DETROIT — Ford is going on the offensive to defend its highly profitable pickup franchise from emerging all-electric truck competitors such as Tesla.

A month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his company's planned electric pickup would "be a better truck than an F-150 in terms of truck-like capability" during a podcast, Ford on Tuesday released a video of an all-electric F-150 pickup prototype truck towing 1.25 million pounds of double-decker rail cars carrying 42 F-150 pickups.

The towing weight shown in the video is roughly four times more than the 300,000 pounds Musk tweeted Tesla's pickup would be capable of towing last year. However, Ford was quick to disclose that the video is a demonstration of capability and "far beyond any production truck's published capacity."

"This demonstration showcases our commitment to remain the clear leader in trucks as well as to highlight our commitment to the future of electric vehicles," Ted Cannis, Ford global director of electrification, wrote in a post on Medium accompanying the video.

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Releasing such a video is an uncommon practice for Ford, which traditionally wouldn't publicize much, if anything, about a vehicle that remains years away from production. It shows the importance Ford has on retaining its sales leadership with the F-Series, even for all-electric trucks, according to Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at by moCox Automotive.

"F-Series is everything to Ford. It is the cash cow of Ford," Krebs said. "The company would be a niche automaker if it didn't have F-Series."