It'll probably come as no surprise to most folks that the general public doesn't know much about electric cars. In fact, the large majority are still trying to figure out what a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid even is. As a result, Ford Motor Company knows that if people don't understand EVs they will be considerably less to likely to consider one as their next car. For reasons obvious, this worries the automaker, especially as it wants upcoming electric models like the battery-powered F-150 to be welcomed and not shunned.

To find out how tall of a mountain it has to climb, Ford surveyed people across the world's biggest car markets about the perceived capabilities and limitations of EVs, and published the results via Medium. Unfortunately, the results were disheartening to both automakers and Americans alike. Ford found that an embarrassing 42 percent of Americans believe electric cars, in spite of their name, still need to be filled up with gasoline to run—outside of the occasional prank.

An even larger proportion of Americans—67 percent—think that EVs can't tow to save their life, despite years of evidence to the contrary. The Tesla Model X, for example, has a 5,000-pound tow capacity, but has been used in PR stunts to tow loads as large as 143-ton Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Ford's own electric F-150 prototype tugged 10 railroad cars loaded with 42 F-150s together weighing around 625 tons, for nearly a quarter of a mile as part of a test you can watch in the video below.