Practical towing experience using an EV.
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I thought Hybrids where self charging by using the small petrol engine🤷🏻♂️. Why would they need to be charged-charge gets low, petrol kicks in🤔. I accept I may be way off base here buy why buy a Hybrid if you need to queue up to charge it☹️
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I just can’t see the point of a Hybrid if it needs charging, you have the extra engine issue that needs servicing & feeding with fossil fuel yet can’t charge itself whereas a true EV needs charging & that’s accepted🤷🏻♂️, crazy stuff☹️
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So called “self charging” hybrids are not EVs at all. They are simply fossil fuel cars with more efficient engines. A PHEV will have a battery that can be charged externally and provide 20 or more miles of our electric range. If you have a journey pattern that does lots of very short journeys, and the occasional very long one (like a holiday, or towing) then they can make some sense, although with the newest generation of EVs that balance is shifting as the complexity and cost of two power trains starts to be outweighed by the simplicity of one with a bigger battery.
JVB - your neighbour is trying to sell it in the wrong place. My PHEV value has jumped in the last 6 months, and now I have the full EV, it sits in the drive. It’s very tempting to sell it, except it has no tax, and costs almost nothing in fuel (because all of its journeys are electric) and it’s the backup tow car in case the EV should be unavailable.
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It’s a September registered ‘66 so 5 years old. Still gets it’s full range of between 20 and 25 electric, but is relatively low mileage (43000). There are much older and higher mileage versions of the same car still commanding high prices on Autotrader.
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I don’t think any manufacturer gives real world figures for solo, never mind towing, on ICE or BEV. But based on my experience, you could expect arround a 40% drop in range from your real world solo range. Have a look at the Fully Charged review on YouTube with Jack Scarlet. It looks like an excellent package. The GT line S AWD looks like the pick of the bunch, unless you want Ferrari killing performance with the full GT.
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not all hybrids are plug-in. The likes of the Toyota Pius can not be plugged in, but the Vauxhall Ampera could be plugged in so if your journeys were fairly local (IIRC 80miles range) then the petrol engine only drives the genny and never the wheels directly.
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The key difference between a PHEV and a self charging hybrid is that in a self charging hybrid, ALL energy used to drive the car comes via the fossil fuel filler cap. In PHEV it’s possible to drive the car without ever using the combustion engine, because you can replenish its energy store (Battery) via a charging cable, making it (potentially) cheaper and cleaner to run.
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A standard hybrid does not use the ICE as a backup to the battery; it’s it only means of charging it. A standard hybrid will typically have sufficient battery for maybe a mile (just one), before the engine will have to kick in.
Just for clarity, any form of EV (BEV, PHEV, or standard hybrid) will recover energy from braking. It’s that energy recovery that increases the of the car over a regular ICE.
A standard “self charging hybrid” of PHEV, may also have a mode that allows “excess power” from the engine to recharge the battery as you drive along. Here, he value for a PHEV, is that you can burn fuel out in the countryside where particulate emissions are less of a problem, and run on electricity only in a town or city where those particles cause health issues.
The 15 miles of electric only in a Merc E PHEV hybrid is perfectly usable in those scenarios, minimising emissions in cities. It’s a PHEV, if it can then be plugged in to recharge.
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Bit late to the party, but leaving a caravan alone on a service station is not best practice, by the time id unhitched, got the legs down, put both wheel locks on, the hitch lock on, thats 20 minutes gone and not even got to the queue for the charging point...then repeat in reverse order only to do it all again in another 100 miles.
There are some stunning EV's about and the instant high torque is a caravanners dream but me thinks the infrastructure will struggle to keep pace with EV technology.
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Agreed, watto64. For lone towers, this is a real issue. Far more of an issue than the time taken to charge. We unhitch ours, but never leave it alone, there is all ways one member of our party with it.
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I’m starting to look at EV’s and PHEVs to replace my diesel BMW SUV..
Although there are many new models due out 2022 many are only certified to tow up to 750kg. A few are rated to 1500kg. I note CT post towing a 1550kg Bailey with a Polestar that has a max tow weight 1500kg. Are the certified tow weights lower than the kerb weights? I ask because of the 85% rule tow weight rule for MPTLM? If an additional 15% is still required fir EV’s then don’t we need two vehicles with max tow weights of over 1800kg ?
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I would imagine the Polestar kerbweight will be well in excess of 1550kg as full electric cars are generally very heavy. The 85% is only a guide and has no base in law so if he is not exceeding the 1500kg limit or the gross train weight he will be legal.
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Kerbweight of the P2 in my spec is 2227kg including the towbar.
I run with a nose weight of 90kg which is part of the payload for the car. Towed mass allowed for my outfit is up to 1550kg (MTPLM for the caravan) less towbar nose weight load (90kg) which is 1460kg. 40kg less than the car max towed mass.
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Not sure where that number comes from?
The Polestar 2 has a "normal" Max Gross vehicle weight of 2600kg and a Max train weight of 4100kg.
That gives a max towed weight of 1500kg.
One interesting thing with the Polestar (and maybe other manufacturers). When towing, they allow the Max Gross Vehicle weight (2600kg) to be exceeded by 100kg as long as the maximum speed is 100kmh / 62mph or less. This means the gross vehicle weight can increase to 2700kg
This does NOT change the gross train weight of 4100Kg.
So - my caravan can be loaded to the MTPLM (1550kg) as measured independently (e.g. on a weight bridge. When mounted on the car (nose weight of 90kg) that equates to a towed mass of 1460kg (under my 1500kg car limit).
With a max train weight of 4100, and caravan at max load (1550) and towbar at 90kg I have a theoretical max GVW for the car of 2640. If I remove the caravan from the towball (90kg) my GVW must be under 2550 for me to remain legal while hitched and towing. That gives the car a payload of 2550-2227 = 323kg before its full.
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https://youtu.be/jb5bhI1pzTM
