Internet trolls are one of the worst byproducts of the internet. You wouldn’t think CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies would care to troll people, but as we’ve seen from Elon Musk, that simply isn’t true. Musk has spent the better part of this year belly-aching about “free speech” and hurling goofy jokes on Twitter before attempting to buy the platform, so he continues trolling. Now, Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO, is throwing a bit of salt in Tesla’s game by giving the Ford F-150 Lightning a Tesla charger adapter. Nice flex, Jim. 

Can the Ford F-150 Lightning charge other EVs? 

Despite Farley’s tweet, “Not trolling. Just helpful,” the implied shot fired here is that with the new Ford Lightning’s built-in generator and the new Tesla charging adapter, Lightnings can roam around, saving dead Teslas. It is a perfectly harmless yet still disrespectful joke to play on Tesla. Although, Farley denies any attempt at trolling. He says simply that Ford is just trying to help. 

The NEMA 14-50 Mobile Power Cord attachment, which Ford uses to charge the Lightning, now includes an adapter to fit Teslas, which uses its own charge plug standard. According to MotorTrend, attaching the NEMA power unit to their Pro Power port in the bed and affixing the included J1772 Tesla port adapter is all you need to do to pump some life into your dead Tesla (or other EV with standard plugs).

As Car and Driver found out recently, don’t get any funny ideas about your Ford F-150 Lightning charging itself. It would create an endless loop of energy, which we know doesn’t work. 

Can the Ford F-150 Lightning power your house? 

Since the Ford F-150 Lightning is electric, Ford made the very cool decision to include an electric generator built into the bed of the pickup truck. Each of the two 240-volt outlets brings 2,400 watts. With two outlets like this, the Lightning makes enough juice to power most, if not all, essential appliances for your home.

There are multiple ways to use the Ford generator. Like the PowerBoost Hybrid, the simplest option is running a cable from a 30-amp, 240-volt outlet in the bed to a 30-amp transfer switch. This method of generating power can directly power specific circuits in your home as you need them. Pretty cool, right? This means you can skip the Clark Griswald extension cables nested in a tangled mass in the garage. 

When Car and Driver tested the truck’s power capability, the tester ran a coffee maker, Shark vac, TV, internet modem and router, tankless gas hot water heater, fridge, garage fridge, and a couple of lamps, all from the truck’s generator. He mentioned that at no point did he need all of these appliances at once; he ran all of them because he needed to see if the generator could take it – It could. 

The Ford Lightning just stole Tesla’s lunch money

As Jim Farley masterfully taunted on Twitter, this Tesla charger hookup is meant to be “helpful.” Let’s be honest, though, Jim. That was a sick burn against Tesla, whose cars can’t do this trick. Adding insult to injury, Tesla has to face this taunting while knowing the Tesla Cybertruck is nowhere near production. I wonder if this will spark a new electric pickup truck rivalry between the old dogs and the new pups?