Harvester towing

[mbeadnell]

I would strongly suggest the harvester model towing more than 5k. This is going to be a deal breaker for most people and cause a lot of cancelled reservations. My opinion but I would not have announced something like this without all the details
In place to make a firm stance. This has created a lot of confusion and speculation and as a result many cancelled reservations. I would like to see the Terra at least able
To tow 7500 at minimum and the traveler at 5000k minimum. It makes no sense for both the tow the same with one able
To tow nearly 3k more on the pure ev models. This is just my suggestion. Keeping the price within the mentioned amount during announcement I hope is possible to have the towing range increased ( 7500 for Terra 5000 for traveler) that’s my suggestion and opinion.

 

[jonnygarner]

Welcome to the community. There’s lots of info on here and I know there have been lots of discussions about this. A great follow is @Jamie@ScoutMotors. He keeps us updated from the manufacturer side

Thanks @cyure. It's great to hear that Jamie is active on here and helping keep people up-to-date.

 

[cyure]

Thanks @cyure. It's great to hear that Jamie is active on here and helping keep people up-to-date.

There’s also another Canadian who is quite active. @Cranky Canuck He’s another one who is very helpful. Especially if you have questions about BEVs. I’m sure I have driven him crazy with all my questions.

 

[Chavannigans]

Hello all.
I am SO KEEN to reserve a Scout Terra Harvester. The range extender x towing capacity question is my ONLY concern.

@Scout I know you are doing a great job of listening and responding. This is my +1 for Scout Terra Harvester with towing capacity greater than 5,000lbs.

My use case is towing a 6,500lb travel trailer for around 10 days max on the road per year. The other 355 days of the year, I need a large vehicle for a mix of city/highway. A typical mix of kid moving around, some woodworking materials, furniture deliveries.

350 miles is a lot of BEV. I try to convince myself it is enough on its own, and on paper it looks great. And I love the simplicity of a BEV for maintenance costs vs. anything that needs gasoline and more moving parts. I own a Nissan Leaf for 8 years. I know what range anxiety is and how to deal with it in the real world.

But a realistic towing scenario for me with a 6,500lb travel trailer looks like this.

350 miles cut in half for towing, means 175 miles. But I can't comfortably drive anywhere near ZERO with a wife, kids, dog and travel trailer. So now my towing range is max 150 miles before I need to stop and recharge. I leave home with 100%.

My towing route has chargers but not many, and not often. Realistically one location I can stop at with 3 chargers available. So arrive and have to wait 40 mins to access a charger. No problem, I can rest and eat!

Now I have to unhook the travel trailer, leave it in a parking spot, and drive into the charger. Other EV's are already lining up to use the charger. So politely, I can fast charge for a max of 40 mins.

Now, after a 1.5 hrs stop I am 80% charged, and based on the above can tow about 100 miles before I have to stop and charge again. And likely repeat the 1.5 hrs stop.

So 150 miles driving. Then stop for 1.5 hrs. Drive 100 miles. Stop for 1.5 hrs. Drive 100 miles. Now I'm not even sure if there is a charger available in the area, as we are getting more remote.

This is why for my use case I need a range extender for towing, and need a towing capacity of over 5,000lbs.

I am happy to be corrected, but for my situation this sounds like real world use.

Just another consideration is the upcoming charging network at WalMarts.
They said they will offer pull through chargers at some locations so it will be less of a hassle to tow a trailer with more options like that popping up.

 

[J Alynn]

Hello all.
I am SO KEEN to reserve a Scout Terra Harvester. The range extender x towing capacity question is my ONLY concern.

@Scout I know you are doing a great job of listening and responding. This is my +1 for Scout Terra Harvester with towing capacity greater than 5,000lbs.

My use case is towing a 6,500lb travel trailer for around 10 days max on the road per year. The other 355 days of the year, I need a large vehicle for a mix of city/highway. A typical mix of kid moving around, some woodworking materials, furniture deliveries.

350 miles is a lot of BEV. I try to convince myself it is enough on its own, and on paper it looks great. And I love the simplicity of a BEV for maintenance costs vs. anything that needs gasoline and more moving parts. I own a Nissan Leaf for 8 years. I know what range anxiety is and how to deal with it in the real world.

But a realistic towing scenario for me with a 6,500lb travel trailer looks like this.

