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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No, towing is a real issue with an EV, given all the stops for charging. And you aren't doing a quick 20 minute charge in a full size truck towing(and nevermind the space needed to facilitate that). If you need to tow, an EV makes little sense. But not that many people need to tow.
And the Airstream idea, in a world of infinite resources might make sense. But adding a massive battery to something you use a handful of times a year is wasteful.
Are there solutions? Sure. But they are far from ideal, and it's OK if some use cases aren't solved yet. It's not a big deal, no need to pretend the problem isn't a problem. I don't think we should be spending money and research on edge cases.