Electric Tow Vehicles
The purpose of this section is to explore the specifications of several hybrid and electric vehicles that are rated for towing. (At the moment we have no software products related to this subject.)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) host a web site, fueleconomy.gov, which has a database of fuel efficiencies for cars, vans, and light trucks sold in the United States. For electric vehicles, it uses the unit "MPGe" in place of miles per gallon, where MPGe is the efficiency in miles per 33.7 kWh (which is the energy contained in one U.S. gallon of gasoline).
The towing efficiencies and ranges on this page assume a 5' x 8' v-nose enclosed cargo trailer, about 7.5' tall, weighing 1800 lbs loaded. When towed by our test vehicle this trailer reduces efficiency and range to about 56% of normal, so that is the factor used in calculations for the tables and charts below.
Electric Efficiency
The table below compares efficiencies for several electric cars and three plug-in hybrids, with and without trailer. Note that "Combined" means a mixture of highway and city driving.
| Make | Model | EPA Combined MPGe | Combined Efficiency (mi/kWh) | Tow Rating (lbs) | Combined Efficiency with Trailer (mi/kWh) | Price w/ dest ($) |
|---|
The chart below compares estimated efficiencies with trailer.
Electric Range
The table below compares electric ranges for the same set of vehicles. Note that the "EPA Range with Trailer" column contains EPA ranges modified with our trailer data, not range values directly from the EPA.
| Make | Model | Combined Range (mi) | EPA Range (mi) | Combined Range with Trailer (mi) | EPA Range with Trailer (mi) |
|---|
The chart below compares the ranges with trailer, estimated from EPA numbers.