350 miles cut in half for towing, means 175 miles. But I can't comfortably drive anywhere near ZERO with a wife, kids, dog and travel trailer. So now my towing range is max 150 miles before I need to stop and recharge. I leave home with 100%.

My towing route has chargers but not many, and not often. Realistically one location I can stop at with 3 chargers available. So arrive and have to wait 40 mins to access a charger. No problem, I can rest and eat!

Now I have to unhook the travel trailer, leave it in a parking spot, and drive into the charger. Other EV's are already lining up to use the charger. So politely, I can fast charge for a max of 40 mins.

Now, after a 1.5 hrs stop I am 80% charged, and based on the above can tow about 100 miles before I have to stop and charge again. And likely repeat the 1.5 hrs stop.

So 150 miles driving. Then stop for 1.5 hrs. Drive 100 miles. Stop for 1.5 hrs. Drive 100 miles. Now I'm not even sure if there is a charger available in the area, as we are getting more remote.

This is why for my use case I need a range extender for towing, and need a towing capacity of over 5,000lbs.

I am happy to be corrected, but for my situation this sounds like real world use.

Welcome aboard!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I hit save too soon. Another great follow is @SpaceEVDriver. He goes on trips in his Ford Lightning and is providing detailed updates of his trips and charging. I’m unsure if he ever tows though. Welcome again!

Thanks for the kind words, @cyure

I do tow. Mostly utility trailers, a tractor, a dump trailer, etc.
We don’t have a travel trailer anymore. We had a couple of bad tows with our Tacoma, including pulling into a gas station as the truck ran out of gas because the previous three stations were too filled with angry drivers and empty pumps. We sold our travel trailer and I’m not looking to get back into that lifestyle right now.

My experience is I can get anywhere from around 2.2 to 1.1 miles/kWh while towing. But that is heavily influenced by my speed, by what I’m towing, by the weather (high winds are bad, no matter which direction they’re pushing), by the direction—If I’m losing altitude, I can get up to 2.3 miles/kWh, but climbing back up an in a hurry to get home (so going 80, towing a tractor), can net me 1.1 miles/kWh.

I wouldn’t touch the Harvester for a pile of reasons, mostly to do with maintenance, doubled inconvenience, and my distaste for gas station stops. We have time to learn more, but it’s not at all clear to me that having a Harvester will solve anyone’s towing range anxiety. There are suppositions and rumors about how it’s going to work, but I don’t expect it will realistically solve the issues most people think they have with towing (many stops and slower going) unless it has a massive engine and massive gas tank like the RAM was supposed to have (which was recently announced to be delayed—again). Given the recent failures/delays of heavy-duty REV attempts, I suspect that if Scout even manages to engineer a EREV Harvester, it will disappoint people who think they’re going to get everything they desire in an extended-range hybrid. Towing with a Harvester could mean twice as many stops except when one is on a route where gas stations and chargers are coincidentally located. I don’t know what that density map looks like across the country.

---
An example towing experience for me: Towing the U-Haul shown in the picture below from the Pasadena area to the Flagstaff area included 460 miles and 7400 feet end-to-end elevation gain with many climbs and descents in between.

I had four legs and made three stops before arriving home. It was an uneventful trip with one extra stop to charge. There was a vehicle fire that stopped traffic and I got stuck on the bridge crossing the Colorado River from CA into AZ on the hottest day of the year (120+ while sitting on the bridge for 60 minutes, AC blasting at full).

First leg was from Pasadena to Barstow: 1.9 miles/kWh
Second leg: Barstow to Needles: 1.9 miles/kWh
Third leg: Needles to Kingman, which included a large elevation gain (3000 feet), the 1-hour stop on the bridge with AC running, and then the “I don’t care about efficiency because I have to pee” attitude after traffic started moving again, I averaged 80 mph and 1.5 miles/kWh.
Fourth leg: Kingman to the Flagstaff area: climb from 3500 feet to 7350 feet; average speed was again close to 80 mph—I was tired and wanted to be home; 150 miles, 1.4 miles/kWh. I arrived home with 10% charge, which was too much for my general practices. I like to arrive home with 5% or less.

Efficiencies and calculated ranges for those legs:
1.9 miles/kWh * 100% * 131 kWh = 250 miles. 73 mph average.
1.9 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 225 miles. 73 mph average.
1.5 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 178 miles. 80 mph average.
1.4 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 165 miles. 80 mph average.

