C&D EV Tow Test

Yep, like it or not it's getting jammed down our throats. Give it a few more months of too many people relying on water and electricity from one river. Once a third of our country loses it's electric supply they will be a hard sell.

My Turn

I don't think Mr. Ed is quite dead yet. Better take a few more swings at him.

I'm still interested in electric vehicles, if prices come down, but I don't see them being a realistic option for towing for quite some time. We just went to Tennessee a week and a half ago. 481 miles. I stopped once to refuel and grab some lunch, which resulted in about a 12 minute total delay to get off the highway, pull into the pumps, go inside and order sandwiches while my wife took the kids into the camper to pee, then back onto the highway. Any one of these electric vehicles would have required at least 4 stops. I have not yet seen an electric vehicle charging station that is set up for a vehicle that is towing a trailer, so I'm not sure how that would work. Then it seems like it takes a considerable amount of time to recharge, even with a fast charger, from empty.

We also take a 972 mile trip to Florida every year. That would require at least 10 stops, again for several hours at a time. If we would normally stop once or twice for the night, that brings us down to 8 stops to charge for several hours at a time. That will literally more than DOUBLE the 15 hour drive time to stop for charging. With my diesel truck, I could get by stopping only 3 times for fuel, but I usually fill up around 1/4 tank so I'll stop 4 times on that trip for fuel.

If I needed a commuter car, I might consider an electric vehicle for the right price. However, in non Covid times I can get a reliable ICE import car with lower miles for under $15k and spend a lot of money in gas to keep it running, which is far less expensive than a new electric vehicle. I worry about the future resale value of electric cars, because that battery bank has a lifespan and a high replacement cost too.

ETA, it looks like a level 2 22kW charger (standard for "fast" charging) will take 6-12 hours to fully charge a car battery. Rivian claims that with a 200kW rapid charger you can charge from 10% to 80% in 45 minutes. 80% is about 80 miles for all these trucks. Stopping every 80 miles (if you can find a rapid charger that is perfectly placed at the interval you need, and not already being used by someone else) simply isn't acceptable to me. Might as well go back to a horse and buggy if we're only getting that range...

Well heck, I'll save folks time and agitation. Range, range, range. Grid, grid, grid. Nasty metals....;)