Towing tested with 6,000lb Tesla and trailer load

[Art O'Connor]

Someone else posted the real numbers. With an 8 month backlog, you would think GM would be really cranking them out. So many snub their noses at EV's. My own brother is one. I did NOT get the X because it was "green". I got it because it had comfortable seats, very quiet and smooth ride. lots of room and mucho power. It will be a great land surveying vehicle. Well, maybe because of the falcon wing doors, too.

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[Gigahorse]

You guys are getting all bent out of shape on the earliest models. 4680 next gen battery is coming soon, v4's will actually come on line, and all of this gnashing of teeth will have been long forgotten.

I mean the earliest models are the only ones available, not like we have a choice of battery chemistry when ordering. The V4 chargers are coming but years out before they are readily available.

 

[DelPhonic1]

Someone else posted the real numbers. With an 8 month backlog, you would think GM would be really cranking them out. So many snub their noses at EV's. My own brother is one. I did NOT get the X because it was "green". I got it because it had comfortable seats, very quiet and smooth ride. lots of room and mucho power. It will be a great land surveying vehicle. Well, maybe because of the falcon wing doors, too.

I got the X Plaid because it was green.

 

[CyberTruckeeTheOne]

Someone else posted the real numbers. With an 8 month backlog, you would think GM would be really cranking them out. So many snub their noses at EV's. My own brother is one. I did NOT get the X because it was "green". I got it because it had comfortable seats, very quiet and smooth ride. lots of room and mucho power. It will be a great land surveying vehicle. Well, maybe because of the falcon wing doors, too.

You forgot the most important one: chick magnet.

But I understand, wifey must be in the forum too!

 

[Woodrick]

The Service Center Manager agreed it was probably a software issue cleared by the reset. Regen braking works great, now. I DID navigate to the charger. Thanks for pointing out that will pre-condition the battery. If I don't navigate, I will make sure to manually pre-condition.

You can't manually precondition. You have to either route to a Supercharger or create a route that requires you to stop at a Supercharger. AFAIK.

 

[Woodrick]

I mean the earliest models are the only ones available, not like we have a choice of battery chemistry when ordering. The V4 chargers are coming but years out before they are readily available.

Probably wrong on the first count. I believe that we are on at least "Gen 2"
V4 chargers are going to be appearing like wildfires.
I saw today where the US was adding like 140 chargers per day. Tesla has a Gigafactory in New York cranking these things out.

 

[Gigahorse]

Probably wrong on the first count. I believe that we are on at least "Gen 2"
V4 chargers are going to be appearing like wildfires.
I saw today where the US was adding like 140 chargers per day. Tesla has a Gigafactory in New York cranking these things out.

"Probably wrong on the first count. I believe that we are on at least "Gen 2""
Not sure how you would know that but would be cool if it was the case.

140 chargers per day, including destination chargers, electrify America, etc.
Last time I looked at the map of V4 chargers there were not many pins on the map, any idea how many of those 140 chargers per day are V4, and how many there have been in the US over the last 12 months? Think both of those numbers are pretty low. Sure hope they ramp quickly.

 

[VDR]

Slightly more weight and significantly larger trailer resulted in significantly worse range unfortunately. At least 5 towing range tests in now with the average point to sub 100 miles of range with 80%+ of battery pack used

Link?

 

[Gigahorse]

Link?

Full video will be out in a couple days and will post a link once it is released to the public. May make a new thread in order to keep things a little cleaner

 

[niner]

"Probably wrong on the first count. I believe that we are on at least "Gen 2""
Not sure how you would know that but would be cool if it was the case.

140 chargers per day, including destination chargers, electrify America, etc.
Last time I looked at the map of V4 chargers there were not many pins on the map, any idea how many of those 140 chargers per day are V4, and how many there have been in the US over the last 12 months? Think both of those numbers are pretty low. Sure hope they ramp quickly.

Don't have the video handy and not sure ill be able to remember which one it was tbh, but in one of the cyber review videos a Tesla engineer said the current cyber cell is gen 2.3 and being made in Fremont

 

[Gigahorse]

Don't have the video handy and not sure ill be able to remember which one it was tbh, but in one of the cyber review videos a Tesla engineer said the current cyber cell is gen 2.3 and being made in Fremont

Ah nice, I am definitely hoping the batteries going in the trucks that are soon to be produced are the newer versions which will net MUCH better charging curves and hopefully some more range.
At this point we really need some good news as far as the CT goes and a battery leap would help a LOT.