This trip was longer than it takes when I don’t tow for several reasons:
I had an hour delay on the bridge—not within my control.
I drove faster than I normally would have because of the delay on the bridge and then I needed to make an extra stop in Kingman, which added about 40 minutes to the drive (I went for a walk, napped, and accidentally charged up to 90%).
I charged to 90% at the stops. The first and third stop were unintentional. At the first stop, I walked to a nearby fast food restaurant and then changed my mind about what food I wanted. The third stop, I took a nap and woke up with the truck at a higher-than-expected charge. I had planned to skip Kingman and take a very short stop in Williams, but the stopped traffic between Needles and Kingman changed that plan.

I did not unhook the trailer at any of the chargers. Two of the charging stations are set up with pull-through or a very wide area behind the charging station, and the third was mostly empty and I didn’t feel the need to drop the trailer. The next time I tow that distance, I’ll do two things differently:
1) I’ll slow down. 80 mph doesn’t save me any time compared with 73 mph (7 minutes in 100 miles is a meaningless time improvement).
2) I’ll increase the air pressure in the tires. Running at 36 PSI was a mistake and I should have been closer to 44 PSI.

Both of those would have saved me 10-15% efficiency.

Stop in Barstow, CA at the brand-T Supercharger. No need to drop the trailer.

Stop in Needles, CA at the EA charging station. Also no need to drop the trailer—behind the trucks is a large dirt lot.

Bonus photo of me having towed the tractor to a work site in the Northern Arizona desert. This was a hot day (despite the cloud cover in the photo, which burned off quite rapidly). We used the truck to power all of the power tools, from jackhammers to drills to skillsaws, and ran a freezer with ice cream, popsicles, and other treats for the crew. I also took a couple of 2-hour work meetings while in the truck with the AC running.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Oh, and towing with the Lightning on the freeway is leagues better than towing with any past truck or SUV I’ve ever towed with. Tacoma, Tundra, Silverado, F-150 ICE, Chevy C-60, Suburban, Outback, Expedition, etc., etc., etc.

 

[cyure]

Thanks for the kind words, @cyure

I do tow. Mostly utility trailers, a tractor, a dump trailer, etc.
We don’t have a travel trailer anymore. We had a couple of bad tows with our Tacoma, including pulling into a gas station as the truck ran out of gas because the previous three stations were too filled with angry drivers and empty pumps. We sold our travel trailer and I’m not looking to get back into that lifestyle right now.

My experience is I can get anywhere from around 2.2 to 1.1 miles/kWh while towing. But that is heavily influenced by my speed, by what I’m towing, by the weather (high winds are bad, no matter which direction they’re pushing), by the direction—If I’m losing altitude, I can get up to 2.3 miles/kWh, but climbing back up an in a hurry to get home (so going 80, towing a tractor), can net me 1.1 miles/kWh.

I wouldn’t touch the Harvester for a pile of reasons, mostly to do with maintenance, doubled inconvenience, and my distaste for gas station stops. We have time to learn more, but it’s not at all clear to me that having a Harvester will solve anyone’s towing range anxiety. There are suppositions and rumors about how it’s going to work, but I don’t expect it will realistically solve the issues most people think they have with towing (many stops and slower going) unless it has a massive engine and massive gas tank like the RAM was supposed to have (which was recently announced to be delayed—again). Given the recent failures/delays of heavy-duty REV attempts, I suspect that if Scout even manages to engineer a EREV Harvester, it will disappoint people who think they’re going to get everything they desire in an extended-range hybrid. Towing with a Harvester could mean twice as many stops except when one is on a route where gas stations and chargers are coincidentally located. I don’t know what that density map looks like across the country.

---
An example towing experience for me: Towing the U-Haul shown in the picture below from the Pasadena area to the Flagstaff area included 460 miles and 7400 feet end-to-end elevation gain with many climbs and descents in between.

I had four legs and made three stops before arriving home. It was an uneventful trip with one extra stop to charge. There was a vehicle fire that stopped traffic and I got stuck on the bridge crossing the Colorado River from CA into AZ on the hottest day of the year (120+ while sitting on the bridge for 60 minutes, AC blasting at full).

