GM, Tesla and Ford on the run to build electric vans Texas ranchers do not want to

General Motors, the country's largest automaker, joins forces with Ford, Tesla and start-up Rivian to add a 100% electric pickup truck to its portfolio.

But the Big Three of Detroit and their competitors might have a hard time convincing breeders, roughnecks and do-it-yourselfers who make up a big part of their main customer base to trade their diesel duels against a battery-powered SUV pickup.

Sam Abuelsamid, an Automotive Technology Analyst at Navigant Research, may be wondering if "is the all-electric truck market a market?"

GM CEO Mary Barra did not give any details on the pickup, but said GM "will not give up our leadership" in the pickup segment, which has led to much speculation about what GM is developing and when it will be marketed.

Given the high usage to which many buyers submit their collections, the question is not simple.

Electric vehicles, in general, have been slow to gain traction with US buyers. While sales of all plug-in vehicles, including all-electric and hybrid models, jumped from 195,226 in 2017 to 360,353 last year, according to industry data, this represented less than 2% of total sales. global market for new vehicles. And pure battery electric vehicles alone have generated just half that total.

The core of the market currently consists of only one vehicle, the Tesla Model 3 sedan. But automakers are hoping to boost growth by adding new products as diverse as the Audi e-tron SUV, the sports car. Porsche Taycan and crossover Jaguar I-Pace, who was voted World Car of the Year at the New York International Auto Show. month.

Now, manufacturers want to add 100% electric pickups to the list of options. Tesla has been referring to his truck projects for several years and CEO Elon Musk promises to reveal more in the coming months. Detroit-based Rivian has taken a step ahead of Tesla and other competitors by unveiling its own battery model, the R1T, at the Los Angeles auto show last November. Ford, which is investing $ 500 million in Rivian, has confirmed its willingness to create a fully electric version of its bestseller F-150.

Abuelsamid is among those who speculate on what GM might have in reserve. Although a version of the fat Chevrolet Silverado-based battery seems likely, he said the builder could offer a surprise. By opting for a medium-sized model, like the smaller Chevy Colorado, said Abuelsamid, this would "give them a chance to have a unique product on the market because everyone is concentrating on normal sized trucks ".

What is certain is that GM – and Ford and Tesla, in this case – will have to echo the advance of Rivian, offering a vehicle offering remarkable power and torque, great autonomy and levels of towing and flight loading capacity. The R1T of the start-up will produce "nearly" 800 horses, said general manager RJ Scaringe in Los Angeles, enough to reach 100 km / h in 3 seconds. His approximately 1,000 lb-ft of torque will allow him to carry a trailer weighing up to 11,000 pounds. It is expected that it will reach 400 miles with a battery of 180 kilowatt hours.

Those are the kind of numbers that would seem to work well with conventional pickup truck users such as breeder Frank Helvey, a cattle rancher and active in the cattle auction near Pearsall, Texas.

"I would not buy it at all, it would make no sense to me, it looks like a playboy truck rather than a work truck," he said. in an interview.

In Texas, where everything is bigger, the truck market is no exception.

The Lone Star is home to the Dallas Cowboys, the world's best barbecue and the largest truck market in the United States. In Texas, buyers account for 15.7% of the half-ton pickup truck market in the United States, according to Stephanie Brinley, Senior Automotive Analyst at IHS Markit. This means that a half ton truck out of six – like the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado and Ram 1500 – is sold in Texas.

Jeff Williams, another Texas farmer, said he was interested in technology, "especially if they can make an electric motor that has the same power and autonomy as a one-ton diesel engine." But he remains skeptical about Rivian's claims and the promises made by other automakers that their electric vans will deliver capabilities matching their petrol and diesel models.

Williams operates two farms and six ranches in what he calls "the far west of Texas", 275 miles from El Paso and even further from San Antonio. So for him, the two critical challenges are the scope and the load. And in its part of the Lone Star State, there are few public chargers, especially the high-speed ones that it would need to have access to transport its livestock to the market.

"The other problem, in the remote area where I live, is access to a mechanic," added Williams. He employs a mechanic who can handle his diesel and gasoline trucks, but if an all-electric model breaks down, what should I do?

On his side, the breeder Helvey said that he expects there to be a market for all-electric trucks for city-dwellers and weekend warriors. "

But even some of the people who might belong to these categories remain skeptical.

"I like the idea" of a battery-powered truck, said Jennifer Stevenson, an emergency physician at a Detroit hospital in the suburbs and owner of a new Ford F-150 Lariat. And while she rarely transports a lot of goods or tows a trailer Stevenson and her fiancee make frequent trips to remote places, such as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and "I do not want to have to worry about finding a where to connect. "

So, if ranchers and weekend warriors remain skeptical, who could be ready to hook up a 100% electric van? The most likely target is the fleet owners, said Brendan Jones, director of Electrify America's operation. C & # 39; is the company funded up to $ 2 billion on the settlement of the diesel emissions scandal by Volkswagen, and it spends the bulk of this money to set up a national network of electric vehicle chargers .

Fleet owners "know how and where they use their trucks" and they can meet their daily needs, both in terms of payload capacity and self-reliance, said Jones, at the time of the launch. a conversation at the headquarters of Electrify America in Washington, DC. reduced operating and maintenance costs that battery electric vehicles require.

Jones pointed out that a number of fleets are already turning to larger commercial trucks or testing them at least. This includes delivery services such as UPS and FedEx. Amazon has also partnered with Rivian to lead a consortium that will inject $ 700 million into the new venture. Although the online retailer did not say what he had in mind, it was widely assumed that he wanted to launch a fleet of battery-powered delivery trucks.

Fleets have the advantage of not only knowing their daily needs, but also establishing their own charging systems. To make work-oriented vehicles, such as pickup trucks, gain popularity with retail customers, Jones said, "You will not see anything (it will happen) until you've got it. of an infrastructure. " And that's something that Electrify America and competitors like EVgo and ChargePoint hope to put in place over the next decade.

Paul Eisenstein is a freelancer for CNBC. His quotes from Electrify America 's operations manager, Brendan Jones, are taken from an interview in Washington, DC, where the company paid for travel and accommodation expenses. 39; Eisenstein.