JerryRigEverything: How far can the CYBERTRUCK tow 11,000lbs in Freezing Weather?

[Gigahorse]

I don't know how to tell you this... but it would never have "crushed" them. If you do the math, 72 miles from a 320 mile pack would only have been 112 miles on a "500 mile" pack. EV range is, unfortunately, very disconnected from reality.

That math works if you have today's towing numbers and hindsight.
Back then the efficiency of the CT was assumed or hoped to be better, along with better battery tech that would allow for better truck usage.

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[Gigahorse]

don't know how I missed that, will edit

Yea he said "beast" a lot, but that truck from OurCyberLife is an AWD and there are on-screen edits in the video with "AWD"

 

[agordon117]

That math works if you have today's towing numbers and hindsight.
Back then the efficiency of the CT was assumed or hoped to be better, along with better battery tech that would allow for better truck usage.

You didn't need today's hindsight to know that "500 miles" was never real world miles. That information was known well in advance of 2019. It was not difficult to know that if you got "500 miles", you'd probably end up with 300 real world miles in winter. And less than that towing. You'd need a 400kWh pack to get the kind of numbers you seem to have been expecting.

 

[scottf200]

That was some hilarious inserts (with screen comparisons) of the other EV trucks he did for comparisons. I *think* he has two kids now so he must have borrowed that mic

 

[scottf200]

a) Part way into the trip data (44 miles)
b) At supercharger arrival. (90 miles) [note: they lowered speed to 60 and then 55 as they didn't think they were going to make it ... arrived at 2%] -- Hilarious that they could have swapped places if the ran out of juice and had the e-Hummer pull the Cybertruck on the trailer.

UPDATE: ignore Trip A comments in 1st graphic since it includes some towing that was in Trip B.

 

[Gigahorse]

You didn't need today's hindsight to know that "500 miles" was never real world miles. That information was known well in advance of 2019. It was not difficult to know that if you got "500 miles", you'd probably end up with 300 real world miles in winter. And less than that towing. You'd need a 400kWh pack to get the kind of numbers you seem to have been expecting.

Yea I think most were prepared to take the EV haircut of 20% of the reported range.
But at 500+ I think most people assumed they would get 350-400 miles of real world range (no sub 200 like we are seeing) and would be able to tow 200+ miles, (not the sub 100 we are seeing).

I think about 1% of the frustration comes from "EVs report more mileage than you are likely going to get" and 99% of it is from "500+ miles of range to 310, which is really 180, not the 250 expected with EV math"

 

[Mstrickrott]

So with that same environment and towing conditions with a battery pack range extender would be ~122miles with rumors saying that the range extender is $16k it’s a funny coincidence that for every 1K you spend on range extender you get 2 extra miles of range. ???‍

 

[ÆCIII]

Considering the cold temperatures and maximum load, I'm not that disappointed. The temperature on screen was slightly above freezing at 34° Fahrenheit, but the battery was likely colder from sitting outside all night many hours in the colder temps.

I would be curious to know if the Rivian and F150L had been sitting outside with those same cold temps before their tests.

I also wonder how the Cybertruck would do on the same cold day, towing once more after the first trip and recharge, starting with the battery warmed up. Of course, that's not always realistic but I would be curious to see what difference that would make.

I think this was a decent test but I look at it as one of the worst case scenarios too, with maximum load, cold battery, and cold temperatures. I think towing results can likely go up a little from these.

- ÆCIII

 

[agordon117]

Yea I think most were prepared to take the EV haircut of 20% of the reported range.
But at 500+ I think most people assumed they would get 350-400 miles of real world range (no sub 200 like we are seeing) and would be able to tow 200+ miles, (not the sub 100 we are seeing).

I think about 1% of the frustration comes from "EVs report more mileage than you are likely going to get" and 99% of it is from "500+ miles of range to 310, which is really 180, not the 250 expected with EV math"

20% is not real though. In my model y I end up with 40% of the dashboard range in winter on the highway. Not losing 40%, actually 40% of the "326 miles". That calculus, again, has not changed. Only charge to 90% (which now is recommended to be 80), then you lose range heating stuff, then you lose range due to dense air... I get like 140 miles on a charge. But that's not new information, is my entire point. And in the summer, I get like 220 miles. This leaves me, someone who did the real world testing and logged data on my driving, very pleased with the performance of the cybertruck on the highway at 39F. I had always figured that heating the cabin would take a lesser percentage of "mileage" when it costs more to push the vehicle a mile, and that seems to be true. So I'm both disappointed by the lack of "500+ mile" battery, but also pleased by the real world range vs the dashboard range.

Also, people who had any expectations of towing... not sure how to address that. At the time, there was not much towing data to go from, but there also was no promised towing range. So, yes it sucks, but it wasn't an expectation that came from anywhere logical. Just a wish that people had.

All I'm trying to say is, you can be disappointed about how a thing ended up without having to come at it from illogical places.

 

[Longranger]

Ouch!! We knew towing near maximum capacity in the cold would result in low range. The unfinished state of the towing software surprises me more. Will have to remove that rear view mirror ASAP.

 

[scottf200]

Well, I also heard him say that it was a beast, which gets even worse range than an awd (which would likely have been the correct comparison to dual motor lightning and rivian). But, I'm not gonna nitpick that since the 2019 expectation was better range on the beast.

Seems it was actually an awd

don't know how I missed that, will edit

There were *'d words (2 places) on the screen that corrected that so you must have been listening and not watching

 

[BannedByTMC]

So if using a typical 80% of the battery that is a range of 72 miles when towing a heavy load

This doesn't make sense to me, why would it be "typical" to start with less than 100% when towing in a range limited vehicle? You know range is going to be drastically reduced so common sense and IMO "typical" behavior would be to start with a full charge. Why handicap yourself?

 

[Gigahorse]

This doesn't make sense to me, why would it be "typical" to start with less than 100% when towing in a range limited vehicle? You know range is going to be drastically reduced so common sense and IMO "typical" behavior would be to start with a full charge. Why handicap yourself?

If you are towing from your home and only going 40 miles you could start at 100%
Unfortunately the cybertruck charging curve is pretty rough and charging from 80-100% at a supercharger is super slow.

 

[SentinelOne]

So warm weather, 60mph and AS Tires maybe 100-115mi...when they announced EPA range I was hoping for 150....guess 110 is somewhat useful....except mountains in Colorado gonna hurt a bit more - at least one direction!

 

[Gigahorse]

So warm weather, 60mph and AS Tires maybe 100-115mi...when they announced EPA range I was hoping for 150....guess 110 is somewhat useful....except mountains in Colorado gonna hurt a bit more - at least one direction!

The other tow tests were done between 50-70 degrees and even with half the weight at around 5-6klbs they were also getting under 100miles of range.
If you get a really aerodynamic trailer and keep it 55 or under you might break 100 on flat ground, going uphill in CO is gonna be rough, bug should get some nice regen going down!

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