US car giant Ford has withdrawn its challenge to a rematch less than 24 hours after Tesla boss Elon Musk said “bring it on”.

A rematch of the Tesla Cybertruck tug-of-war with the Ford F-150 is not going ahead anytime soon after Ford issued an official statement dismissing the challenge as “tongue-in-cheek”.

Earlier this week a senior executive at Ford had issued a challenge to Elon Musk via Twitter after a Tesla video showed a Cybertruck towing a Ford F-150 backwards up a hill.

The Ford tweet said: "Send us a Cybertruck and we'll do the apples-to-apples test for you.” Musk responded: “Bring it on”.

Ford claimed it was not a fair contest because the F-150 was lighter and only rear-wheel-drive, versus the heavier all-wheel-drive Cybertruck.