First leg was from Pasadena to Barstow: 1.9 miles/kWh
Second leg: Barstow to Needles: 1.9 miles/kWh
Third leg: Needles to Kingman, which included a large elevation gain (3000 feet), the 1-hour stop on the bridge with AC running, and then the “I don’t care about efficiency because I have to pee” attitude after traffic started moving again, I averaged 80 mph and 1.5 miles/kWh.
Fourth leg: Kingman to the Flagstaff area: climb from 3500 feet to 7350 feet; average speed was again close to 80 mph—I was tired and wanted to be home; 150 miles, 1.4 miles/kWh. I arrived home with 10% charge, which was too much for my general practices. I like to arrive home with 5% or less.

Efficiencies and calculated ranges for those legs:
1.9 miles/kWh * 100% * 131 kWh = 250 miles. 73 mph average.
1.9 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 225 miles. 73 mph average.
1.5 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 178 miles. 80 mph average.
1.4 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 165 miles. 80 mph average.

This trip was longer than it takes when I don’t tow for several reasons:
I had an hour delay on the bridge—not within my control.
I drove faster than I normally would have because of the delay on the bridge and then I needed to make an extra stop in Kingman, which added about 40 minutes to the drive (I went for a walk, napped, and accidentally charged up to 90%).
I charged to 90% at the stops. The first and third stop were unintentional. At the first stop, I walked to a nearby fast food restaurant and then changed my mind about what food I wanted. The third stop, I took a nap and woke up with the truck at a higher-than-expected charge. I had planned to skip Kingman and take a very short stop in Williams, but the stopped traffic between Needles and Kingman changed that plan.

I did not unhook the trailer at any of the chargers. Two of the charging stations are set up with pull-through or a very wide area behind the charging station, and the third was mostly empty and I didn’t feel the need to drop the trailer. The next time I tow that distance, I’ll do two things differently:
1) I’ll slow down. 80 mph doesn’t save me any time compared with 73 mph (7 minutes in 100 miles is a meaningless time improvement).
2) I’ll increase the air pressure in the tires. Running at 36 PSI was a mistake and I should have been closer to 44 PSI.

Both of those would have saved me 10-15% efficiency.

View attachment 6730

Stop in Barstow, CA at the brand-T Supercharger. No need to drop the trailer.

View attachment 6731

Stop in Needles, CA at the EA charging station. Also no need to drop the trailer—behind the trucks is a large dirt lot.

View attachment 6724




Bonus photo of me having towed the tractor to a work site in the Northern Arizona desert. This was a hot day (despite the cloud cover in the photo, which burned off quite rapidly). We used the truck to power all of the power tools, from jackhammers to drills to skillsaws, and ran a freezer with ice cream, popsicles, and other treats for the crew. I also took a couple of 2-hour work meetings while in the truck with the AC running.

View attachment 6726

I just knew you would be the one to provide helpful information. Thank you thank you.

And you being stuck on the bridge for an hour made me think of a question. When you are stopped in traffic like that, how much charge do you lose?

Years ago I was stuck in traffic on the freeway for 6 or 7 hours. A guy was on an overpass threatening to jump off a bridge. I mean I had to turn off my car for a while. I know that you could run out of gas in a situation like that but it just seems scarier in a BEV.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I just knew you would be the one to provide helpful information. Thank you thank you.

And you being stuck on the bridge for an hour made me think of a question. When you are stopped in traffic like that, how much charge do you lose?

Years ago I was stuck in traffic on the freeway for 6 or 7 hours. A guy was on an overpass threatening to jump off a bridge. I mean I had to turn off my car for a while. I know that you could run out of gas in a situation like that but it just seems scarier in a BEV.

There are some articles out there about these kinds of questions. You’ll see a lot of different results.

For the winter, if you do the things you should do for emergency situations (bring a blanket, jacket, etc), you can survive being stopped and needing the heater to stay warm for something like 100-150 hours with the battery in the Lightning. If you don’t have those things, I would expect to be able to survive with some range left to get to a charger for about 50-75 hours. I would worry about other things before I would worry about the battery. If you have an electric blanket or two in the vehicle and it has outlets, you can use even less energy, but check that the blanket works with your vehicle’s inverter before you get in the situation—some electric blankets use a kind of component that isn’t friendly to the kinds of inverters used in vehicles.

