Electric pickup trucks are all the rage right now. Auto makers are churning them out like 80s hatchbacks. The new EdisonFuture EFT-1 pickup truck is one of those not-yet-reality electric trucks that we’re seeing more and more of. We don’t know a whole lot about the EdisonFuture pickup yet, but we do know about some of its pretty cool features. One of those is called Armadillo Armor, and as you might expect, it does make the Edison EFT-1 look a little animal-like. So what’s it for? The answer is actually kind of awesome.

The EdisonFuture EFT-1 Armadillo Armor combines solar panels with a futuristic style

The EdisonFuture EFT-1 truck displayed solar panels on its roof at the LA auto show, according to Autoweek. This will allow the EFT-1 to charge on sunny days. The solar panels will provide the EdisonFuture truck with an additional 25 to 35 miles of range, which just might be all you need to get to and from work or school. Of course, it will help if you live in an area that gets a whole lot of sun.

The EdisonFuture EFT-1 will also have a retractable cover for its bed that looks like an armadillo back. This is officially called Armadillo Armor by EdisonFuture. That would also have solar panel chargers for additional range. While it’s possible that this technology could up the EdisonFuture pickup truck price, there’s no word yet on whether it will be a costly addition. In addition to adding range to the EFT-1, the Armadillo Armor also protects the contents of the truck bed.

The EdisonFuture truck will get pretty good range

The EdisonFuture EFT-1 will be capable of up to 450 miles. That’s on the EdisonFuture truck model with three motors. There will be two other EdisonFuture pickup truck models, including a single-motor model that gets 300 miles of range, and a dual-motor model that gets 380 miles of range. All of that is fairly respectable as far as electric vehicles go, and especially a larger electric vehicle like a pickup truck.

The EdisonFuture EFT-1 would also be fast. The single motor EdisonFuture EFT-1 could go from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds. The dual-motor EdisonFuture EFT-1 could get from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds. The EdisonFuture EFT-1 takes 3.9 seconds to get to 60 mph.

EdisonFuture isn’t as new as it sounds

Maybe you’ve never heard of EdisonFuture, and the idea of yet another electric truck on the market sounds like a potentially bad idea. After all, can’t the electric truck market become saturated pretty quickly? That will partly depend on how people adopt electric vehicles, particularly electric trucks.

However, EdisonFuture isn’t new. They’re a part of SPI Energy, which comes out of China and also makes Phoenix Motorcars. Phoenix Motorcars has been around for the better part of two decades and has a good idea of what its doing.

There’s no word yet on the EdisonFuture EFT-1 price, and that will certainly play a part in how successful the electric truck is. If it’s cheap, people may buy it, but they may also undervalue it. If it’s too expensive, it may price itself out of the crowd that’s looking toward electric trucks. The EdisonFuture EFT-1 has a couple of years to sort out all these details before it’s officially released, and we have time to make sense of what’s on the horizon.