Why Tesla's are bad at towing!

It’s not hype or bs or marketing or cult or smoke or mirrors...

Current production EV’s have too much power, not enough battery capacity, & too slow a recharge rate.

My Edsel F350 6.2 gasohol engine would have about 100 miles of range towing up a grade trying to keep up with a EV and a $120 to “recharge” it.

Guys I got this, we just need to stick a pole to the power line like in Back to the future. We never gonna run outta energy then.

Grit dog wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
How many folks tow at 75 miles per hour? 55 would make more sense.

Me. (Depends what I'm towing and where)

After enough miles of empty wide open road with no traffic in the high desert west, it starts to feel like you could step out of the truck and jog at 75 mph. I'll gladly pay a little fuel economy penalty to reduce travel time over a long distance.

2. So you agree pure marketing BS.

Not at all. But if you think it would be an issue for you then you should do due diligence before purchase.

Grit dog wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
How many folks tow at 75 miles per hour? 55 would make more sense.

Me. (Depends what I'm towing and where)

Same here.

Although I thought we already had this convo before.

To summarize and generally speaking....

If you are in your 90s, towing over 25 mph is too fast.

If you are in your 80s, towing over 35 mph is too fast.

If you are in your 70s, towing over 45 mph is too fast.

If you are in your 60s, towing over 55 mph is too fast.

If you are in your 50s, towing over 65 mph is too fast.

If you are under 50,then you more than likely tow between 65 and 75 mph unless your are noob which in that case refer to the over 60 years old crowd.

Grit dog wrote:

Charlie D. wrote:
Tesla said they have a goal of installing solar panels on the roof.

ROFL

Yea more like the roof of your home or business.

pianotuna wrote:
How many folks tow at 75 miles per hour? 55 would make more sense.

Me. (Depends what I'm towing and where)

Charlie D. wrote:
Tesla said they have a goal of installing solar panels on the roof.

ROFL

Groover wrote:
"All marketing hype with no data.

1. Range with how much weight?"

Weight really isn't important. It takes very little power to keep weight moving. Just a little extra tire flex. Where vehicles are hurt by weight is when brakes have to be used to take energy out of the system for stopping and speed control.

More weight actually tilts the scale in favor of an electric truck since it can use regen to recapture about 90% of the energy that would normally be lost to braking.

The real issue on long trips is air drag. This concerns me more because the range of the pickup is given without a trailer. The truck itself is very aerodynamic. This means that a typical trailer with little or no thought given to aerodynamics is going to be felt much more than it would be behind a regular truck. It is going to be interesting to see how much impact trailers have on fuel economy. It might even be worthwhile making the bed cover come straight back from the high point to reduce the amount of wind hitting the trailer.

"2. Acceleration with 80k pounds. How much is profit generating payload not the extra weight of batteries?"

This depends a lot on what you are hauling. My understanding is that a large percentage of box trucks on the road are limited by volume, not weight. Walmart is a big early purchaser and I know that their trucks are generally pretty light. Battery powered trucks should qualify for the weight bonus given to trucks with an APU since they also have eliminated main engine idling.

1. Sure, maybe going downhill or flat. I will wait for the evidence that pulling a combined 80k takes an immaterial amount more energy than pulling empty.

2. So you agree pure marketing BS.

pianotuna wrote:
How many folks tow at 75 miles per hour? 55 would make more sense.

Too many.