Combining the past and the future might not be a new business model, but Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has its upcoming Eluminator EV Truck that looks just like an old 1978 Ford F-100 truck. The shape is 1978, but the guts of the electric truck are all about 2021 and beyond.

Collectors Dashboard has wondered if the new EV trucks currently coming out will one day be collector cars or not. Admittedly, this is looking out into the future. It turns out that collectors are buying even the old trucks from the 1970s and 1980s as collectors items. The older trucks from the 50s and 60s have of course been considered to be withing the collector car universe for years. All of this adds up to future collectors perhaps wanting the nostalgia of the first EV trucks, particularly as the current model meshes with the past designs so much.

Mecum’s Kissimmee Florida Auction saw interest in vintage trucks from this era helping to defend the concept of rebuilding older trucks as a collectible. The Eluminator is not the rebirth of a classic muscle car because it looks like a 1978 Ford F-100 truck. Ford is backed out of a deal with Rivian Automotive, Inc. for the development of a joint vehicle. Collectors still have an interest in old trucks.

The Ford F150 is the most popular truck in the country and the 1970s and 1980s era of trucks is becoming desired by collectors. Several styles of these trucks sold on the first day of bidding at the Mecum Auction in Kissimmee Florida. Here are sales of both Chevy and Ford from January 6, 2021:

• 1974 Chevrolet Cheyenne Car Hauler 454 CI, Automatic sold for $17,600.00
• 1980 Ford F100 Pickup 4-Speed, Air Conditioning sold for $10,010.00
• 1976 Chevrolet LUV Pickup 1.8L, Automatic sold for $21,000.00
• 1978 Ford F250 Pickup 351 CI, Automatic sold for $13,200.00
• 1972 Chevrolet C10 Pickup 350 CI, Automatic sold for $6,600.00
• 1976 Ford F150 Pickup 360 CI, Automatic sold for $28,600.00
• 1974 Chevrolet C10 Pickup 5.3L, Automatic sold for $8,250.00
• 1986 Chevrolet K10 Pickup 305CI, Factory Air sold for $29,000.00
• 1985 Ford Pickup V-8 engine, Automatic sold for $12,100.00
• 1985 Chevrolet K1500 Scottsdale Pickup 305 CI, Automatic sold for $18,000.00

Mixing in the Chevy truck sales seemed justified considering that GM’s future is all about the EV push as well.

Noticeably missing from the sales are the railroad style squarebody Chevy trucks profiled by Collectors Dashboard.  Ford F-100 Eluminator EV Truck might just stay a concept according to the Collectors Dashboard article about the idea of retro EV Trucks.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end collectibles as an alternative asset class. This means collectibles are attracting the same capital that could have been invested into stocks or bonds. With cars costing tens of thousands, it is very possible that these will one day be high-dollar collector cars. And as we have opined before, there is at least a case to be made that electrifying the old classics by removing their old inefficient gas-fueled engines could be a way to save the cars for generations ahead.

As the world moves towards EV style concepts Ford has invested tooling and time into how they want to move forward in this new environmental world. Collectors can choose to enter into the future of emissions standards and strict regulations with an honest to goodness brand new crate engine into a salvaged 1970s Ford truck. Or the collector can choose to buy the original truck it’s modeled after at a classic car auction. Perhaps many collectors made that choice when they bid on classic trucks at the Mecum Kissimmee Auction January 6. As the world electrifies there’s just something about a classic truck, Ford or Chevy.

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