Electric F-150 Prototype Blows Away Minds with Insane Railcar Pull
What happens when you combine 10 double-deckers, 42 F-150s, and one amazing electric truck? The impossible made possible!
We here at F150online would like to thank Tesla for beta-testing the viability of mass-market electric vehicles for the rest of us. It’s been a great experiment, one that has all but guaranteed a better future for Ford and our beloved F-150. For that alone, they deserve a hardy golf clap.
That said, Tesla is seriously out of its depth when it comes to building trucks. They can show all the teasers they want, but can their proposal do what Ford’s own all-electric F-150 prototype just did in the Blue Oval’s Dearborn, Michigan railyard? There’s a reason why the F-150 is ‘Built Ford Tough,’ after all!
“So, as you can see, we’re here at the rail yards,” F-150 chief engineer Linda Zhang told a handful of F-150 owners invited to the special event. “We have a very special version of the F-150, and as you can see behind me, we’ve got 42 trucks, representing 42 years of America’s best-selling truck. Also, they line up to over 1,000 feet in terms of distance.”
In front of all of those F-150s is a special prototype that, unbeknownst to the guests, is Ford’s first-ever all-electric F-150. Zhang says the truck will tow the 10 double-decker freight cars (weighing around 1 million pounds) next to the line of awesomeness 1,000 feet in order to demonstrate the awesomeness of have a diesel-electric locomotive’s worth of torque all at once. It’s a feat no other truck has pulled off before, but Zhang is confident the electric truck will do it.
“I’ve got one major thing that I still haven’t told you yet,” Zhang tells her guests. “This F-150 prototype is all electric.”
Her guests could not believe their eyes upon seeing the label on the bed. After all, the only EVs they’ve known usually come with a ‘T’ on the hood, and are more luxury rides than their hard-working, hard-playing F-150s. Nonetheless, the show must go on, all riding along with Zhang behind the wheel.
Once the electric F-150 gets going, though, everyone riding with Zhang is ecstatic that the truck is pulling those freight cars as easily as their trucks pull a loaded trailer. But that’s nothing compared to the next feat of strength on the agenda.
“If you guys thought that was impressive, let’s load the 42 trucks in, and let’s do it again,” Zhang said to her guests. “That’ll take us way over 1 million pounds.”
With all 42 F-150s loaded and tied down, Zhang begins the next pull, stating that she can feel the weight of the freight cars even more with the trucks on board.
According to her, the total weight her electric F-150 is pulling is 1.25 million pounds, which Ford itself reminds us “is towing far beyond any production truck’s published capacity in a one-time short event demonstration,” and that we shouldn’t try this at home with our own trucks.
“‘Built Ford Tough’ is all about durability, capability, and productivity,” Zhang said. “And this all-electric F-150 extends ‘Built Ford Tough’ to a whole new arena. This prototype will help us deliver the all-electric F-150 in the coming years.”
We believe this demonstration likely more than won the hearts of a few of us, too. It looks like it won over the guests who got to experience the raw power of electricity in the familiar shape of an F-150. The future is electric, indeed.
Photos: Ford
