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It needs the same size motor as the one used to drive it to the top. The forces are the same, just in the opposite direction.

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Apologies if it sounds too dumb, but on the descent you have additional mass of your cargo that needs to be opposed by equal amount of braking force (magnetic or otherwise), on the ascent you have an unladen truck which needs lesser energy to move. So essentially the magnet has to be sized for the descent not for the ascent. Or am I completely missing something?

It's not dumb at all.

But this truck would need to be able to back up, make u-turns, etc, while fully loaded.

So the motors must be strong enough to drive it uphill even when fully loaded, if only simply for the sake of positioning and maneuvers.

It weighs a lot more coming down, since it's full.

See my reply to the sister comment.

Ah, I see what you mean.

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