Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
The towing angle is a bit of a red herring meant to make EV trucks look bad. Sure, in real world testing the Rivian RT or Ford Lightning sees their ranges cut in half when towing 7-9,000 pounds, but a Ford F-150 in similar testing towing only 7,000 pounds sees its MPG drop from an EPA expectation of 20 MPG to a very unimpressive 11 mpg, or a 45% drop in range. And the Ram 1500 sees a drop of 50% from 24 MPG to around 12. It's the nature of towing.
This is a known problem with towing, which is why Airstream is actually prototyping a travel trailer with electric propulsion capability (eStream). This will be the future of all long haulers IMO. Propulsion and battery storage in the bed of the trailer which will extend the range dramatically and probably provide longer ranges as the tech is improved. This whole story that EVs suck at towing is bad narrative that tells only half the story. Combustion engines suck at even worse, especially when it comes to towing up grade or getting the package to speed. It's why locomotives use electric propulsion and not diesel engines to drive the wheels. Range is cut in half for almost all vehicles engaged in towing. This shouldn't be a surprise.
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Totally agree with everything you are saying, but for hauling a trailer it's the 20-40 minute stops when working chargers still are a bit hard to find every 150-250km that are a significant challenge compared to the gas fillup every 250km that are very easy to find.
I think my next vehicle will be a F150 lightning and I've had a plug in hybrid minivan for 4 years, but if I had a holiday trailer I'm not sure I'd buy an electric truck yet for that very reason. I think in about 5 years or so it's be a non issue though