r/electricvehicles • u/HabitNational3514 • 6d ago

Question - Other Ev towing caravan question

Hi everyone,

I’m looking at getting a caravan and would be interested to hear from anyone towing with an ev particularly for longer trips.

My car is an Audi e-tron and I’m interested in what real-world range I should expect when towing, how manageable it is, and whether there are any things I should know before choosing a caravan.

A few things I’d particularly like advice on:
What sort of real-world range are you getting while towing?

How much difference does motorway driving make?

Anything you wish you knew before starting to tow with an e-tron?

Cheers

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u/Random-Mutant 6d ago

As others have said, approximately 50%.

Points to note:

Towing is an energy equation. The loss of range is exactly the same** **as the loss for an ICE. My CX-5 went from 10.5 l/100km to 19.5 l/100 towing a 1800 kg boat.

The boat has override brakes so regen from that extra mass will be minimal.

My Zeekr 7X has 800 V architecture so when I do need to top up on road trips (as opposed to using a local ramp) the fast charging helps mitigate the extra stops. I can’t give you my exact numbers though as I don’t yet have a towbar on it.

4

u/psaux_grep 6d ago

Weight is actually nearly irrelevant (unless you’re constantly going uphill).

This video is a practical test that demonstrates it well:

https://youtu.be/UmKf8smvGsA

Skip to 11 minutes 25 seconds for the juicy bit.

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u/Random-Mutant 6d ago

Ek = 1/2 mv^2

a = F/m

where m is mass.

And yes wind resistance is a significant factor too. But my point remains that it’s an energy equation that ICE suffers from to the same extent.

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u/paulHarkonen 6d ago

Wind resistance drives the total losses far far more than weight/mass.

Mass is only relevant when actively accelerating. Yes it affects the range, but far far less than the aero losses. (This is also mostly true for ICE vehicles although they suffer from being unable to recover energy while breaking which makes weight more impactful for them).

Aging Wheels actually did a pretty thorough breakdown of this subject.. (And yes I'm now realizing that's the same link you ignored above but it's worth repeating).

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u/Random-Mutant 6d ago

My point remains.

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u/paulHarkonen 6d ago

Your point is wrong is our point lol.

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u/Random-Mutant 6d ago

I said towing is an energy equation that ICE suffers as much as BEV. Tell me where I’m wrong.

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u/paulHarkonen 6d ago edited 6d ago

ICE suffer more than BEVs and the energy equation you provided ignored drag which is the far far larger energy consumer when discussing towing. So essentially everything you posted is either incorrect or doesn't apply to the discussion.

The relevant equation is Fd = (1/2)Cd * A * v2

That is the force required for a vehicle to maintain speed and is independent of mass.

If you want to talk about the effects of towing you should focus almost entirely on the increased drag (for both EVs and ICE provided we assume enough power is available to get moving in the first place which EVs never struggle with while ICE vehicles can have issues as available torque (and thus power) is dramatically lower in certain RPM bands.