If you want an electric truck right now, the obvious choices are the Rivian R1T and the Ford F-150 Lightning. The Hummer EV pickup is slowly making its way to customers, but it won’t go mainstream for some time, and the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV are still a ways off. So that leaves Rivian and the company that invested millions in it, Ford, to duke it out for EV truck supremacy right now. As a result, both the R1T and Lightning are finalists for the Edmunds Top Rated Electric Truck Award for 2023. Only one will take home the gold, but here’s a list of why both are excellent contenders.
2023 Ford F-150 Lightning
The F-150 Lightning is one of the most important trucks to come out of the last 50 years—it’s Ford’s Tesla Model S moment. It doesn’t look much different from the F-150, but it’s a brand new take on the old formula. This gives the Lightning a certain appeal to most truck guys and gals – it’s not making any pretensions about “the future” and is simply concerned with being a cool truck that happens to be electric. But it’s better than good. To be honest, it’s great. The Lightning takes the F-150 platform to new levels of refinement. It’s better to drive, better to live with, much quieter, and still has features like Pro Power onboard and all the utilities that come with being an F-150. In short, it’s fabulous inside and out, and we’re not surprised people have been waiting years to get their hands on them.
2023 Rivian R1T
The Rivian R1T was the first electric pickup to hit the market, beating out Ford, Chevy and Tesla. It looks like nothing else, and it’s almost the perfect adventure vehicle for environmentally conscious buyers. Plus, its four electric motors mean it makes over 800 horsepower. It’s fast, gorgeously appointed on the inside, and usable as lightning. Its only drawback is that it’s expensive, and more attainable models are just on the horizon. That said, the R1T is a great first foray into a car from a startup most people had never heard of before this year. If it walks away with an Edmunds Top Rated award, it will be a more than worthy winner.