According to pickup truck drivers, they will save the most by switching to electric vehicles. United States Department of Energy (Ministry of Education and Training).
Pickup trucks tend to be larger than other vehicles, which means they use more energy and therefore have greater potential for savings as those energy costs decline, the DOE recently noted. And reducing gasoline or diesel consumption is a virtual guarantee of those energy costs coming down.
That’s illustrated by data from Argonne National Laboratory, which estimates the cost savings of replacing a gasoline-powered car with an electric car or plug-in hybrid of similar size at the ZIP code level. Within ZIP codes, pickup trucks have the greatest potential for savings, followed by minivans and SUVs.
Potential fuel savings when switching to electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles (per DOE)
The higher the level of electrification, the greater the savings, according to the Department of Energy, noting that an all-electric vehicle of the same size is estimated to cost more than a plug-in hybrid.
Consumer Reports also crunched the numbers and highlighted the higher savings potential. for electric trucks and SUVs. In many cases, electrification may not require major concessions either. A 2022 study found that more than half of the pickup trucks can be replaced with electricity (on a cycle of use)—again, with the potential for significant cost savings.
Ford F-150 Lightning Flash 2024
Such findings, however, also come with some caveats. As a comprehensive 2020 DOE study emphasized—which remains true today—EV costs vary widely depends on where you charge your car and how you charge it (i.e. using a public charger or a home charger).
New electric trucks are also relatively expensive to buy. So far, the low-cost fleet versions of electric trucks—the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, for example—are few and far between.
