As electric pickup trucks begin to come to market, it's important to see how they perform compared to gas-powered pickups. A topic that seems to be one of the most important is towing. This is likely due to people hoping to learn just how much weight an electric truck can tow, as well as how far it can go while towing. What about stamina and endurance?
The Fast Lane Truck is all about testing trucks, and lately, it has been taking advantage of the opportunity to put today's new electric pickup trucks through the paces. This is because the channel owns a brand-new Ford F-150 Lightning, and it has also featured a Rivian R1T on occasion.
While it's certainly important to know how much weight an EV can tow and for how many miles, it's not necessarily something that matters to every pickup truck driver on a daily basis. Chances are, you're not absolutely maxing out your truck's towing capacity and driving it across the country on a daily basis.
Instead, it matters that the truck can pull a typical load in a variety of conditions and do it with conviction. With that said, some gas-powered trucks that may be able to tow a very heavy load over a long distance could potentially overheat under the right conditions. Will an electric truck overheat?
The Fast Lane Truck takes both the F-150 Lightning and a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado with a 6.2-liter V8 on an uphill towing torture test. They make it clear that the test has caused some trucks to overheat in the past. After heading up, they must come down, which is also a good test since it taxes the truck's transmission and brakes, or, in the case of the Lightning, the regenerative braking system.
The Fast Lane Truck provides the following simple chapters and timestamps. This way, you can watch certain parts of the video that interest you most.
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:00 Chevy V8 Uphill
- 10:41 Chevy V8 Downhill
- 13:02 F-150 EV Uphill
- 23:28 F-150 EV Downhill
- 26:58 Verdict
Both trucks made it up and down with little drama, though there were a few notable differences. How do you think the F-150 Lightning performed compared to the Silverado? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.