Apparently, Ford Motor Company is now in the locomotive industry. Their all-electric F-150 prototype truck just proved it can tow 10 loaded-up double-decker railcars.
Ford F-150 Chief Engineer Linda Zhang unveiled a new electric prototype in front of a handful of truck owners and enthusiasts. In an unbelievable display of torque, the truck hooked up a freight composition weighing over 1,000,000 pounds and pulled it over 1,000 feet.
This is also the length of 42 regular 2019 F-150 trucks. As if it wasn’t impressive already, they loaded up all 42 of them in the railcars for a total weight of 1.25 million pounds and made a second run.
All Electric F-150 Prototype – Source: Ford
That’s exactly 94.7 times the towing capacity of a 2019 Ford F-150 gasoline truck (13,200 lb) and 35.6 times more than the largest capacity pickup truck on the market – the 2019 Ram 3500 (35,100 lb).
We’ve seen trucks tow airplanes before, but never before an actual train.
No, you won’t pull trains with your electric F-150 truck
This demonstration was incredible to watch, however, it tells us little about what an all-electric F-150 truck can do in the conditions it’s intended for.
The truck made two short runs, towing carefully calculated loads at walking speed. It’s was likely working at the limit, getting the motors and power supply really hot. But even if it wasn’t you’d never reach any practical speed or distance.
Ford makes it clear that this load is way beyond the capabilities of any production truck in the perceivable future. They don’t say it, but attempting such a pull with any stock F-150 could cause damage or at least significant wear.
All that said, it was still an impressive stunt. Ford seems determined to bring electric trucks on the market and for them to create this video, it means the project has passed an important development milestone.
We still need to wait a couple of years before its arrival at dealerships, but we’ll see a hybrid Ford F-150 truck next year, which will serve as a stepping stone for full electrification.