We bought this 1965 Ford F100 (which has an F250 platform) about two years ago and recently converted it to an all-electric pickup. It’s now called “Chargezilla” or “E-100”!
Our 1965 Ford F100 project has made a major leap in an unusual direction. What was once a 300 cu-in inline six-cylinder engine, mated to a manual transmission and a “divorced” transfer case, is now electrically powered. The F250 part of the truck has this transfer case from the factory – which gives you equal-length drive shafts. Now, the power and torque have increased dramatically.
Legacy EV and 101 Motors got together with TFL Truck to turn this old Ford into something special
Essentially, the 1965 Ford has Tesla power as there are two banks of batteries in this truck. The most prominent (and easy to see), resides under the hood. Replacing the gas tank, the other set of batteries sits in its own case. Combined, the overall output is about 70 kWh – which is beefy… for a car.
The two electric motors are mounted to the inner frame of the truck (in the transmission tunnel). They are connected to a 2:1 gear-reduction box. From there (along with a separate actual parking mechanism) they feed into the truck’s original transfer case. That’s right, this thing has a serious 4×4 setup that has low gearing.
Total system horsepower is approximately 280, but the big story is the torque – which is over 680 lb-ft. Sure, it could have been more, but to make the truck drivable, and keep some semblance of range, compromises had to be made. The truck is set up for Level I and Level II charging, with a 6-kW onboard charger.
We are about to do a series of videos, some of which will be based on testing the F100. As such, we have yet to figure out what this truck can do. I mean, we know it’s faster – but that’s not much of a stretch. Range and overall performance have yet to be discovered. In the near future, we will let you know!
Stay tuned!
In this video, Tommy takes you through a behind-the-scenes tour of the E100. On top of that, he brings us along for a quick drive too!
