Photo: Tesla
There is one thing in the auto industry that caused even more heated debates this past few days than the unveiling of the controversial Tesla Cybertruck: the claim that it can outclass and beat a Ford F-150 in any tug-of-war challenge.
It all started at the time when the new Tesla was unveiled, when Elon Musk showed on a screen behind him how the Cybertruck pulled an F-150 uphill despite the Blue Oval truck’s opposition. It then snowballed over the following days, after Musk tweeted a more clear video of the stunt.
The tug-of-war clip was over-analyzed by people in the industry and not only. Even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson had something to say, and the overall consensus is this: there is a discrepancy in performance between the two pickups used, and the entire deal was not entirely fair.
At the beginning of the week, a little-known Ford executive, Sundeep Madra, who is in charge of an equally little-known Ford division called X, challenged Musk to a more balanced test, and asked him to “send us a cybertruck and we will do the apples to apples test for you.”
Musk immediately agreed, saying “Bring it on.”
As expected, Ford will not bring it on, and Madra seems to have spoken out of line. In a response to Fox News, an unnamed Ford spokeswoman said Madra was just trying to “point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more," and his tweet was just “tongue in cheek.”
Try as he might, Musk will probably never get Ford, or any other established carmaker for that matter, to pit one of their cars against the electric pickup. That's because neither of the established carmakers have anything to prove, and regardless of the results, any such challenge would only benefit Tesla.
The tug-of-war clip was over-analyzed by people in the industry and not only. Even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson had something to say, and the overall consensus is this: there is a discrepancy in performance between the two pickups used, and the entire deal was not entirely fair.
At the beginning of the week, a little-known Ford executive, Sundeep Madra, who is in charge of an equally little-known Ford division called X, challenged Musk to a more balanced test, and asked him to “send us a cybertruck and we will do the apples to apples test for you.”
Musk immediately agreed, saying “Bring it on.”
As expected, Ford will not bring it on, and Madra seems to have spoken out of line. In a response to Fox News, an unnamed Ford spokeswoman said Madra was just trying to “point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more," and his tweet was just “tongue in cheek.”
Try as he might, Musk will probably never get Ford, or any other established carmaker for that matter, to pit one of their cars against the electric pickup. That's because neither of the established carmakers have anything to prove, and regardless of the results, any such challenge would only benefit Tesla.
This will not stop however individual owners of conventional pickups from trying all sorts of cool and dumb stunts as soon as the Cybertruck hits the road.
Luckily, we still have about a year of peace and quiet.
Electric vehicles are famously heavy - over both axles. It’s all about the weight borne by spinning tires. That’s the source of traction, not the engine power.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 25, 2019
Google News