This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever

Gregory Coles and Bill Scalia helped Like Tesla make its best video to date.

Fans of the Like Tesla YouTube channel may beg to disagree with us on this one, but this is probably the best video we’ve ever seen there. It is a fantastic combination of subject and content. To make this clearer, it is about a shop that is turning a Ford F-450 into the first Tesla-powered pickup truck in the market. At least a body-on-frame pickup truck, not the Truckla. But is shows us much more than just the pickup truck.

Gallery: Forget The Truckla: This Is The First Proper Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck

This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever

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This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever







This Ford F-450 May Be The First Tesla-Powered Pickup Truck Ever

First of all, Kim, the presenter, met Greg Coles and Bill Scalia due to a Mercedes-Benz 280 SE electric conversion using Nissan Leaf parts. But their most exciting project was in their shop. You just have to choose what it is.

Besides the F-450, Scalia also developed a trailer that helps the pickup truck recharge. It has embedded solar panels and a battery pack that allows the pickup truck and any other EV to charge in the middle of the desert if they get there with this. We’ll talk to these guys to have more details on this trailer soon. In the meantime, watch the video they have made with it.

An excellent example of that relates to the solution they found to create the battery pack. Coles and Scalia managed to develop a 90-kWh battery pack that fits in the engine bay and weights a little less than the original V8 of the F-450. The battery pack installation is similar to that of an engine – over engine mounts.

That helps the pickup truck to require fewer changes in what relates to the suspension and brakes, for example. It is a very smart way of conducting the conversion. The 90 kWh battery pack will be able to drive the “Tesla F-450” to up to 220 mi (354 km). And the trailer will help it get a little further.

When the TFLCar YouTube channel did tow tests with a Tesla Model X, we mentioned trailers for EVs would probably have to be different. Perhaps with batteries themselves. Coles and Scalia thought the same thing and put it to work.

Watch this video from beginning to end and check the Greg Goes Electric YouTube channel videos as well. Like Tesla found a gold mine for people that enjoy mechanics, gadgets, and great ideas. Coles and Scalia seem to have all the package.

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