It looks like the bed is now always covered by a piece of glass:

https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck

It's really frustrating watching all the EV companies (except, arguably, Ford) completely face plant on pickup trucks.

The frames have been able to accommodate battery weight + volume since the early 90's, so very little innovation is needed here. There is a huge market for no-frills, low-range, high duty cycle vehicles for around town deliveries, etc.

Pickup trucks are ridiculously expensive to operate with current gas prices, and many people that own them are environmentally conscious (but need to have a truck to move big stuff). So, there's basically no market risk for someone that produces a 1500 class truck that is a direct knock off of the trucks that have been being built for the last 30-40 years.

Ford is by far the leader here. They invested a lot in moving to an aluminum frame, which lets them cut weight while increasing payload capacity. The main problem with their current offering is that they only offer it in a supercab with a short (but longer than the other EVs) bed.

Also, it's an electron guzzler, so it's actually dependent on charging networks, which are still a disaster in the US.

Anyway, here's a book describing the ICE -> Lead Acid pickup truck conversion process from 1993. The result kind of sucked because of the batteries, but my point is that the frame wasn't an issue at all, so very little innovation is required from the manufacturers:

https://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Electric-Vehicle/dp/08...

Haha there a couple of books in the 1990s that gave plans for how to do this, here's one I remember taking out of the library at the time:

https://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Electric-Vehicle/dp/08...