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oddIdentities • yesterday at 9:07 PM • 6 replies • view on HN

>Towing with an EV is terrible

Why?


Replies

porphyra • yesterday at 9:11 PM

I explained this in my other comment but I'll paste it here:

The thing is that ICE vehicles are so inefficient to begin with, but a towed trailer needs the same amount of energy regardless of what is towing it. Imagine a trailer takes 1 unit of energy to move, and ICE truck takes 5 units to move itself, and EV truck takes 1 unit to move itself.

The ICE truck towing it would go from 5 units to 6 units, reducing the range by 16%.

The EV truck would now go from 1 unit to 2 units, reducing the range by 50%.

So the better your efficiency, the worse you are at towing. Ideally EV trucks would have such a huge battery that even when the range is reduced by 50%, it is still as long as a gas truck's range, but modern battery technology is still too sucky to achieve this.

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shhsshs • yesterday at 9:15 PM

The charging port is on the rear of the Cybertruck, which means if you have a trailer attached, you would have to find a charger with a long enough cable, or one that lets you pull all the way through.

If the charging port were on the front of the vehicle, you could pull straight in, but now your trailer is probably blocking traffic.

Of course you could disconnect and reconnect the trailer, which adds an extra 5-10 extra minutes to your 15-40 minute charge time depending on your battery level.

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some-guy • yesterday at 9:51 PM

Aging Wheels on YouTube basically concluded that EV towing from a handling perspective is actually quite superior, but the charging and range is so much worse that depending on what you're doing it's likely a dealbreaker.

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cj • yesterday at 9:13 PM

How do I pull into a charging station when I'm towing a camper?

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petre • yesterday at 9:13 PM

Range is cut in half for starters.