How many Miles Will my EV Get When Towing?

[John K]

Get a more efficient trailer.

The towing examples I’ve seen involved trailers which were not aerodynamic at all. It makes a significant difference. The one family with a Model X switched from a boxy trailer to an Airstream and it increased their range more than 50%. If you can get 177 miles with a Model X, you should be able to get 230-250 on a 500 mile Cybertruck which is in the ballpark of useful range.

I am making an attachment to improve aerodynamics with any trailer pulled.

Pulling a trailer is never fun

Sponsored

 

[Ogre]

The world is full of compromise.

Not sure why you think Tesla is immune here. Even if you had double the battery capacity you are still going to be way better off with the aerodynamic trailer because it will make stops less frequent and faster. Not just a little, a bunch. You travel 50% further per charge, each charge takes 30% less time and 30% less money.

You are dragging along something which burns money, you choose whether you want to spend more money up front, or more time/ money as you drag it down the road.

You can get some very nice airstream trailers for far less than 186k, they are just smaller. You choose where you compromise.

 

[charliemagpie]

I am making an attachment to improve aerodynamics with any trailer pulled.

Pulling a trailer is never fun

Looking forward to that

 

[HaulingAss]

With the price of diesel over $6/gallon at the stations I drove by yesterday, I would say towing large, boxy heavy trailers with all the trappings of home life all over the country simply because you think you need all those things sends the message that this kind of travel is only for rich people. Maybe it could be done less expensively without all the oil changes, fill-ups, transmission coolers, etc. required to haul such a big home a lot of miles on the highway at 65 mph.

I grew up travelling and camping in the American West and always thought it was utterly ridiculous how much crap people hauled around with them and how far they would drive with all that stuff considering they were only getting 5 miles per gallon! One could get the mistaken impression that you weren't having fun unless you had an entire home on wheels filled with another ton or two additional toys. I would ride my motorcycle by them effortlessly at 75 mph and watch them struggle to maintain 40 mph up the clear, thin air of mountain highways with a grey, billowing stinky exhaust plume trailing behind them. Each stop at a gas station would cost them hundreds of dollars.

I knew when they pulled into the next campsite, they would be surrounded by like minded people as they spent another hour setting up so their home was level, living room expanded, hooking up power and water, extending awnings, extracting coolers and chaise lounge chairs, so they could spend the next two days in a dense trailer park costing $40/night. Certainly, this was a niche activity for those who didn't know of any better way!

To my way of thinking, compromise was a given as soon as one assumed they could only enjoy the trip fully if they brought their entire home with them, including the kitchen sink!

2) Compromise is counter to Tesla’s original selling point. The Model S was a car without compromise. It was better than ICE. Tesla even built its own Supercharger network to support this philosophy. Telling people they can’t pulll their camper with the Cybertruck is compromise.

Everything involves compromise, including bringing so much uneccesary crap with you on a road trip. It's just a matter of what compromises you want. Certainly, for the vast majority of motorists, EV's do not involve unacceptable compromises because most people don't tow a giant and overly heavy home down the highway with them. Because they are practical people.

The technology exists to handle this use case. Tesla just has to commit batteries. I know that is a bottleneck presently. I hope Tesla can eventually address this use case because I want to be able to tell people they can live better with clean electric vehicles and they don’t have to compromise.

Sure, the technology exists to go further without charging, but hauling a huge home on wheels is a niche use case and not one of the first things Tesla (or any other manufacturer) will focus on catering too. It's too small of a percentage of all travel and it's a form of travel that is largely predicated by fuel that is as cheap as bottled water. Even with cheap fuel, it doesn't make a lot of rational sense to most people to cover big miles with a large home on wheels. Certainly, the Cybertruck can tow a large home on wheels that is as aerodynamic as a small parachute, but it doesn't make any more sense to do it over vast distances using electricity as it does to do it with fuel.

