billion financial commitment
(Cdn 14.6 billion) to electrifying its lineup through 2022.

EV 'COMPROMISES'

To Alberta farmer Jason Lenz, fuel economy matters, but
capability and reliability are far more important. An electric
truck is not on his radar. P H O T O C O N T R I B U T E D B Y J A S O N L E N Z

Industry analyst Dennis
DesRosiers said factors such
as price, range anxiety and
the lack of EV charging stations are hampering sales of
battery-electric vehicles.
"Consumers at this point
have to make a lot of com-

promises to buy an EV,"
Lenz, who grows malt
said DesRosiers, president
barley, wheat and canola on
of DesRosiers Automotive
2,000 acres (800 hectares), did
Consultants Inc. in Richmond
open the door to electric pickups because in most circumHill, Ont. "And the consumer has to make major league
stances, his vehicles don't
compromises to buy an EV
travel large distances. But he
truck."
tempered that with the realization that to be feasible, a
Lightweight electric cars
fleet of electric farm vehicles
can work for urban dwellers, he said, but trucks are
would require investing in
"big, heavy, and
charging equipment and possithey need a lot
bly upgrading
of torque." All of
electrical serthose factors can
vice to the farm.
drain batteries
Lenz claims
fast.
no brand loy"The range
alty, saying he
would be minuscule," DesRosiers
buys based on
said, noting that
capability and
480-volt Level 3
price, with Ram
DC fast chargers
and Ford trucks
are virtually nonon the farm now
existent outside
and Chevrolets
cities. With a 240previously.
volt Level 2 charFor him,
Analyst Dennis
ger - the typicapability and
DesRosiers says small
cal cost-effective
reliability beat
home station - a electric cars can work in fuel savings
the city, but farm trucks
full charge takes
every time,
are "big, heavy and they especially given
hours, not minneed a lot of torque,"
utes.
the value and
which can drain batteries perishabiliJoel Mryglod,
quickly. Charging time
ty of much of a
general managalso means downtime
farm's cargo.
er of Merit Ford
"If you've got
in Carlyle, Sask., when the vehicle cannot
be used. F I L E P H O T O
a dozen cattle,
about 200 kilometres southeast of
that's a lot of
Regina, said the odds of elecweight to haul around," Lenz
tric trucks making inroads in
said.
the market were "zero."
Hybrid trucks might be
Capability is the No.1 driva more viable option, said
er of truck sales, by far the
DesRosiers. But they come
biggest at his dealership, he
with their own issues, such
said.
as higher prices.
"It's all we sell - that and
"I think it's going to be a
SUVs."
long time before you see penetration" with electric trucks,
NO TIME FOR RECHARGING
he said.
Merit Ford's Mryglod is
Whether they're hauling
not writing off electric pickgrain augers from bin to bin
ups.
or a dozen cattle to market,
"I'm not sure I'll still be
Lenz said, farm trucks are
working when it happens," he
in almost constant use daily.
said, "but someday." - ANC
Any downtime for recharging isn't something his farm
With files from Doug Firby
could tolerate.

Automotive News Canada - June 2019 - v2

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