Top 10 best pick-up trucks to buy

Ford F-150 Lightning and Ford F-150 Raptor

While you’re looking across the pond, you’ll find much excitement around the new electric version of the US’ best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150. The F-150 pick-up truck really is as American as it gets, but from early 2022, Americans will be able to buy one with that will do up to 300 miles on a charge. At 95.7in wide, or a whopping 2430 mm including the mirrors, the Ford F-150 Lightning still won’t fit down English country lanes properly, but it might be slightly more socially acceptable than the V8-powered F-150s of old.

In the US, it will cost from only $39,974 (£28,200), which sounds like an absolute bargain, given that is what you pay for a well-specced Fiat 500e. Being electric comes with some compromises, however. Due to the prodigious weight of the batteries necessary for any meaningful range, its maximum payload will only be around 900kg. On the flip side, Ford promises a towing capacity of up to 4500kg.

Ford contends the Lightning counters the lower payload with a number of other features that will make it a very useful tool, such as two-way charging. In other words, the Lightning can be used as a portable generator, delivering up to 9.6kW of power, which should be enough to power various tools, or even your house during a power outage.

Of course, if you prefer a dinosaur and an electric F-150 is still a bit too new-fangled, there is always the F-150 Raptor. Europe only gets the Raptor light in the form of the Ranger Raptor, and while the full-fat Ford F-150 Raptor no longer gets a raucous V8, its 444bhp twin-turbo Ecoboost V6 should be enough for most rally raids. It’s very silly, but brilliantly so.

Rivian R1T

The Rivian R1T is what you end up with if you set up a brand new car business with a small band of talented engineers and an ex-Jeep designer, and you design your own electric car platform from scratch in a bid to give the world its first ‘adventure EV’. Rivians will, according to company boss RJ Scaringe, split the difference between a modern Land Rover and a Tesla. It’s available to order in the US, and Rivian reckons first deliveries will take place by November, although the date has already been pushed back a few times. An R1S SUV will follow. Whether the Rivian R1T will come to Europe is unclear. It has been rumoured to be scouting a European production location, but that will be primarily for vans.

The R1T will be the first Rivian to hit the road. It’s a compact double-cab pick-up by American norms, so it’s about the size of most of the other pick-ups on this list. Rivian promises a range between 300 from a 135kWh battery pack, or 400 miles from a 180kWh pack. A smaller pack with a 250-mile range is coming as well.

The company says the R1T will be able to tow up to five tonnes – that’s about two Range Rovers. However, it is positioned more as an adventure vehicle than a work truck, and it’s expected it will only be rated to carry up to 800kg.

For now, prices start at $67,500 (£49,000). Compared to the Ford F-150 Lightning, that might sound expensive, but for Europe, that would still be a good deal, especially when you learn that it has not one, not two, not even three, but four motors for over 700bhp, 800lb ft of torque and a 0-60mph time of 3 seconds. Having four motors means four-wheel torque vectoring, which in turn should enable it to turn like a tank. That’s quite the party trick.

Tesla Cybertruck

A year after the Rivian R1T arrives, it’ll be followed by an unusual-looking but inevitable reply from EV pioneer Tesla. The angular, and allegedly bulletproof, Cybertruck will have up to three electric motors and more than 500 miles of range in its top-level trim, with a claimed towing capacity of more than six tonnes and a loading bay the same size as that of a Ford F-150. Like Tesla’s other bigger models, the Cybertruck will run on height-adjustable air suspension.

Tesla boss Elon Musk claimed that some 200,000 customers placed cash deposits for the Cybertruck within a week of the vehicle’s unveiling. Top-of-the-range versions are expected to cost between £50,000 and £60,000, with cheaper, less powerful and less rangey rear-driven versions available for less.