"If you're stuck in the mud next to a traditional pickup, we'll come out first," Burns said of the all-electric Endurance pickup that his company will start selling next year.

Some might say "them's fightin' words" in the truck wars. But it's not only getting out of the mud that Burns bets the Endurance can do first.

He plans to dominate the all-electric pickup market segment for years even though he is taking on big guns Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, who both plan to offer all-electric pickups in the future and who currently sell the No. 1 and No. 2 best-selling pickups in the nation, respectively. 

"It's a very difficult business to break into and it's been dominated by names that have been here for a long time," Burns said in an interview with the Free Press. "But you don't see anybody dedicated exclusively to light-duty all-electric trucks and we will be dedicated to it."