Does anyone have an electric car they use as a towing vehicle? I'm just wondering if its a good idea to do this, and how it's worked out for anyone who has tried it?
Can I tow a caravan with an electric car?
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Search for posts by Tobes, he's got three electric vehicles and the Polestar is the EV tow car.
The answer is yes with some, but the range will be poor and you will generally have to unhook the caravan to recharge which also means finding somewhere for the caravan when you do. The cars that will tow tend to be large and less budget friendly so it also depends on your finances.
At the moment there are plenty of hybrids that can tow and possibly they are the best compromise at the moment.
At the moment there are plenty of hybrids that can tow and possibly they are the best compromise at the moment.
There are some cracking EVs out there that can tow; Tobes gets 120safe miles out of his Polestar before a charge up and the Tesla X can tow 2200kg; the heavier the van the less the range of course and the faster you drive too. Kia EV 6 Hyundai Ioniq tow 1500kg too and because of the fantastic torque from zero , weight and low c of g of the batteries reports are they make great tow cars if you can live with the range-if you need to charge en route . Well let's just say that's work in progress; Tesla chargers are amazing and reliable, not so for other makes and you can't use MR T's unless they are 'destination chargers' ie at a hotel etc. He is hinting he might open his network to the rest of us though. If you need to charge and tow you will find you'll need to park the caravan , unhook and take the car for its charge since chargers aren't placed to incorporate a towed vehicle as yet!
Basically read the 'how will towing affect my mpg' post. It affects EVs in the same way-Tobes found 50% a bit pessimistic but it's maybe a good place to start!
Basically read the 'how will towing affect my mpg' post. It affects EVs in the same way-Tobes found 50% a bit pessimistic but it's maybe a good place to start!
Just the two electric - the Polestar BEV and PHEV Volvo.
Absolutely - best car and tow car I have ever had. Range towing is between 120 and 130 full to empty. I towed about 1600 miles with it last season. If you have the means to have one, and its sufficient to tow your caravan, and you don't mind stopping every 2 hours or so to recharge, they can be excellent and economical.
Have a look at this post for a full trip report (258 miles each way to the lakes last year).
Towing with an EV - trip report
Warning - Very long post alert! Towcar - Polestar 2 LongRange Dual motor Launch edition. (300kW motors (408ps) , 78kWh battery) Caravan - Bailey Unicorn Vigo S3 Max weight upgrade. 2 Passengers on way - me and SWMBO - 4 on return (daughters joined us mid trip). Start - Towcester in South...
Have just spent some time researching this topic and the result was very limited and you may have to restrict your choice on caravans. May or may not be suitable...
What we ended up doing was buying a plug-in hybrid. Has a claimed 45 miles full electric capability which will 100% cover the daily commute to work and back for next to nothing. Still has a 2.5L petrol for towing and long range without stopping. From what I can understand the car can be run in "generator" mode which will run the engine but drive on electric where the engine is exclusively used to recharge the batteries. How that will work remains to be seen.
We chose a Suzuki Across (delivery in the coming week). It's essentially a RAV4. 1500kg towing capacity
What we ended up doing was buying a plug-in hybrid. Has a claimed 45 miles full electric capability which will 100% cover the daily commute to work and back for next to nothing. Still has a 2.5L petrol for towing and long range without stopping. From what I can understand the car can be run in "generator" mode which will run the engine but drive on electric where the engine is exclusively used to recharge the batteries. How that will work remains to be seen.
We chose a Suzuki Across (delivery in the coming week). It's essentially a RAV4. 1500kg towing capacity
I saw an Across some while back and looked it up saw it was effectively a RAV 4. Suzuki also do another car which is a rebadged Toyota. What surprised me was that the list price of both Suzukis were higher than the Toyota and the warranty was three years compared to Toyota’s five years. Has that changed now? It’s interesting how these smaller companies are using Toyota designs. The new Subaru Sollerta BEV is the effctively the same car as the new all electric Toyota bzx4, even down to a recall over wheels coming off.
Toyota are part-owner of both Subaru and Suzuki, hence the joint developments - they also own Daihatsu outright.
Thanks I was aware of the commercial arrangements. Suzuki also have a joint venture with Maruti, and despite their recent successful comeback to MotoGP are planning to cease at the end of the 2022 season. Hard pressed financially perhaps?