When fuel prices rise over $4/gallon, I've noticed this kind of interstate travel is greatly curtailed and largely left to those for whom money is no object anyway. My forecast is for people to learn that having less crap to manage actually leads to more fullfilling travel experiences. To learn that wherever you go, there you are! To become comfortable when not surrounded by belongings. I've long understood all I really need is good food and water and a dry, comfortable place to sleep.

Those who think they need more will either limit daily travel distances and travel using more affordable electric power, plugging in to charge overnight at the 50 amp 240V outlets found at most trailer parks (along with occasional Superchargers) or they will continue to use ICE tow rigs to travel 300-400 miles per day involving expensive fill-ups at traditional gas stations.

Solving the fuel consumption problem of those with the largest RV's is not a high priority. I think it will solve itself as people realize how ridiculous such travel is in a modern world. If they don't, they can pay the price at the pump!

 

[Cybertruckee]

...always thought it was utterly ridiculous how much crap people hauled around with them and how far they would drive with all that stuff considering they were only getting 5 miles per gallon!
...

Don't ever ever mock their pink flamingoes!

 

[FutureBoy]

Don't ever ever mock their pink flamingoes!

Don't need to mock them. The pink flamingos make good target practice.

 

[Cybertruckee]

Although I have the ideal 25-ft RV with the happy wife contented in it's sofa and bathroom, am planning to downsize to a camper trucker. I hope Lance would come up with it's customized model for the Cybertruck.

And intuitively, it would not be too much a drag (pun intented) vs my current RV. We can stop and park wherever trail head and shopping centers we wish and take a nap or quick lunch to hike or go to the next site(s)..

 

[Cybr on]

Although I have the ideal 25-ft RV with the happy wife contented in it's sofa and bathroom, am planning to downside to a camper trucker. I hope Lance would come up with it's customized model for the Cybertruck.

And intuitively, it would not be too much a drag (pun intented) vs my current RV. We can stop and park wherever trail head and shopping centers we wish and take a nap or quick lunch to hike or go to the next site(s)..

My wife and I put down on the Cyberlandr right from the beginning. We are hoping In the near future that Cyberlandr will throw something special towards us early birds when cyberlandr is finalized.
That would be bad ass! We put money down early on and we also threw a little with startengine. We really believed then and still do as well today, that Cyberlandr WILL be one of the greatest Inventions for the camping and sporting communities. Why? Simple, Great leadership! They will succeed. No doubt! Cyberlandr team has made some wonderful friendships along the way as well and some of these friendships will help this wonderful dream become a reality!
Lance is AMAZING!!!!
Bill is AMAZING !!!!


cyberlandr team……. Well,
Priceless!

 

[Cybertruckee]

Don't need to mock them. The pink flamingos make good target practice.

Now, you've id'd yourself as the first suspect.

 

[Crissa]

It's their cash to burn, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to subsidize it.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

Its not really a matter of whether someone likes the lifestyle or not. As electric vehicles become more and more common, gas prices are going to continue to fluctuate wildly and ultimately climb as industry players stop investing in future production.

We’re already seeing US oil producers focusing on profit taking rather than growth, and that trend is only going to continue.

What happens to the RV industry as gas prices increase and the cost of moving a big trailer around goes from $1/ mile to $2/ mile or more? My guess is it shrinks significantly as people opt for more sustainable ways to vacation. Smaller more efficient trailers will become more popular.

Tesla is going to have the electric truck with the longest range, the fastest charging, and the best charging network. If towing is important to people, it’s likely the Cybertruck is going to be the clear winner. If people want to pay $2 or more/ mile, well they will have that option for at least another 20 years. It’ll just get more and more expensive as gas production scales back

 

[HaulingAss]

I'm not hoping to stop anything. I didn't tell people not to tow ridiculously sized RV's all over hell and back, I told them to expect to pay at the pump if that's what they are gonna do!

Because this is not a priority of Tesla now, and, with so many more important problems to solve, a silly problem like this is unlikely to be a high priority anytime soon.

Deal with it.

Sponsored