Tesla CEO Elon Musk boasted this week on Twitter that his company's forthcoming Cybertruck is a "Better truck than an F-150, faster than a Porsche 911." He followed that claim by posting a video of the Cybertruck prototype ostensibly hauling a Ford F-150 uphill.

Tweet with video

However, Musk and Tesla didn't say which exact configuration of the Cybertruck, or F-150, they used for the stunt. And some viewers lobbed criticisms of an unfair fight at Musk, after seeing what was apparently an all-wheel-drive Cybertruck pulling a rear-wheel-drive Ford F-150 in the Tesla video.

On Monday, Ford X Vice President Sundeep (Sunny) Madra clapped back at Musk, urging him to send over a Cybertruck for an "apples to apples" tug-of-war test.

While fans of both companies are clamoring to see it, that contest is not likely to happen.

A Ford spokesperson told CNBC that Madra's tweet was "tongue-in-cheek to point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more."

Tesla should be cautious about putting its Cybertruck prototype, and all the proprietary design and tech elements within it, into the hands of a competitor, too.

Auto industry analysts viewed Tesla's bravado as fun marketing, but nothing more.

Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst at Navigant Research and an engineer, said, "Automakers do this kind of nonsense all the time, but Tesla takes it to the extreme."

In its own stunt video this summer, Ford took its EV F-150 prototype to a train yard and pulled 42 F-150s loaded on 10 double-decker rail cars. Ford is partnering with another would-be Tesla competitor, Rivian, to make its push into electric vehicles.