Carbon Emissions Vs. Ownership Costs: Pickup Trucks

For most corporate fleet managers, balancing sustainability initiatives while keeping fleet costs in check is a top priority. Yet sourcing vehicles’ carbon emissions, matching them to vehicle routes, defining ownership costs, and then performing the cost-benefit analysis is a time and resource-consuming endeavor.  

This study may help overcome these initial hurdles. We asked the lifecycle cost experts at Vincentric to provide total cost of ownership (TCO) data for 2024 model-year vehicles driven 20,000 miles per year for five years in these categories: half-ton pickups, cargo vans, passenger cars, compact SUVs, and luxury vehicles.  

The resulting list produced close to 1,300 total vehicle configurations with gas and diesel (ICE), battery electric (BEV), hybrid electric (HEV), and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) powertrains.  

As usual, Vincentric calculated its standard eight cost elements: depreciation, financing, fees and taxes, fuel, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost, and repairs. This time, Vincentric also provided annual in-use carbon (CO2) emissions for each vehicle.  

We divided the analysis by segment. Compact SUVs was the first one, the second is pickups. But first:  

Vincentric broke out four sets of CO2 emissions by metric tons per year:  

• Electric generated (BEVs and PHEVs): Defined by the amount of CO2 emissions produced by power plants needed to power these vehicles. 

• Tank-to-wheel (ICE & HEV): Defined by the amount of CO2 emissions produced from burning fuel within a vehicle while the vehicle is in motion. 

• Well-to-tank (ICE & HEV): CO2 emissions produced from extracting, refining, and delivering fuel to the vehicle.  

• Annual in-use CO2 emissions: Totals the above three values for all vehicles in a single value demonstrating the yearly release of CO2 and Nitrous Oxide.  

With this data, Automotive Fleet calculated the average annual in-use CO2 emissions and TCO for every vehicle configuration, sorted by vehicle segment. We then calculated the average percentage improvement in CO2 emissions when switching from an ICE engine to a BEV, HEV, BEV, or PHEV.  

AF also included the top 5 TCO performers in each segment.  

The half-ton pickup segment offers gas, diesel, hybrid, and electric powertrains and has the most configurations per model of any segment in this analysis. In this segment, spec’ing matters — switching to electric depends heavily on whether the BEV model can perform the same duty cycle as the replaced ICE truck.  

• 5-Yr TCO average: $91,730 

• Average yearly CO2 output (metric tons): 11.59 

Gas versions of the Ram 1500, particularly the low-priced Tradesman model, took seven of the top 10 overall TCO slots. Ford F-150 took the other three.  

• 5-Yr TCO average: $105,891 

• Average 5-Yr premium BEV over ICE: $14,161 

• Average yearly CO2 output (metric tons): 4.09 

• Average yearly CO2 savings by switching from ICE to BEV: 64.8% 

Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and Rivian R1T constitute the BEVs in this segment. (The Hummer EV SUT is included in the overall average but not listed.)  

The CO2 emissions gap between ICE and electric pickups is substantial, giving fleets that can make this switch a strong “bang for their buck” in carbon emissions savings.  

Of the 12 electric configurations, the TCO for the F-150 Lightning Pro Supercrew 4WD falls within the range of the TCO of numerous ICE pickup models popular with fleets.  

When spec’ing the electric pickups, expect about 30% less payload capacity and 28% less towing capacity with diminished range. 

• 5-Yr TCO average: $94,239 

• Average 5-Yr premium HEV over ICE: $2,509 

• Average yearly CO2 output (metric tons): 10.12 

• Average yearly CO2 savings by switching from ICE to HEV: 12.7% 

While offering the benefit of not needing to be charged, hybrid pickups offer slightly less payload and towing capacity due to the extra weight of the hybrid-electric system.  

Ford, Ram, and Toyota offer hybrid (non-plug-in) models with an average TCO that is closer to ICE models than BEVs. However, the benefit is milder, with about a 12% decrease in annual CO2 output from ICE.