DETROIT — Electrical car startup Canoo mentioned Wednesday it is going to introduce an American-built, pod-like electrical pickup truck in 2023, following within the footsteps of a number of rivals additionally coming into the preferred phase of the U.S. automotive market.

Canoo Govt Chairman Tony Aquila revealed the timing for the truck forward of an Automobility LA occasion on Thursday. He mentioned the Los Angeles-based firm would start taking pre-orders within the second quarter of 2021.

Aquila advised Reuters he was aiming to launch the rounded, snub-nosed truck within the first quarter of 2023, and Canoo will construct the car in a U.S. microfactory it intends to open.

“That is like no truck you have ever seen,” he mentioned in an interview. “It is the scale of a Ford Ranger, can take the payload of a full-sized pickup and (has) the turning radius of a Prius.”

Aquila advised Reuters in December that Canoo, which subsequently went public through a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition firm, supposed to introduce a pickup.

Pickups are the top-selling autos within the U.S. new-vehicle market, with Ford Motor, Common Motors and Stellantis’ Ram model dominating the gasoline-powered phase and producing giant parts of these corporations’ income.

Whereas GM and Ford plan to introduce electrical pickups with the intention of constant their dominance, Canoo, Tesla with its Cybertruck, and others consider they’ll carve out a chunk of the market as EV gross sales enhance.

GM, Tesla, and startups Rivian and Lordstown Motors all plan to introduce electrical pickups later this yr, with Ford following in mid-2022.

Forecasting agency AutoForecast Options estimates electrical pickups will make up simply over 1 % of North American pickup manufacturing in 2022, rising to five.7 % in 2028.

Canoo’s pickup will join a lineup that features the pod-like, seven-seat canoo coming within the second quarter of 2022, a supply car later that yr and a sport sedan in 2025.

The pickup shall be aimed toward each shopper and business clients and has the potential to be a high-volume car, creating the necessity for a small-scale, extremely automated microfactory, Aquila mentioned.

Canoo is negotiating with states a few potential web site and the corporate will nonetheless use a contract producer to construct its lower-volume autos, he mentioned.

Canoo has developed a “skateboard” — a low-rise platform that bundles batteries and electrical motors with such chassis elements as steering, brakes and wheels — on which quite a lot of car physique varieties will be constructed.

Canoo mentioned its pickup could have as much as 600 hp and an electrical driving vary of greater than 200 miles. Aquila expects the driving vary to be 300 miles or increased by the point the truck truly launches.

The pickup features a six-foot truck mattress that may prolong to a completely enclosed eight toes. It additionally options entrance cargo storage space and a fold-down worktable with electrical retailers, flip-down aspect tables and a hidden step providing storage and entry to the truck mattress.