GM Eyeing Rivian For Its Electric Pickup, But It’ll Have To Beat Amazon First

General Motors has big ambitions for electric vehicles. They have also stated that their profitability depends on the success of SUVs and full-size pickup trucks.”

Despite the automaker’s reliance of trucks, they have been wishy-washy about an electric pickup. Last year, a company executive stated “There will not be any AV / EV [autonomous / electric] pickups” from the automaker.

Following Ford’s announcement of an electric F-150, GM’s execs backtracked and said that they are certainly considering an electric pickup.

That brings us to news that GM is thinking about acquiring a stake in Rivian, which introduced its electric R1T pickup at the Los Angeles Auto Show last year. Reuters broke the story on Tuesday, and GM didn’t confirm nor deny the report. Instead, the they praised the upstart EV maker, saying “We admire Rivian’s contribution to a future of zero emissions and an all-electric future.”

While that’s not exactly a confirmation, it does show that GM is keeping an eye on Rivian. However, it remains unclear if the latter will partner with GM, as Amazon is also said to be interested in investing.

Amazon’s interest in the automaker isn’t clear, but GM could use the partnership to jump start plans for an electric pickup. Rivian has discussed the possibility of sharing its electric skateboard platform with other automakers and it’s not hard to imagine GM being interested in using the architecture to launch their own electric pickups.

Speaking of the R1T, the model is slated to arrive in 2020 with no less than four electric motors. There are plans for three versions of the truck, with 105 kWh, 135 kWh and 180 kWh battery packs. The base model is slated to have 402 hp (300 kW / 408 PS) and 413 lb-ft (560 Nm) of torque. The mid-ranger will have 753 hp (562 kW / 764 PS) and 826 lb-ft (1,120 Nm), while the 180 kWh variant will have a slightly lower output as that version is more focused on range than outright performance.