Will Towing Affect Electric Truck Range? How To Maximize

Everything inside an electric truck is powered with electricity, including its propulsion. Unfortunately unlike a gas powered truck, an electric truck’s only source of electricity is its batteries. They are used for everything that is powered on the truck and in turn takes away from the range of the truck’s ability to drive further on one charge.

On average, about 50% of the normal range can be lost when towing something with an electric truck. The more weight is added to the towed trailer the more power it will require to tow it which will take away from the range available. Most electric trucks are able to calculate the range left based on the tow details and the topography of the road trip.

Normally the EPA rating that calculates a truck’s range includes 1000lb. of additional weight to account for passengers and other items a truck may have in it. Based on that calculation, planning to only have half of it available when towing a trailer and planning ahead where to re-charge is critical for a successful and problem-free trip.

How Is Towing Range Calculated?

There is lots of confusing calculations required to figure out the towing range of an electric truck and it can vary so much that it becomes un-important to an average consumer. If you are a car designer, then yes, you need to know all that. For a regular EV drivers there are a few things you need to keep in mind to be aware what will affect it, but your best friend is the truck’s own range estimation on the dashboard and also keeping in mind that as a rule, if you are towing, expect half the normal range and plan on that.

If most of your trip is up-hill, then expect to lose as much as 66% of your regular range. The cool thing is, if most of your trip is down-hill, you may never need to charge and in fact, when you are done with your trip, you may have more range left that what you started with – because of the regenerative breaking on electric trucks. When going down hill, the truck recharges the batteries instead of using them.

In the video below, Ricky from Two Bit da Vinci, explains in a brain painful way all the details of what can affect the range of an electric vehicle and even compares it to a gas powered vehicle. What I learned from watching it is that although a gallon of gas has more power than what a gallon of gas equivalent of electric power, geas-powered vehicles only use 30% of the energy compared to electric vehicles that use up to 85%. In other words, electric vehicles are more efficient with use of the energy they have.

Having said that, electric vehicles are more sensitive to changes in the environment they are driving in. Things like aerodynamics of the truck, aerodynamics of the trailer the is being pulled, additional load in the truck, road quality, up-hill, down-hill, size of wheels and tires even if you are playing music while driving or have AC on.

A gas powered truck may loose about 30% of its range at the worst, if everything is working against it. But when these things are encountered by an electric truck, especially when driving, you can lose up to 66% of your range.

How to Increase Range Of An Electric Truck While Towing?

So what can you do to increase the range of an electric truck? Unfortunately not too much simply because that is the nature of the electric vehicle. Aside from being mindful about what you really need on the trip and lightening the load, picking out better roads to drive on and picking out a trip that has less up-hill climbs will be the extent of your control over it. Other small things you can do is opt to not listen to the radio, not use heated seats, and turn off the AC or climate control. What about turning down the brightness of the dashboard display? Is there anything else you can turn off for the duration of your trip? With electric vehicles, the less power you use, the more range you gain.

Before you even get your electric truck, think about aerodynamics. Is it slick and pointy or is it blocky and massive? Picking out one that looks like it would be more aerodynamic can help with towing range. Same goes with the trailer you pick out. Select the one that looks more aerodynamic.

We are spoiled with the gar and diesel powered trucks that we don’t think about these things. There is so much power that comes with them we don’t consider the little things. But with the new electric revolution comes new ways of thinking. We will have to be more economical and consider the things we never thought about before or maybe accepted as ok. Even picking out a smaller trailer instead of the biggest one available.

Instead of picking out a 40′ trailer, think, do I really need such a huge trailer? Maybe getting a 29′ or even a tear-drop one is enough for the 1 or 2 times you are planning to go camping per year? Instead of carrying everything you own to the beach, maybe all you need is a beach chair and a sandwich. The less you have to haul, the smaller the trailer is, the farther you can reach on one charge.

What Can An Electric Truck Tow?

Just like a gas-powered truck, an electric truck can tow just about anything, in fact probably more just because it is more powerful than an average gas-powered pickup truck. I can’t say much for the range you can tow it but it can definitely pull more.

You can tow a jet-ski or a boat behind any electric truck on the market today.

You can tow a dump trailer or a car dolly with a car on it.

You can tow a travel trailer, from a small tear-drop variety up to a fill size house on wheels.

You can tow a horse trailer and deliver those horses to the show.

You can tow a flat bed trailer with another truck on it.

You can tow another truck behind it to help out a friend in need.

As you can see, just about anything you can think of, an electric truck will do the job as well as or better than any half ton truck and reaching into the 3/4 ton abilities. Having said that, if you have some serious towing to do or needing to do this long term, I would still get a diesel truck and stop playing around.

 

 

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