Edmunds Took Its Ford Lightning and Rivian R1T to a Tractor Pull

Electrical pickup vehicles are rad. They do all of the stuff a truck is meant to be good at, like hauling and pulling and usually making tons of torque, however they do it in close to silence and with out belching tons of black diesel smoke. Certain, they’re nonetheless of their infancy, however that isn’t stopping Edmunds.com’s Ryan ZumMallen from taking their long-term check Ford Lightning and Rivian R1T to a tractor pull in Northern California.

Taking EVs to a tractor pull is wild, however what’s even wilder is that Edmunds purchased these vehicles with its personal cash. That differs from most long-term check automobiles, the place the automobile firm will mortgage a publication a car for six months to a yr after which ask for it again. In fact, that comes with just a few minor strings, like, presumably not collaborating in tractor pulls with a sled 3 times heavier than the truck’s most tow ranking.

The surprising factor (I’m not sorry for that, by the way in which) is simply how properly these bone-stock electrical pickups do. The Rivian, with its off-road tires and 4 electrical motors, managed to outperform the Ford, however even the dual-motor Lightning on road tires didn’t embarrass itself in entrance of the individuals within the grandstands, regardless of their boos.

Doing dumb stuff in automobiles is mostly a well-loved pastime of the Jalopnik workers, and we’d wish to assume that if we owned our check automobiles, we’d do this type of factor however significantly, hats off to Edmunds for truly going and doing it. You might be all very foolish and we salute you.