Toyota now do a 'if you service it with us you get a years warranty ' which carries on for 10 years now-on the face of it seems great.
If you continue with Toyota servicing they give annual extensions on battery up to 15 years. They must have considerable confidence in the battery. But there again they have far longer than other manufacturers given they introduced hybrid power into the Prius and some Lexus many moons ago. Whether the extended battery warranty will carry through to their new full EV remains to be seen.
Toyota Warranty | Toyota Car Warranty | Toyota UK
At Toyota, we take great pride in the quality and reliability of our vehicles. Discover Toyota Relax - up to 10 years (100,000 miles) Toyota warranty.
www.toyota.co.uk
The list price of the Suzuki is higher only if you compare it to the lowest spec RAV4. Suzuki only offer one model and it is better than the lowest RAV4.
The Suzuki is by default fitted with all the electronics, lane keep assist, blind spot warning, automatic cruise control etc. It also has 19" rims. That is all inline with the top spec RAV4 making it considerably cheaper.
As for the warranty, it's 3 years by default for both. I'm in Sweden and there is no "up to 10 years" warranty for either. Even in the UK that is conditional on servicing at Toyota. The default remains 3 years, not 5.
The Suzuki had one big advantage over the rest. Stock.... Can either order a Toyota plug-in and continue spending £400+ / month on fuel in the current 2013 RAV4 or take a Suzuki with immediate delivery. No brainer when dealers can't give an estimate on delivery dates
Thanks for the update. I hadn’t appreciated that Toyota had changed their UK warranty from five back to three years. Doesn’t seem a good move when Kia and Hyundai both offer warranties longer than three years. Probably make no difference to business or fleet users. However Toyota’s new Relax warranty scheme accepts cars that haven’t been serviced by Toyota dealers but will give a rolling 12 month warranty up to 10 years and battery to 15 years, which could be attractive to subsequent owners.
The thought of unhitching, securing the caravan wherever and applying all the Insurer security wheel clamps etc , rehitching etc doesn’t float my boat.
Whenever we stopped at motorway services here or in Europe we never left the caravan without one of us staying with it.
It's often said that EV charging can be done while you have a meal - that's twice as long for caravanners if they always leave one to "guard" the caravan.
We don't subscribe to that, going together on the rare occasion we stop at services for longer than a comfort break - but both car and caravan are alarmed, hitched together and the hitchlock is on - I wouldn't want to leave the caravan unattached and unoccupied because an EV was charging.
Our routine was for my wife to go into the services whilst I gave the dogs a comfort walk within easy view and reach of the caravan. I would use the caravan facilities and my wife would then return so we could eat, either with food purchased in the services or with something packed for the journey. Putting car into an EV charging point would not change that given the car could look after itself and notify by the phone app when charging is near completed. So it is still only the caravan that would be safeguarded.
That’s precisely what we do. Find a spot for the van and unhitch, then get the car on charge. Then use the van as a base for each of us to head to the loo, and choose food, or to use for picnic.
I was referring to rare occasions when we have a cooked meal at services, like Tebay on the way to Scotland. If we're just taking sandwiches, we avoid service areas altogether where possible and use pre-researched lay-bys that are "off-road".
in my view, EV towing will restrict daily towing mileage so that meals aren't an issue - no more 9 hours driving in a day - at least not without taking ALL day with charging breaks.
If I was on a motorway journey I cannot see the point of leaving the motorway to have sandwiches. We would just pull into the motorway services and park up in the designated bays. If they were full then we would use the HGV parking areas. What I would do is use GE to review the service area layout to ensure that you could go from the designated caravan/motorhome bays and into the HGV parking if necessary without being “ ejected “ from the services before you reached the HGV parking.
How we look forward to our full Scottish Breakfasts at Tebay👍240 miles 4.5 hours from home non stop. So the car park is to the South of the buildings, the fuel station to the North. I don’t think you can drive back to the South car park. One way? How do I get my caravan back🤪🤪
There are two charging points northbound just opposite the left turn into the caravan parking area. You can also access six southbound chargers from the northbound directions too. You can access south and north via the service road.
So you full Scottish is future proofed.
but your heart may not be.filling-station
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