Ford vs. Tesla: Company Challenges Tesla to 'Apples to Apples' Tug-of-War

Ford might have beaten Ferrari at Le Mans, but now the company wants a rematch with Tesla.

Tesla's futuristic all-electric pickup truck has drawn adoration and scorn from car lovers all over the world ever since it was unveiled last week at a promotional event in Los Angeles and while much of the coverage of the event centered on the Cybertruck's somewhat embarrassing debut, a brief clip of the Cybertruck engaging in a tug-of-war with a Ford F-150 is what got one car manufacturer's attention.

The 16-second clip, which has been viewed more than 13 million times, showed the Cybertruck having no trouble hauling the Ford pickup truck as its tires squeal.

Sundeep Madra, the vice president for Ford X, challenged Musk to an 'apples to apples' tug-of-war on Twitter, writing, "hey @elonmusk send us a cybertruck and we will do the apples to apples test for you."

Musk didn't seem to mind the challenge, writing back to the Ford X vice president, "Bring it on."

Some critics, including noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson criticized the tug of war in Musk's video, saying the demonstration didn't give the Ford F-150 the chance to prove the pickup truck's power. Tyson said Musk should "fully load" the F-150 in order to give the vehicle its "highest traction to its rear wheels, then try to drag that up the hill."

The all-electric pickup truck is quite popular, with Musk writing on Twitter Sunday that the company had already received 200,000 pre-orders for the vehicle. The Cybertruck is the first new model from Tesla in several years and has a price tag of $39,900, about $10,000 more than what a Ford F-150 base model would cost.

Musk is likely much happier that people are focusing on the Cybertruck's tug of war instead of a botched demo of the Cybertruck's durability. Video of the presentation showed Tesla's chief design officer hurl a metal ball at the driver side window of the truck, which cracked. A second ball also resulted in another window shattering as well.

Photo: Getty Images