For the summer in a place like Needles, CA—which often reaches the highest temperatures of any large city in the world—the AC requirements can be more demanding than the heater requirements in the winter—bundling up is socially acceptable, but dressing down isn’t so much. I used around 1.5% of the battery while stopped for that hour. The real problem was that I drank all of my ice-cold drink and really needed a bio break.

But just being stopped in traffic on a mild spring day? Basically no loss. You don’t even have to worry about turning the vehicle off. It just isn’t using any energy to sit there doing nothing. That’s one of the best things about EVs: Idling isn’t at all a thing to worry about. Even if you have the vehicle in a garage, you can warm it up (or cool it off) without worrying about carbon monoxide.

 

[jonnygarner]

Thanks for the kind words, @cyure

I do tow. Mostly utility trailers, a tractor, a dump trailer, etc.
We don’t have a travel trailer anymore. We had a couple of bad tows with our Tacoma, including pulling into a gas station as the truck ran out of gas because the previous three stations were too filled with angry drivers and empty pumps. We sold our travel trailer and I’m not looking to get back into that lifestyle right now.

My experience is I can get anywhere from around 2.2 to 1.1 miles/kWh while towing. But that is heavily influenced by my speed, by what I’m towing, by the weather (high winds are bad, no matter which direction they’re pushing), by the direction—If I’m losing altitude, I can get up to 2.3 miles/kWh, but climbing back up an in a hurry to get home (so going 80, towing a tractor), can net me 1.1 miles/kWh.

I wouldn’t touch the Harvester for a pile of reasons, mostly to do with maintenance, doubled inconvenience, and my distaste for gas station stops. We have time to learn more, but it’s not at all clear to me that having a Harvester will solve anyone’s towing range anxiety. There are suppositions and rumors about how it’s going to work, but I don’t expect it will realistically solve the issues most people think they have with towing (many stops and slower going) unless it has a massive engine and massive gas tank like the RAM was supposed to have (which was recently announced to be delayed—again). Given the recent failures/delays of heavy-duty REV attempts, I suspect that if Scout even manages to engineer a EREV Harvester, it will disappoint people who think they’re going to get everything they desire in an extended-range hybrid. Towing with a Harvester could mean twice as many stops except when one is on a route where gas stations and chargers are coincidentally located. I don’t know what that density map looks like across the country.

---
An example towing experience for me: Towing the U-Haul shown in the picture below from the Pasadena area to the Flagstaff area included 460 miles and 7400 feet end-to-end elevation gain with many climbs and descents in between.

I had four legs and made three stops before arriving home. It was an uneventful trip with one extra stop to charge. There was a vehicle fire that stopped traffic and I got stuck on the bridge crossing the Colorado River from CA into AZ on the hottest day of the year (120+ while sitting on the bridge for 60 minutes, AC blasting at full).

First leg was from Pasadena to Barstow: 1.9 miles/kWh
Second leg: Barstow to Needles: 1.9 miles/kWh
Third leg: Needles to Kingman, which included a large elevation gain (3000 feet), the 1-hour stop on the bridge with AC running, and then the “I don’t care about efficiency because I have to pee” attitude after traffic started moving again, I averaged 80 mph and 1.5 miles/kWh.
Fourth leg: Kingman to the Flagstaff area: climb from 3500 feet to 7350 feet; average speed was again close to 80 mph—I was tired and wanted to be home; 150 miles, 1.4 miles/kWh. I arrived home with 10% charge, which was too much for my general practices. I like to arrive home with 5% or less.

Efficiencies and calculated ranges for those legs:
1.9 miles/kWh * 100% * 131 kWh = 250 miles. 73 mph average.
1.9 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 225 miles. 73 mph average.
1.5 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 178 miles. 80 mph average.
1.4 miles/kWh * 90% * 131 kWh = 165 miles. 80 mph average.

This trip was longer than it takes when I don’t tow for several reasons:
I had an hour delay on the bridge—not within my control.
I drove faster than I normally would have because of the delay on the bridge and then I needed to make an extra stop in Kingman, which added about 40 minutes to the drive (I went for a walk, napped, and accidentally charged up to 90%).
I charged to 90% at the stops. The first and third stop were unintentional. At the first stop, I walked to a nearby fast food restaurant and then changed my mind about what food I wanted. The third stop, I took a nap and woke up with the truck at a higher-than-expected charge. I had planned to skip Kingman and take a very short stop in Williams, but the stopped traffic between Needles and Kingman changed that plan.