 

[Saygmo]

Maybe the reason the beast isn’t available until summer ish is they are waiting for better cells and right now they are binning them like cpu manufacturers do or something. Since the amp demand is so much higher for the beast version.

 

[Gigahorse]

Maybe the reason the beast isn’t available until summer ish is they are waiting for better cells and right now they are binning them like cpu manufacturers do or something. Since the amp demand is so much higher for the beast version.

That is a tough one.

On one hand I would hope they wouldn't be waiting for battery tech while they pump out FS trucks that are getting low range.

On the other hand I selfishly hope that is the case so that when these new batteries land I can get a Cybertruck that has a more realistic range.

 

[Woodrick]

Maybe the reason the beast isn’t available until summer ish is they are waiting for better cells and right now they are binning them like cpu manufacturers do or something. Since the amp demand is so much higher for the beast version.

Or more probably, they want to simplify the line and get a bunch of AWDs on the streets first. Similar to the way that the delivered the Model 3 and Model Y.

 

[Kingdom1st]

TLDR With a medium weight and pretty aerodynamic load the AWD CT can tow for 90-165 miles if using 100% of the battery pack. Or if using 75% of the battery pack which is typical about 68-119 miles of towing range.
This is in line with the reports of the CT having about 200 miles of real world range, when not towing.


*edit This 4th towing test is in, best one yet as far as completeness of info etc so removed some of the previous ones to remove post clutter and backlash but kept the averages for reasonable tests, this one is more complete and shows better range potential when towing.

*A couple more edits and minor info additions*

AWD CT with Factory Tires
Temperature 61 f (no rain, sunny)
Round trip of 111 miles - round trip eliminates wind/elevation impacts for the most part
Fan only for HVAC
Towing Tesla and Trailer (approximately 6,000 lbs)
Truck felt heavy/slow/and breaking was noticeably slower, and road noise was significant
Started trip with vehicle at Tesla V3 supercharger at 84% SOC
Vault cover left open for ability to see trailer and tags
Charging option is dropping trailer, or taking up 5 stalls
The recharge to full took about two hours (battery was not preconditioned)
Under 450lbs of additional payload weight (humans/camers/etc)
Mix of city and low speed highway, kept under 65mph and hit a fair amount of stop and go traffic
Overall test was far from perfect, forgot to check trailer tire pressure, some breaking was needed so not ideal regen, but test had a lot going for it to be on the general side of range. Trailer used was not a premium trailer but a decent option and decent aero load, about half of towing capacity, warm weather, battery warmed up, etc. So not much room for range improvement unless towing a skateboard. Hopefully a SIGNIFICANT software and battery chemistry change from Tesla is coming to improve these towing and non-towing #s

Trip stats
111 miles on round trip
Wh/mile 665-830

*Edit
Tow test #5 this time with Cyberbeast.
7,400lb full size camping trailer in decent conditions.
Full vid coming but sub 100 mile range

Most test results coming in are using a uhal trailer with easy to find stats, but not all.

So if taking the CT from 100% to close to zero towing a 6,000 lb pretty aero efficient Tesla on mostly town roads and some highway CT towing range is approximately 90-150 miles in very good/mild towing conditions using the whole battery.
But a real world use of 75% of the battery pack gives the CT towing a modest load about 68-113 miles of usable range. Based on a total of 4 range tests with the one above being the most comprehensive and complete.
With a bigger load and higher speeds could be looking at as little as 50 miles of towing range with current data available.

Not a perfect comparison but early impression overall it looks like the CT performed a bit better than the Rivian R1T simular tests as far as total range loss when towing which is good.

Post is getting a little friction, believe me I wish the towing #s from these tests were better.
Not everyone needs to tow, but saying "why would you think you could tow with an EV truck" seems a little off given the adverting from tesla, some screenshots of that below...

TLDR
CT AWD Towing real world range with good conditions is about 90-150 miles.
In line with real world CT range of about 210 miles.

Was the vault closed in the camper tow test? It was annoying the guy didn’t close it cuz he was afraid of getting pulled over. That killed the aerodynamics. EV towing is already bad enough so I’d love to see that test again with it closed.

Someone should test with a pop up camper. They are super low profile and I think are the best camper option for towing with an EV. Mine weighs 3300lbs but has 2 king beds and a full when popped up. The aero in it behind CT is prob best you can find

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