N?A - Not towing electric vehcles

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 13:32
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - sammy1

The boss of the AA has raised an interesting point about Electric vehicles breaking down on smart motorways or anywhere else for that matter. He states that EVs cannot be flat towed more than 800metres and some cannot be flat towed at all. I was not aware of this fact so that if you had to wait for a lifted tow you could be stranded for some time. Is anyone else aware of the towing restraints of EVs and or Hybrids and why the transmissions do not allow towing?

I posted this on the Smart motorway thread but no interest??

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 17:15
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Bromptonaut

The boss of the AA has raised an interesting point about Electric vehicles breaking down on smart motorways or anywhere else for that matter. He states that EVs cannot be flat towed more than 800metres and some cannot be flat towed at all. I was not aware of this fact so that if you had to wait for a lifted tow you could be stranded for some time. Is anyone else aware of the towing restraints of EVs and or Hybrids and why the transmissions do not allow towing?

I posted this on the Smart motorway thread but no interest??

I saw it on the smart m/way thread and thought it worth a reply but for XYZ reason never got round to it. Would be interesting to know exactly which vehicles, how far they can be towed and why it is a problem. Does it affect just pure EVs or (all?) hybrids too?

I'd imagine the HA Traffic Officers (HATO) will have flatbeds or the crane type vehicles used to lift untaxed cars on call. You might wait longer in a closed lane but once the traffic is stopped and HATOs are on site you're no worse off than on a conventional hard shoulder.

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 18:04
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Engineer Andy

A person I know owns a Tesla, and they ran out of juice whilst on holiday in some mountainours area over on the continent. Apparently, the car then is stuck 'in gear' and cannot be moved via a traditional 'rope tow' (they tried and it such dragged it along, not doing the tyres, etc any good) and must be transported on the back of a low-loader.

It may have been that his car is a AWD version, so maybe the 2WD versions might be able to be towed, depending on if its a RWD or FWD and where the tow-rope connections are on the car and lorry - the angle one end is off the ground may cause the other of the car to scrape the road.

Just guessing here really on the second part.

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 18:14
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - daveyjp

Nothing new and nothing to do with EV.

Thousands of cars have been produced which shouldn't be towed long distances, they should be lifted onto a flatbed. As usual RTFM if you are in doubt.

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 18:16
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Bolt

A person I know owns a Tesla, and they ran out of juice whilst on holiday in some mountainours area over on the continent. Apparently, the car then is stuck 'in gear' and cannot be moved via a traditional 'rope tow' (they tried and it such dragged it along, not doing the tyres, etc any good) and must be transported on the back of a low-loader.

It may have been that his car is a AWD version, so maybe the 2WD versions might be able to be towed, depending on if its a RWD or FWD and where the tow-rope connections are on the car and lorry - the angle one end is off the ground may cause the other of the car to scrape the road.

Just guessing here really on the second part.

according to Tesla the option to Tow is in the screen menu, a google search says the same, and has no limit to distance towed, or a flatbed to put it on, either can be done

please correct if wrong?

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 18:50
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Bolt

I was wrong, goes to show google isn't always correct

Model 3 manual states

www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_m...f

so must assume the other models are the same or similar

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 21:33
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Simon

I think the basic problem with towing some electric vehicle even a short distance is that the electric motors that provide the drive to the wheels will start to generate electricity during towing and basically try to push the electric the wrong way back through the system.

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Fri 31 Jan 2020 21:49
N?A - Not towing electric vehcles - Bromptonaut

I think the basic problem with towing some electric vehicle even a short distance is that the electric motors that provide the drive to the wheels will start to generate electricity during towing and basically try to push the electric the wrong way back through the system.

I was going to say 'but that's what regenerative braking does' but actually that may be exactly the issue; try towing an ICE car where the immobilising issue is a binding brake.

OTOH it should be possible to isolate the traction motor(s) so there's no resistance across them.

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