NTEA’s Work Truck Week 2025 is March 4-7 in Indianapolis. So, what can we expect? Far fewer – if any – EV announcements, for one.
Two years ago, major OEMs dominated the stage with bold announcements about all-electric vehicles, touting the industry’s inevitable march toward meeting ambitious zero-emission targets. This year, however, fewer press conferences center around all-electric introductions. Instead, key players such as Ford, Cummins and Ram are showcasing a mix of propulsion technologies — improved gas and diesel engines and hybrid models — indicating recognition of the challenges that fleets face in scaling electrification quickly.
This makes sense given the current market and regulatory climate. For example, according to Reuters, auto manufacturers largely abandoned EV advertising during this year’s Super Bowl LIX, marking a significant shift from recent years when EVs dominated automotive commercials during America’s most-watched television event.
Only two brands – Jeep and Ram, both owned by Stellantis NV – aired EV commercials during the game, although both commercials also featured gasoline-powered vehicles. This represents a dramatic decline from 2022, when seven of nine automotive Super Bowl advertisements focused on EVs.
The shift occurs against a backdrop of industry uncertainty, including changes to federal EV incentives and environmental regulations under the second Trump administration, even as some states maintain their own EV purchase incentives.
Then there’s the infrastructure challenge, as the Trump administration recently halted a $3 billion federal program aimed at expanding the nation’s EV charging infrastructure, putting future projects on hold across multiple states.
EV production costs, especially for electric trucks, are also a significant hurdle for market expansion. Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley recently said that large electric trucks and SUVs face “unresolvable” economic challenges, citing demanding customer requirements and expensive battery costs that make the vehicles difficult to produce profitably.
The automaker is shifting focus toward smaller and medium-sized EVs that are more economically viable.
This pivot comes as electric pickup sales struggled in 2024. Tesla’s Cybertruck fell well short of expectations at 38,965 units despite earlier plans to produce 250,000 annually. Ford has repeatedly cut F-150 Lightning production to match slower demand, with Farley noting that customers are unwilling to pay premiums for large EVs.
Is electrification still the future of the work truck industry? Probably. But the timeline for reaching that future appears to be pushed out much further than the OEMs predicted just two years ago.
