Do Electric Trucks Have Good Torque? Compared To Gas Trucks

Torque is the amount of power that a motor or motors can apply to the wheels to push the vehicle forward. It is usually measured in pounds. The number of pounds in torque will determine how fast a vehicle can reach a certain speed. When it comes to electric trucks, their torque works different than that of gas or diesel trucks.

In average, electric trucks have great torque out of the box, in fact it is much better than an average gas powered pickup truck. An electric truck has about 700 lb. -ft. of torque that is available instantly, compared to a gas truck that has about 450 lb. -ft. of torque with a torque curve, which means it takes it some time to reach the peak performance RPM before the top torque is produced.

The beauty of electric trucks is that the power is ready instantly as you press the gas pedal. There is no wait, no delay, it is just there, ready to go at a moment’s notice. For gas and diesel trucks, there is a spool up time to reach the optimum RPMs where the highest torque output is reached. This is called the torque curve.

Electric VS Gas VS Diesel Trucks Torque

TruckElectricGasDiesel
Ford F-150 Lightning775
Ford F-150 Gas430
Ford F-250 Diesel935
Chevy Silverado EV615
Chevy Silverado 1500 Gas460
Chevy Silverado 2500 Diesel910
Toyota Tundra Gas479
Toyota Tundra TRD Turbo Gas583
Dodge Ram 1500 Gas410
Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel850
Rivian R1T908
GMC Hummer EV1000
Tesla Cybertruck824
This table shows torque in lb. -ft. of electric vs gas vs diesel trucks.

Here it is in a line chart view for easier consumption.

Electric vs Gas vs Diesel Torque Chart

How Torque Works on Electric Trucks

Although combustion engine trucks take a little time to reach its peak power, some trucks with diesel as their fuel can be more powerful than the electric trucks. So depending on the use case, a diesel truck can be just what you need. An example is long-haul loads that have to be moved across country. The constant recharging requirement when it comes to electric trucks may not be optimal. All the other times, electric is the way to go for power.

When the “gas” pedal, I should probably say “accelerator” pedal is pressed on an electric truck, the signal is passed into the motor controller and it will increase the current to the motor depending on how far the pedal is pressed. The amount of current that is being sent to the motor(s) determines how fast the motor turns. The power of the motor, the speed of it’s spinning, plus the weight of the vehicle is all factored into the final torque output. The heavier the truck the more it will deduct from the final torque.

So just like in all vehicles, to achieve the most torque, you need to lighten the load – less people in the truck, less junk in the bed… you get the picture.

Electric Truck Torque Compared To Gas and Diesel Trucks

Let’s look at the trucks that are on the market now and see how they stack up against each other. Keep in mind the torque curve as you look at these. They are not apples to apples comparison but maybe apples to pears?

Ford F-150 Lightning Vs Ford F-150 Gas

Ford Lightning F150 torque

To start with, the Ford F-150 Lightning puts out 775 lb. -ft. of torque which is crazy. Available the instant you press the pedal, can you say rocket? A regular gas-powered F-150 has s torque of 430 lb. -ft. on a 5.0L V8 engine, which is ok for a truck but nothing compared to an out-of-the-box Lightning. I am just thinking, there is no comparison here, the Lightning is the clear choice with 345 extra lb. -ft. of torque.

Ford F-150 Lightning VS Ford F-250 Diesel

This is where it gets interesting, The F-250 diesel can produce 935 lb. -ft. of torque with the maxed out 6.7L Power Stroke Turbo Diesel engine. This beast is strong, but at what cost? A standard F-250 that comes with a 6.2L V8 engine puts out only 430 lb. -ft of torque. So unless you are going to max out your F-250’s engine, it doesn’t come close to the electric Lightning.

Chevy Silverado EV Vs Chevy Silverado 1500

Chevy Silverado EV Torque

The electric Chevy Silverado EV puts out 615 instant lb. -ft of torque. Its gas powered brother can make 460 lb. -ft. of torque on the 6.2L V8, the most powerful stock engine available. Although if you stand back and think about what 460 lb. -ft. of torque is, this is plenty of power for a truck. But even that just doesn’t come close to the torque coming out of an electric truck.

Chevy Silverado EV Vs Chevy Silverado 2500 Diesel

As we look at the 2500 series trucks with a 6.6L Turbo Diesel, this power monster makes 910 lb. -ft. of torque, but this is the maxed out Diesel engine. A standard gas powered 2500 comes with a 6.6L V8 gas engine which only makes 464 lb. -ft. of torque. Yes, that is only 4 more pounds than a 1500 truck. Not sure what happened there.

Electric Trucks Vs Other Gas and Diesel Powered Trucks

I took a look at what kind of torque other trucks produce and found about the same story there. The Toyota Tundra makes 583 lb. -ft. of torque on its most powerful TRD Pro, maxed out twin-turbo V6 engine truck. The Dodge Ram makes 410 lb. -ft. of torque on the Ram 1500 5.7L V8 motor and takes it up to 850 lb. -ft of torque on Ram 2500 6.7L diesel engine.

A few more electric trucks we can check out are the Rivian, Hummer EV and all famous Tesla Cybertruck to measure the truck torque range.

The heavyweights of the electric trucks on the market are the Rivian the Hummer EV and the Cybertruck. All are heaviest compared to the rest of the electric trucks on the market, with Rivian coming in at 6,800 lb., the Hummer at 9,063 lb., and the Cybertruck above 10,000 lb. Considering most other electric trucks hover under 6,000 lb and keeping in mind that most average gas powered trucks are below 5,000 lb, electric trucks and vehicles in general are going to be chewing up the roads a lot faster than they already do as more and more electric vehicles replace gas powered ones on the roads, but I digress.

Rivian R1T comes naturally with 908 lb. -ft. of torque, the Hummer EV has a whopping 11,500 lb. -ft of torque, wow… let me stand here and ponder on this craziness. This is obviously an inflated and inaccurate figure, which in real life ends up being right around 1000 lb. -ft of torque. I hope it has the breaks to pair with all that power and weight. Compare this with a bob-tail Semi-Tractor can weigh about 25,000 lb. That is 2.5 Hummer EVs.

The futuristic Cybertruck comes in with above average 824 lb. -ft. of torque which is not too impressive considering it’s weight but I am sure Tesla has it figured out to where we won’t feel like it’s missing much when it takes off with 5 G’s when you floor the pedal.

So, Do Electric Trucks Have Good Torque?

It is clear that electric trucks have more torque that comes standard than most maxed out gas powered trucks. Diesel trucks still out perform the electric ones in pure take-off power. My final assessment is if you want a fun truck that you can use occasionally to bring some new furniture you purchased or take some garbage out to the dump, electric truck is your easy and clear option, but if you need to do serious hauling, diesel is still the solution that can’t be messed with.

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