Ford Extends One Million Pound Middle Finger at Tesla

Chad Kirchner
by Chad Kirchner

Elon Musk certainly hasn’t been kind towards Ford in the past, talking about how the Dearborn truck plant is like a morgue. It’s a bold move considering his cars are assembled outdoors in a tent, but that hasn’t stopped the Twitter man from tweeting. He even recently claimed the Tesla all-electric pickup truck will be as good as Ford’s truck but also be able to tow 300,000 pounds.

Yes, that’s a totally ridiculous number and there’s no way the truck will tow that much in the real world, under the SAE J2807 standard. That’s assuming, of course, the Tesla pickup even exists. While Musk has long teased the truck, we’ve yet to actually see it in any physical capacity. It’s easy to say (or joke) your truck can tow 300,000 pounds when it doesn’t actually exist.

Ford is also working on an all-electric pickup truck. Today the company released a video of that development process, including the vehicle towing rail cars weighing over 1 million pounds. Not only is that 700,000 pounds more than Tesla’s claim but, since it’s a real truck that really exists, we can actually see it do it.

Of course, this is a publicity stunt from Ford. In any normal world, we’d just share the video and move on with our lives. But in a world where Tesla and its CEO like to throw as much shade as they can, it’s significant Ford countered the talk with a video. Also, it confirms that Ford’s EV truck is coming along and likely to go on sale much sooner than Tesla’s offering — if the Tesla truck goes on sale at all.

No, the Ford electric pickup won’t be rated to haul 1,000,000 pounds. But electric torque means it’ll probably be able to tow quite a bit. What I’m most curious about on the Ford EV pickup is not what it’ll tow, but how much electric range there will be when attached to a trailer. That’ll be what makes or breaks the electric pickup.

300,000 lb towing capacity

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 27, 2018

[Image: Ford]

Chad Kirchner
Chad Kirchner

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  • Akear Akear on Jul 24, 2019

    Traditional truck buyers are not the slightest bit interested in electric powered vehicles. The typical joe six pack that buys a truck will more likely add options like a gun rack and an American flag decal on the rear window. The flatbed makes a perfect place to store supplies along with buck and moose carcasses. These type of customers actually will go out of their way to avoid an electric vehicle.

    • DenverMike DenverMike on Jul 25, 2019

      Right, but traditional "electric vehicle" buyers might want a pickup. Or they've avoided electric vehicles since none of them are pickups. Except "traditional" pickup buyers might only be half of pickup sales or less, after fleets and whatnot. They just make the most noise and must draw attention to themselves.

  • Mcs Mcs on Jul 24, 2019

    This might be the most interesting electric truck trick of the week - a zero radius turn: insideevs.com/news/361393/video-rivian-r1t-truck-tank-steer-demo/

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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