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Plug-in pickup trucks look to be the next frontier in the budding electric vehicle industry as startup Rivian Automotive is said to be in talks with General Motors Co. and Amazon.com.

If the outlooks from the two auto companies are anything to go by, GM looks set to be winning the race for the year.

It was only a few months ago that Wall Street was bashing Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. Times have changed for the automaker and its mercurial CEO.

The deepening crisis of a truck-driver shortage that already is leading to higher prices for agricultural produce and threatening to stoke inflation is forcing trucking companies to find creative solutions.

Tesla has let more than a few investors down of late, and one part of the company hasn’t quite lived up to expectations at Morgan Stanley either.

A vague mention of Amazon.com Inc.’s interest in any sector might be enough to send investors into a tizzy, but the top executive of U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. is unfazed.

Industrial stocks were poised for a rally April 27 after solid earnings reports from UPS Inc. and Raytheon Co., and a reversal of the defense and aerospace selloff that puzzled investors earlier this week. But transports are having none of that.

Tesla Inc.’s superstar chief executive Elon Musk unveiled a futuristic looking electric semi truck last week that surpassed analyst expectations and weighed heavily on the shares of truck and truck component makers.