Practical towing experience using an EV.

Nickplymouth replied on 27/06/2021 11:18

Nickplymouth

Posted on 27/06/2021 11:18

Hi all,

I wondered if anybody has used an electric car for towing and has practical experience they can share?

I've used a hybrid recently and it's fine as of course I can top up with fuel nice and easily.

My main concern is charging on a longer trip. From what I can tell to charge at services, I am likely to need to park the caravan in the 'lorry' area then move the car to a charge point then back again after. I don't think this is possible at all service areas so might require the caravan to be taken to the normal car area, but still unhitched to allow charging.

I can cope with a little extra inconvenience, as I don't expect it to be an issue very often.

Thanks.

Nick.

83 replies

JVB66 replied on 12/08/2021 17:33

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Posted on 12/08/2021 15:57 by brue

By the time EVs or their counterparts become commonplace the charging at home problem probably won't exist. You manage at home without a petrol or diesel pump don't you? EV batteries are running for longer, regeneration is improving. There are various ideas coming along now that will solve home charging problems.

When ICE cars were first developed there was a similar challenge, no fuel available, not many surfaced roads either!

Posted on 12/08/2021 17:33

why would an ICE vehicle need a pump at home? as the equivalent of a battery is ready to fire the engine, without plugs(unless one has defective battery

JVB66 replied on 15/08/2021 10:25

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Posted on 15/08/2021 10:25

Just read the club are doing an evaluation of towing with a tesla and a Volvo hibrid starting tomorrow at Burrs site via Beechwood Grange and then to end up here at Cayton Village site

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ChocolateTrees replied on 15/08/2021 11:46

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Posted on 15/08/2021 10:25 by JVB66

Just read the club are doing an evaluation of towing with a tesla and a Volvo hibrid starting tomorrow at Burrs site via Beechwood Grange and then to end up here at Cayton Village site

Posted on 15/08/2021 11:46

Ooh - where was that posted?

JVB66 replied on 15/08/2021 19:56

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Posted on 15/08/2021 11:46 by ChocolateTrees

Ooh - where was that posted?

Posted on 15/08/2021 19:56

It is in news and events on the clubs website

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EmilysDad replied on 20/08/2021 23:06

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Posted on 11/08/2021 16:46 by ChocolateTrees

This is true, though the average domestic price is 16p per kWh inc VAT. Presumably The club as a large user will pay a reasonable market rate, and don't pay VAT. I am not at all averse to paying a premium over the clubs rate - I am averse to paying in a way that is not sensible for BEV.

How frequently you need to charge is of course down to how much you use. If you plan to drive 150 to 200 miles every day you are on site, you may use all of the juice you can gather. For me - it totally depends on the site and the regional location. On some site the car may not move from one day to another or even for several days in a row. On others I may use a few miles every day. My EV will up to 240ish miles on a single full charge if I drive sensibly. IF my driving is "spirited" it may be much less - just like with an ICE car. I would always want a full charge for the car to complete on the morning of departure for the journey home.

Hmm - Mr Martin's program. As you may (or may not) have seen, two elements of his program have provoked pretty significant responses from both EV supporters and those who are not sold on the idea. - The J'O'G trip, and his closing statement.

On J'O'G His experience was poorly conceived and poorly executed. As posted else where on these forums, I recently did a 600+ mile holiday with the caravan in tow for over 400 of those miles for about £50 of electricity. I actually used the same ultra-rapid 350Kw Ionity charger brand that Guy used for two of my charging stops, with a total cost of £21 for 83kWh of electricty between the two, at 30p per kWh. That would have equated to £100 for 1200 miles _while towing for 800_ which would have still been £40 less than the diesel cost while solo!

Just a little bit of planning, not driving with a mega-heavy right foot and using some of the tools available would have yielded a different result. But - Who tries to drive 1100 miles in 24 hours in any normal world anyway?

His closing statement that EVs are only good for up to 50 miles from home... Well lets say that almost every EV driver would disagree.

Posted on 20/08/2021 23:06

I've just got around to watching Guy Martin's run to JOG .... I'm not sure why you say he didn't plan the journey. His first stop was calculated on the original projected range but the battery was 'empty' way, way before hand, and when he tried to re-charge, he had problems with the charger (and it turned out that everyone else had had problems with it too..

