Electric vehicle (EV) vs diesel towing test – A look at EV towing now and into the future

Robert Pepper thoroughly tests out the realities of towing with an EV and also takes a look at EV towing both now and into the future. Make sure to check out the EV vs diesel towing test video further down!

Like it or not, electric vehicles (EVs) are taking over the world. Government after government are declaring that it will be illegal to sell internal combustion engined (ICE) vehicles after dates such as 2035, including the government of the Australian Capital Territory. Carmaker after carmaker is stating that their current vehicle release will be the last ICE vehicle made. And with these new cars comes a set of new words. If you’re unfamiliar with terms such as ICE, PHEV, or BEV, read my short EV jargon explainer.

For those who use cars as city runabouts, the change to electric is no problem at all. In fact, it’s most welcome news. EVs offer much lower running costs and an easier, simpler transport solution than ICE. Interstate trips are getting easier too. In 2019 it took me 17 hours to drive an EV from Melbourne to Adelaide however, in 2022, that same trip was just an hour longer than an ICE vehicle. EVs aren’t yet cost-effective for the average Aussie, but that’s changing quickly.

But if you’re reading this, then you need a vehicle to do more than nip down to the coffee shop, fetch groceries or make an annual trip to see the rellies in the next state. I’m going to assume you’re wanting to tow something, somewhere, and that “something” will be a trailer of at least 1500kg. That “somewhere” could be a destination several hundred if not thousands of kilometres away and often well away from the big cities.

EV towing now

So in this article, I’m going to explore what the advent of EVs means for those of us who tow. My credentials? I am an active 4X4 tourer and caravan tower and I’ve done many tow tests including two with electric vehicles. The most recent of which was carefully measured with two different tow cars and two different trailers and is, I believe, the most comprehensive in the world to date. So I’m bringing practical experience with actual test results, which I’ve also discussed with others who have done similar tests and some automotive engineers. In this article we’re going to look at the EV towing reality now and what might happen in the future.

Right now, no EV on the Australian market can tow very much. The Tesla X is the leader at 2250kg, which isn’t great, and it’s severely hampered by a 100kg maximum towball mass (TBM). I have tested it with a Tvan and we needed to play with the van’s weight distribution to get the TBM within limits. The Hyundai IONIQ5 that I tested has a 1600kg braked mass tow limit, but again a mere 100kg TBM. Those low TBMs will very much limit what trailers you can tow, and that’s even before we get into rear axle loads, GCM etc. Check out my towing weight calculator for more.

The problem with EV towing right now is how far you can pull

However, there are two important EVs now out in the USA market; the Rivian R1T ute and the Ford F-150, both of which can tow in excess of 3500kg. There is no technical reason an EV cannot tow as much as the equivalent ICE. It’s just that we’ve not seen many in the world and none yet in Australia. Similarly, there are no EV sports cars or people movers. So the problem with EV towing isn’t the ability to pull load – it’s how far you can pull.

Right now, the range of an EV is around 400-600 kilometres, as calculated by the WLTP which is equivalent to the ADR81/02 fuel consumption figures we use for ICE vehicles. And just as we do with ICE cars, take at least 10% off that (maybe 20% for real-world use), and that’s before you hook up a trailer.

We don’t speak of range for ICE vehicles, just fuel consumption. However, we can calculate an equivalent to the WLTP range figure for EVs by simply dividing the fuel tank size by consumption. That gives a typical range figure of 700-1200 kilometres for many ICE vehicles, far greater than EVs. The difference becomes even larger when you work on freeway cruising where EVs cannot effectively use their ability to recharge the batteries when slowing (regen), and ICE vehicles hum along at low, fuel-sipping revs. Conversely, the gap widens in favour of the EV when city stop/start traffic is considered as the EV can recover energy and uses next to nothing when stopped.

So what effect does towing have on an EV?

So what effect does towing have on an EV? Your first thought might be the same as ICE. Hook the same trailer to an EV as an ICE, watch the range on both drop by the same percentage. But that’s not the case. My tests, analysis and the work of others show that for any given trailer, the range of an EV drops by a much greater percentage than for an ICE vehicle. Why is this so? Relative aerodynamic efficiency is the short answer; for the longer answer watch the video just a little further down.

The range of the F-150 and Rivian is around 500 kilometres, and we could reasonably expect towing a caravan of 2500kg+ that would drop by 50% to around 250km. However, you need to find a charger before you run out, so a 200km range is about what you may expect. And that’s nowhere near enough. To prove my point, in the video below I show you what we towed, where, how and the data we gathered.

So the range is one EV towing problem. Are there any others? Well, no. Range aside, I can’t think of any way in which an EV is not superior, and significantly so compared to an ICE vehicle for towing, and I run through a few of them in the video.

Problems with EV charging in Australia right now

Now one way to fix range is to simply charge more frequently. It’s slower, but you’ll get there. And here we run into a couple of problems, at least for the moment.

The first is the speed of charging. The average road car EV has a battery of around 50 to 100kWh, usually more like 70. As I found in my 2000km roadtrip in a Hyundai IONIQ5, a DC fast charger will zip a modern EV from around 20% to 80% charge in under half an hour, and then off you zoom. However, the sort of EV that is going to tow a decent sized caravan, two-horse trailer, ski boat or similar will have a battery more like 130kWh…which will take longer to charge. And, you’re going to need to charge to 100%. This will be a problem as charging an EV from 80-100% takes longer than from about 20 to 80%, which is why many owners only go to 80%.

We also need to consider charging infrastructure.

Take a look at this:

Those brown points are EV fast charger locations. The top map is Australia, the bottom is Belgium. The scale is the same.

You can see that in Europe, it’s actually hard to find a place where you’re more than 50km from your nearest fast charger. Not so in Australia…and remember, I centred that map on Australia’s second most populous city.

It is very, very easy to drive out of DC fast charger range when towing with an EV in Australia, and that’s a problem. The idea of slow-charging a 130kWh battery depleted by towing is not appealing.

Also, I’m yet to find an EV charging point that is trailer-friendly.

Try a shopping centre:

So the reality is that the EVs of 2022 aren’t realistic options for Australian long-distance towers because there are very few that can tow, those that can tow have limited capacity, and the charging infrastructure isn’t anywhere near what it needs to be either. Today’s EVs cannot do the job of a diesel 4X4.

EV towing into the future

But that is now, mid-2022. The world is changing rapidly and EVs will surely replace ICE as towcars. Here’s what will happen.

First, we will get vehicles like the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian 4X4s which are true heavy-towers, and in the case of the Rivian, a true offroader. This could be within a year or two.

Second, we need, and will get, a step-change in battery performance. I suspect solid-state batteries will be that step. They offer 2-3 times the energy density of today’s batteries. So, imagine an electric Ranger with a range of 1300 kilometres between charges. Halve and a bit that, and you can tow say 500km. That’s more like it. And that may only be four years away.

Third, we need fast chargers everywhere, as they have in Europe. I think that’s coming too; every month there are more chargers coming online. Oh wait, can we generate enough electricity? Well, localised supply issues aside, watch this:

But some time in the next ten to fifteen years it will become a moot point, because all you can buy is an EV, and by that time, EV touring can and will be a reality.

Your choice will be sit and home and reminisce about the good old days, or do what we’ve always done and get out there anyway using what you’ve got. I know where I’ll be. How about you?