We've called this year the year of the electric SUV, for the number of such vehicles expected to hit the streets in 2019.

So far, though, the news seems recently seems to be all about electric pickups.

After Michigan startup automaker Rivian debuted its concept R1T electric pickup at the LA auto show in November, Ford said that it might be planning a future all-electric version of its bestselling F-Series pickup. General Motors' GMC luxury-truck division revealed that it is also considering building an electric version of its Sierra pickup, though the company did not confirm its plans. 

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Since Rivian has already announced a date to roll its truck into dealerships (2021), and GMC's plans aren't definite, we asked readers in our Twitter poll last week how soon they expect the electric F-150 to arrive.

How soon Ford actually starts selling a fully-electric version of its top-selling and most profitable model could say a lot about how serious the company is about transitioning its lineup to electric power—or at least how seriously our readers take it.

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Our Twitter poll suggested these possibilities: 2020-2021, which would indicate that the truck is already nearly fully developed and waiting in the wings to beat the Rivian R1T to market; 2022-2023, which could mean that the basic design and specs are already set, and Ford is starting to work on production engineering, testing the truck, and fine tuning details; 2024-2025, which could indicate that Farley's announcement means the company just gave the go-ahead and is working on sourcing battery cells, and beginning work on adding electric power to the next planned F-150 redesign.
 
Or, based on skepticism our readers have expressed in comments on our site, Ford could be more interested in generating positive press coverage from the announcement without any definitive plans for when it might actually sell such a truck.

The largest portion of our readers, 35 percent, thought the most likely timeline is 2022-2023, not fast enough to beat Rivian, but not far behind. Slightly fewer think Ford is probably just starting out, perhaps spurred on by Rivian's enthusiastic reception in Los Angeles, choosing 2024-2025 as the most likely timeline. Barely a fifth, 21 percent expect an electric F-150 to beat the startup Rivian to market, choosing 2020-2021 as their expected timeline. It's not clear how confident these respondents are of that result, versus how many just think that's what should happen.

Most readers at least took Ford's announcement seriously. Only 17 percent thought the truck will come later than 2025, or possibly never.

As always, our Twitter polls are unscientific, because of low sample size, and because our respondents are self-selected. As always, though they have plenty to say.