Ford is starting to open up about the development of its all-electric F-150 pickup truck and it released a promotional video showing an all-electric prototype towing over 1 million lbs of train carts.
Last year, Ford announced plans to “bring 16 battery-electric vehicles to market by 2022” – starting with an all-electric CUV with 300 miles of range.
But the automaker still remained more focused on hybrids than all-electric vehicles.
Its most important vehicle program, the F150 pickup truck, was only supposed to get a hybrid powertrain by 2020, but the landscape has since changed a lot.
Earlier this year, Ford finally confirmed that it plans to bring an all-electric version of the F-150 to market.
The automaker didn’t confirm a timeline, but it is actively working on the truck and for the first time, Ford officially showed one of its electric F-150 prototypes today.
Linda Zhang, chief engineer of the Ford F-150, led a towing capability test of a prototype all-electric F-150 in front of customers and the automaker released a video of it.
In the video, you see the electric pickup truck towing 10 double-decker rail cars over the length of 42 2019-model year F-150s – representing 42 years of the truck:
They did another test where they loaded the trucks inside the train carts to add even more weight. The electric F-150 prototype was still able to tow the load.
Ford said that it added up to 1.25 million lbs.
Ted Cannis, Global Director of Electrification for Ford Motor Company, commented on the test:
“This demonstration showcases our commitment to remain the clear leader in trucks as well as to highlight our commitment to the future of electric vehicles. We’ve already announced plans to bring an F-150 hybrid to market that can act as a mobile generator.”
The executive added about electric vehicles at Ford:
“I’m all in on EVs. Climate change … you had me at hello. But what we’re doing here is not just about air quality or rising sea level. We are all about building better trucks for our customers who have real work to do every day. Trucks that can do more for our owners. Trucks that meet new sets of needs. Because leaders lead.”
Ford also plans to bring its Mustang-inspired electric CUV to market next year. The company still didn’t offer a timeline for the electric F-150 beyond saying that it will arrive in “the coming years.”
Electrek’s Take
The video made me feel like Ford really wants its customers to know that going electric doesn’t mean that they are compromising on capabilities for the F-150 and showing the towing capacity is a good example.
Towing heavy loads require a lot of torque and that’s something electric vehicles have in abundance.
Now it’s just a test and it doesn’t mean that the electric Ford F-150 is going to have a 1 million lbs rated towing capacity, but some people have been talking about rating electric pickup trucks with an insane towing capacity.
Elon Musk said that Tesla’s electric pickup could have a 300,000 lbs towing capacity.
Of course, the top towing capacity is not going to be a problem, but potential buyers want to know how long they are going to be able to pull decent loads with all-electric pickup trucks.
Some decent improvements in energy density and battery cost in recent years enabled automakers to pack more batteries in electric vehicles and some electric pickup trucks could surprise, but we are going to have to wait for more details when it comes to the electric F-150.
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