Electric Car Tug

David motton reveals what you need to know about electric tow cars.

Electric car tug.

Today s electric tow cars. There are already pure electric vehicles on sale that are able to tow. For a while the tesla model x was the only electric car homologated for towing but now it s been joined by a handful of others the audi e tron and mercedes eqc can tow up to 1 800kg and the. In summary it s a bit of a mixed bag as to the advantages and disadvantages of using an electric car to tow compared with petrol or diesel alternatives.

The only battery electric vehicle bev currently on the market that can tow a trailer is the tesla model x. This is going to change and quite soon. Hyundai market the kona electric as an suv a sports utility vehicle. Lotus evija will start production in 2020.

Having said all this there are a handful of electrified vehicles that are certified for towing. As i reference near the start of this post the general consensus appears to be with an electric tow car whatever an electric cars real world range is when it comes to towing you ll achieve about 50 of that range. Now that s a very broad generalisation. The lotus hyper electric car will have a 0 100 km h time of under 3 seconds and a top speed of 250 mph or 321 km.

Electric cars have an advantage here as they can use regenerative braking to slow down this uses the electric motor to slow the car down as well as conventional brakes. I asked this question seriously of the hyundai kona electric which for my wife and i looks a more practical car for our purposes at around the same price as the model 3. But while there s every chance of you spotting an electric vehicle ev or two in your neighbourhood you re much less likely to see one at a caravan park. That s a staggering increase.

Sales of electric cars went up by 144 last year. With a hefty kerbweight of almost 2 5 tonnes even large twin axle caravans make sensible matches. So you want to do the right thing and buy an electric or hybrid car but you also need to tow a caravan or trailer occasionally. Any variant of the r1s can tow.

Which electric cars can tow. The salesman told us it was not rated for towing but we looked further into this. Of course there s theory and then there s practice.