The role of heavy-duty pickups on the jobsite hasn’t changed much over the decades.

The current pickup-truck revolution has seen the introduction of viable models from unexpected players such as automakers Honda and Nissan.

In the scope of a contractor’s daily labors, pickup trucks are often just another tool and don’t draw that much excitement.

For decades, heavy-duty pickup-truck manufacturers have fought a number of shortcomings—reliability and longevity come immediately to mind—in winning the business of the all-important commercial buyer.

Talk to Don Wires, director of engineering for the Workhorse Group, and he makes the W-15—his company’s new half-ton, battery-electric pickup—sound like an exotic sports car with a really big trunk.

In the world of work trucks, it’s not every day that a segment-leading model gets a complete makeover, but the all-new 2017 Ford Super Duty is the line’s first major change since 1999, the company says.