I towed my ~5000lb 21' travel trailer about 30 miles away. The drive included climbing over a 1500' Appalachian mountain (2 lane road with switch backs). Compared to towing the same trailer with my 2011 F150 Ecoboost it was effortless. Tons of stability and power, plus hill descents are super easy with battery regen braking nearly eliminating the need use the actual brakes. Energy consumption is roughly double compared to no trailer (expected), cutting range in half. Towing with this thing is fun, but it's solidified my opinion that towing outside of single charge range is impractical for all but the most committed.
I think Ford has done the best they can with the available technology. As far as I can tell towing performance of the Lightning is superior to comparable ICE truck towing (by a lot) in every area but range, but that's a super important area. The only thing that can make this experience better now is improved DCFC availability, but that only gets you from impossible trips to inconvenient trips. Beyond that, until battery technology experiences another significant revolution on par with the introduction of lithium ion cells over nickel based cells, towing over single charge distance is going to suck compared to gas. I think we should be honest about that when representing the practicality / utility of EV towing in the current real world to others. It's pointless to debate the utility of towing over distance EV vs ICE unless your time is worthless.
With the 2011 F-150 Ecoboost that I owned, unloaded I was getting about 18 highway mpg (down from 21 when new). Towing a 5000lb camper, gas mileage dropped to just under 10mpg, ie about half. With a 25 gallon tank that's an endurance of about 4 hours with 15 minute refueling just about anywhere.
Highway range in an ER Lightning with even a moderately heavy trailer with ER pack is going to be ~140 miles starting 100% SOC. That means a first stop at about two hours at a (hopefully) convenient DCFC. Your next leg will be shorter because it only makes sense to charge to 80% before charge rates go down by 2/3. So now you are looking at likely sub 100 mile legs and it will most likely be necessary to drop the trailer before charging. I haven't seen a single Electrify America DCFC yet where it would be practical to keep even a small utility trailer attached without blocking traffic.
For those thinking 'bunk! the ER Lightning get 320 miles so half is 160'. a) Unloaded highway speed range is really about 270 or say 140 towing a camper on the interstate. b) That's only with 100% SOC, at 80% that's only 115 miles c) one needs to recharge before reaching 0 and given the scarcity of DCFC most people are going to sweat <15% SOC. So, real world its going be tough to get more than 100 miles after the first leg.
Personally, I've come to the conclusion that towing outside of one charge range is simply impractical. Can you do it? Probably, but it's likely to be an ordeal taking multiples of time longer than a comparable trip ICE towing, having to drop/attach a travel trailer at every stop. I'm going to tow the camper longer distances but I'm not interested in the risk or hassle driving down to ~10% praying I can find a safe place to drop a trailer and get to a working DCFC.
I think Ford has done the best they can with the available technology. As far as I can tell towing performance of the Lightning is superior to comparable ICE truck towing (by a lot) in every area but range, but that's a super important area. The only thing that can make this experience better now is improved DCFC availability, but that only gets you from impossible trips to inconvenient trips. Beyond that, until battery technology experiences another significant revolution on par with the introduction of lithium ion cells over nickel based cells, towing over single charge distance is going to suck compared to gas. I think we should be honest about that when representing the practicality / utility of EV towing in the current real world to others. It's pointless to debate the utility of towing over distance EV vs ICE unless your time is worthless.
With the 2011 F-150 Ecoboost that I owned, unloaded I was getting about 18 highway mpg (down from 21 when new). Towing a 5000lb camper, gas mileage dropped to just under 10mpg, ie about half. With a 25 gallon tank that's an endurance of about 4 hours with 15 minute refueling just about anywhere.
Highway range in an ER Lightning with even a moderately heavy trailer with ER pack is going to be ~140 miles starting 100% SOC. That means a first stop at about two hours at a (hopefully) convenient DCFC. Your next leg will be shorter because it only makes sense to charge to 80% before charge rates go down by 2/3. So now you are looking at likely sub 100 mile legs and it will most likely be necessary to drop the trailer before charging. I haven't seen a single Electrify America DCFC yet where it would be practical to keep even a small utility trailer attached without blocking traffic.
For those thinking 'bunk! the ER Lightning get 320 miles so half is 160'. a) Unloaded highway speed range is really about 270 or say 140 towing a camper on the interstate. b) That's only with 100% SOC, at 80% that's only 115 miles c) one needs to recharge before reaching 0 and given the scarcity of DCFC most people are going to sweat <15% SOC. So, real world its going be tough to get more than 100 miles after the first leg.
Personally, I've come to the conclusion that towing outside of one charge range is simply impractical. Can you do it? Probably, but it's likely to be an ordeal taking multiples of time longer than a comparable trip ICE towing, having to drop/attach a travel trailer at every stop. I'm going to tow the camper longer distances but I'm not interested in the risk or hassle driving down to ~10% praying I can find a safe place to drop a trailer and get to a working DCFC.
