The Most Powerful ICE And EV Pickup Trucks You Can Buy Right Now

We like big horsepower numbers for a lot of reasons. Maybe you need a lot of horsepower to tow a travel trailer. Perhaps you need it so you can pass and merge with confidence on the highway. And maybe you just like big numbers, because why not? That last one is why we’re here.

We’re going to be honest with you. Almost nobody needs a thousand-horse monster in their driveway. Yes, all that output can come in very handy. But the only reason we’re looking for the most powerful mass-production pickups on the market today is because it’s just plain fun to see how far automakers can go. There are plenty of runners-up, but we’ve narrowed our winner’s circle down to just two models: the world’s strongest ICE and EV pickups.

The Most Powerful Electric Pickup In The World

Rivian, founded just 15 years ago, is a relative newcomer to the auto industry. They sort of crept up from behind to deliver some industry-leading all-electric pickups and SUVs while everyone else was busy talking about the Cybertruck and the F-150 Lightning. Now, they’ve set a new world record, producing the highest-output mass-production pickup truck in the world, the Rivian R1T.

As much as we love the smell of gas fumes and the sound of an 8-cylinder engine, it’s not that surprising that an electric powertrain holds the current record for highest-output pickup. We’ve covered the advantages of EVs more than a few times on this site, and the availability of million-dollar supercar power at a more accessible price is a hard point to get past.

A year ago, the Quad-Motor R1T produced 835 hp and hit 60 mph in three seconds. The 2025 edition produces 1,025 hp and, with Launch Mode, it clears 60 mph in just under 2.5 seconds, making last year’s model look downright sluggish in comparison.

When you read about a quad-motor AWD truck, you’re probably imagining one motor on each wheel. What you’re actually getting is a smaller drive unit housing two motors up front and a bigger one in the back. The front unit powers the truck in Conserve mode when you don’t need AWD, and the rear unit engages as soon as you need all four wheels present and accounted for.

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We don’t have exact numbers on the estimated range just yet, but when you’re not engaging both drive units, the Quad-Motor R1T functions exactly like the Tri-Motor, which can get up to 405 miles on a full charge in Conserve mode. In short, the 2025 Rivian R1T Ascend Quad-Max is a lot more practical than you might expect it to be, with performance specs in the four-digit range.

We don’t even know the price of the Quad-Max yet. All we know is it’ll be in the low six-figure range, and you have to put a $3,000 deposit down right now if you want to snag one before supplies run out. Outside high-end luxury cars, the Rivian R1T is one of the pricier vehicles to drive these days.

The Most Powerful ICE-Powered Pickup In The World

There are plenty of limited-run, performance-tuned, and one-off combustion-powered pickups out there that can beat the new Ford F-150 Raptor R on raw specs, including a special 785-hp model courtesy of none other than Shelby. But if you’re looking for something that can push your hairline back fresh off the factory floor, Ford’s bird of prey remains uncontested at 720 hp. Just in case you were wondering, the R stands for Racing, but rest assured, it’s street-legal.

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The base Raptor is already pretty impressive, cranking out 450 hp with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost 6-cylinder. This one hits 60 mph in a very respectable 5.6 seconds. But, obviously, the R is the star of the show, with a roaring V8 under the hood and zero to sixty times under four seconds. We don’t have the exact numbers, but the 700-hp 2023 Raptor R did the sprint in as little as 3.7 seconds, so any reasonable estimate would put the 2024 model just below that line.

If you’re wondering how all those horses translate to towing power… It’s not that kind of truck. The Raptor R can tow up to 8,700 lbs, which isn’t bad, but its non-track-oriented siblings can tow around 13,500 lbs. The Raptor R’s imposing 13 inches of ground clearance makes it an off-road beast, but a bit of an odd choice of work truck if you’re crazy enough to buy a hundred-thousand-dollar sports truck in hopes of putting it to the task on a construction site. But, it can pull a boat to the lake now and then with its very-capable Fox suspension system and seven drive modes.

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If you’re looking for a sports truck that can double as a daily driver, keep looking. The Raptor R gets a combined 12 miles to the gallon, combined, tapping out at just 10 MPG in the city, the same fuel economy delivered by the very first F-150 all the way back in 1975. The truck comes with a generous 36-gallon gas tank, making 432-mile trips possible on a single fill-up, but you’re not going to like looking at the number on the pump if you drive it anywhere besides to and from the track or dirt road.

Pricing for the Raptor R starts at $112,895, and that’s before add-ons and the delivery fee. So, whether you’re going with the all-electric or the gas-powered option, you’re going to be spending a pretty penny to crank those hp numbers up and 0-60s times down.