Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Ford labels Elon Musk "absurd" as Ford F-150 vs Tesla Cybertruck Tug of war ruled out

Ford's much hyped towing battle with Tesla likely won't happen.

The much-hyped towing test between Ford and Tesla likely won't happen, with Ford suggesting its "apples to apples" tweet was less a challenge, and more to point out the "absurdity" of Elon Musk's video. 

But first, let's recap. Musk has been throwing great big armfuls of shade at Ford, and specifically the F-150, ever since the unveiling of his Cybertruck, culminating in the posting of a video that showed the newest Tesla dragging an F-150 up a hill. 

Tug-of-war-gate broke out soon after, with eagle-eyed viewers pointing out the Ford in question was rear-wheel drive, and so wasn't a fair comparison for the AWD Cybertruck. 

Enter Ford X vice president Sunny Madra, who tweeted Musk asking him to "send us a Cybertruck and we will do the apples to apples test for you". Musk, never one to back down from a challenge, replied almost immediately, telling Madra to "bring it on".

And just like that, it appeared the world was going to be gifted a genuine head-to-head towing test between the best-selling truck in the world, and arguably the most controversial.

But our hopes have now been dashed, with Ford's heavyweights now saying Madra's (presumably unapproved) Tweet was never intended as a direct challenge, but was instead designed to highlight the "absurdity" of Musk's video.

“Sunny’s tweet was tongue in cheek to point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more,” a Ford spokesperson told US outlet TechCrunch.

“With America’s best-selling truck for 42 years, we’ve always focused on serving our truck customers regardless of what others say or do. We look forward to our all-new F-150 hybrid coming next year and all-electric F-150 in a few years.”