Who tries to drive 1100 miles in 24hrs? ... Probably very few of us, but the option to do so with an ICE is there if you wanted to.

ChocolateTrees replied on 21/08/2021 00:41

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Posted on 20/08/2021 23:06 by EmilysDad

I've just got around to watching Guy Martin's run to JOG .... I'm not sure why you say he didn't plan the journey. His first stop was calculated on the original projected range but the battery was 'empty' way, way before hand, and when he tried to re-charge, he had problems with the charger (and it turned out that everyone else had had problems with it too..

Who tries to drive 1100 miles in 24hrs? ... Probably very few of us, but the option to do so with an ICE is there if you wanted to.

Posted on 21/08/2021 00:41

The reason I say he didn’t plan was 2 fold. 1) would you plan to drive a brand new petrol car at its advertised 56mph efficiency at 70mph for the distance delivered by the entirety of its fuel tank before refuelling? That’s the equivalent of what he did in the EV.

2) as you point out - it turned out that the charger he visited had already had problems. If he had planned, he would have know that before he left using the same tool that told him there was a problem.

There are also tools (like A better route planner) that will look at the real world range of your car, and the terrain, and then speed you plan to drive at, and tell you where to charge for best results. It’s not hard.

Can you do a 1100 mile journey in an EV in 24 hours. Sure - just plan it properly…

JohnM20 replied on 24/08/2021 16:15

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Posted on 24/08/2021 16:15

The repair speed, if an EV sustains an electrical fault, must be more acceptable. For example, my nephew has been told he won't see his £70,000 Jaguar E Pace for about six weeks whilst they sort out his charging problem. At present it appears that there is a great shortage of trained technicians who have to go from dealer to dealer assessing problems then ordering parts and returning at a later date to carry out the work. Nephew isn't a happy bunny !

Just an update from my post, above, of 6th August. My nephew is no nearer to getting his iPace back. The engineer has been to look at the car, shrugged his shoulders and said he doesn't know what's wrong. The next step is to connect the car (online) to the Jaguar factory at Gaydon to try to find the problem. Again, they don't know when this will be. He has to wait his turn in the queue. It depends on when the engineer can get back to the dealers where the car is languishing and when Gaydon can run the diagnostic test. Even less of a happy bunny now.

ChocolateTrees replied on 24/08/2021 17:09

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Posted on 24/08/2021 16:15 by JohnM20

The repair speed, if an EV sustains an electrical fault, must be more acceptable. For example, my nephew has been told he won't see his £70,000 Jaguar E Pace for about six weeks whilst they sort out his charging problem. At present it appears that there is a great shortage of trained technicians who have to go from dealer to dealer assessing problems then ordering parts and returning at a later date to carry out the work. Nephew isn't a happy bunny !

Just an update from my post, above, of 6th August. My nephew is no nearer to getting his iPace back. The engineer has been to look at the car, shrugged his shoulders and said he doesn't know what's wrong. The next step is to connect the car (online) to the Jaguar factory at Gaydon to try to find the problem. Again, they don't know when this will be. He has to wait his turn in the queue. It depends on when the engineer can get back to the dealers where the car is languishing and when Gaydon can run the diagnostic test. Even less of a happy bunny now.

Posted on 24/08/2021 17:09

While I feel for your nephew, please don't think that the terrible experience that he has clearly had with his I-Pace is indicative of all EVs. I know my experience with issues in cars has been very different between cars and manufacturers.

In a Chrysler Grand Voyager, I had a climate control issue that the dealer couldn't resolve in the entire 5 years I had the car, despite replacing all the elements associated with the climate system.

On the flip side, my EV had a routine software update while having a minor cosmetic issue fixed by my local dealer. The software update failed when one of the cameras in the car rejected it. They identified that root cause inside 24 hours, had a new camera dispatched from Sweden that day and fitted it and returned the car the day the camera arrived (which was slow due to import issues) . In the mean time they put me in an equivalent EV as a courtesy at zero cost to me.

As with all issues in cars - your experience is as much to do with the dealer and manufacturer as it is with the technology involved.

JohnM20 replied on 25/09/2021 09:42

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Posted on 25/09/2021 09:42

Further to the above post from 24th August and my original from 6th August, my nephew is no nearer getting his i Pace back from the garage. It has now been with them longer than he has owned it. They still don't know what the problem is but acknowledge that there is a problem.