Ford takes on Tesla with a new all-electric F-150 truck that pulls over a million-pound train

Today, Ford Motors released a YouTube video of an all-electric F-150 pickup prototype truck towing 1.25 million pounds of double-decker rail cars carrying 42 F-150 pickups. The all-electric F-150 pickup prototype truck is seen in video pulling 10 double-decker rail cars over 1,000 feet. This is an obvious swipe at Tesla, which only pulls a fifth in weight. The weight in the video is roughly four times more than the 300,000 pounds Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted his company’s pickup would be capable of towing.

As part of the demonstration, Ford company gathered a few F-150 owners to show off how powerful the electric version will be. Then, they attached 1,000-foot freight train to the back of the electric pickup, weighing over 1 million pounds, and easily towed it 1,000 feet down the track. To further  illustrate the power of the new all-electric F-150 truck, Ford loaded 42 gas-powered F-150’s on the train, making the weight 1.25 million pounds and use the new all-electric F-150 truck to tow the combined weight.

“We’ve confirmed we are bringing an all-electric F-150 to market,” says Ford in their video announcement. “Now, we’re showing you the capability you asked for by having it tow more than 1 million pounds.* This is Built Ford Tough.”

“There is no greater tension for Ford engineers than doing live tests in front of real truck owners, while cameras are rolling,” says Ted Cannis, the Global Director of Electrification at Ford, in a Medium post. “But that’s exactly what we did. As you can imagine, math on paper is never quite the same as real work on the job. Which is why every F-Series is serious about testing … and in this case, seeing what happens with live testing.”

In a tweet posted this afternoon, Ford said: “We told you an all-electric #F150 was coming. What we didn’t tell you was its capability…until now. Hauling: 42 F-150s. 10 double-decker freight cars.
1.25 million pounds.”

https://twitter.com/Ford/status/1153741693742649344

In the video, Ford says, “We’ve confirmed we are bringing an all-electric F-150 to market. Now, we’re showing you the capability you asked for by having it tow more than 1 million pounds.* This is Built Ford Tough. The F-150 battery-electric prototype is towing far beyond any production truck’s published capacity in a one-time short event demonstration.”