Lordstown Endurance pickup meets Ford F-150 for its own tug-of-war battle
In a move first popularized by the Tesla Cybertruck, Lordstown Motors wanted to show what its electric truck can do, too.
Lordstown Motors wants to recreate some of that Tesla magic with its own tug-of-war battle. If you recall, Tesla famously (or infamously) tested a Cybertruck and an F-150 in a tug-of-war match, only to have the Cybertruck drag the F-150 away. These sorts of tests are basically irrelevant at the end of the day, but a startup like Lordstown needs all the eyeballs it can get paying attention.
So, what we have here in a video the company posted Wednesday is a 2019 Ford F-150 and a preproduction Lordstown Endurance. One is the best-selling pickup truck in the US. The other is an upcoming electric truck made exclusively for commercial fleets. With a strap hooked to the both of them, Lordstown said it placed the F-150 in four-wheel drive low mode and turned the traction control off for both trucks . The results show the Endurance starting to pull the F-150 away. The startup also emphazied that this test took place on wet grass.
The point of the terrain was to show what kind of traction the Endurance's in-wheel motors can create, but it also opens up some other question such as what kinds of tires both trucks featured. Wet grass is hardly the best place to find traction. Ford didn't immediately return a request for comment.
If anything, I like seeing this video as proof Lordstown actually has a running truck. In-wheel motors are a huge leap forward if the startup can actually bring the technology to life. Lordstown plans to start production of the Endurance early next year and has said previously it has over 40,000 preorders for the pickup so far.