I did not unhook the trailer at any of the chargers. Two of the charging stations are set up with pull-through or a very wide area behind the charging station, and the third was mostly empty and I didn’t feel the need to drop the trailer. The next time I tow that distance, I’ll do two things differently:
1) I’ll slow down. 80 mph doesn’t save me any time compared with 73 mph (7 minutes in 100 miles is a meaningless time improvement).
2) I’ll increase the air pressure in the tires. Running at 36 PSI was a mistake and I should have been closer to 44 PSI.

Both of those would have saved me 10-15% efficiency.

View attachment 6730

Stop in Barstow, CA at the brand-T Supercharger. No need to drop the trailer.

View attachment 6731

Stop in Needles, CA at the EA charging station. Also no need to drop the trailer—behind the trucks is a large dirt lot.

View attachment 6724




Bonus photo of me having towed the tractor to a work site in the Northern Arizona desert. This was a hot day (despite the cloud cover in the photo, which burned off quite rapidly). We used the truck to power all of the power tools, from jackhammers to drills to skillsaws, and ran a freezer with ice cream, popsicles, and other treats for the crew. I also took a couple of 2-hour work meetings while in the truck with the AC running.

View attachment 6726

It's great to hear your real world experiences of towing with a Lightening @SpaceEVDriver . 200+ miles with a trailer is impressive! I don't know the battery capacity of your Lightening (320 miles?) and the weight of the trailer, but it seems great. I also agree that any gas engine is better avoided if possible.

200 miles of towing distance before a charge would be fine for me. But I am not sure that could happen with a Scout Terra and a 6,500 lbs travel trailer. Am still feeling torn over this one. Even if they make a RAM Charger, I wouldn't want one. Hmmmm.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

It's great to hear your real world experiences of towing with a Lightening @SpaceEVDriver . 200+ miles with a trailer is impressive! I don't know the battery capacity of your Lightening (320 miles?) and the weight of the trailer, but it seems great. I also agree that any gas engine is better avoided if possible.

200 miles of towing distance before a charge would be fine for me. But I am not sure that could happen with a Scout Terra and a 6,500 lbs travel trailer. Am still feeling torn over this one. Even if they make a RAM Charger, I wouldn't want one. Hmmmm.

My lightning has an extended range battery: 131 kWh, 320 miles.

The weight of the trailer is less important than the air resistance. A travel trailer will be worse than what I was towing in the example. I would guess not better than 1.7 miles/kWh and maybe as bad as 1.1 miles/kWh at 65-70 mph.

 

[jonnygarner]

Here is the travel trailer in question, just for fun. A 1974 Airstream Argosy.

 

[cyure]

Hey how about this. The top of the trailer is a boat!

This Ridiculously Rare Vintage Fiberglass Camper Has A Roof That Turns Into A Boat - The Autopian

One of the rarest fiberglass campers is also the coolest. The Kom-Pak Sportsman trailer looks like a 1950s Ford and has a boat for a roof

www.theautopian.com

 

[AlanL]

The weight of the trailer is less important than the air resistance. A travel trailer will be worse than what I was towing in the example. I would guess not better than 1.7 miles/kWh and maybe as bad as 1.1 miles/kWh at 65-70 mph.

I was going to make the same comment then thought about you doing 80. The U-Haul and cargo look pretty low profile, but the drag is 78% worse at 80 than at 60. I have no idea how the U-Haul at 80 compares to a travel trailer at 60.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I was going to make the same comment then thought about you doing 80. The U-Haul and cargo look pretty low profile, but the drag is 78% worse at 80 than at 60. I have no idea how the U-Haul at 80 compares to a travel trailer at 60.

Absolutely correct.

Total energy cost goes as velocity cubed, so higher speeds will always lose the efficiency game.

Without detailed analysis of the (lack of) aerodynamics of the Arosy, we can only guess. My guess is that 55 mph towing the Argosy is probably similar to 80 mph towing nothing and 73 mph towing the UHaul. But then weight comes into play if there are a lot of hills or start-stop traffic.

 

[Chavannigans]

Absolutely correct.

Total energy cost goes as velocity cubed, so higher speeds will always lose the efficiency game.

Without detailed analysis of the (lack of) aerodynamics of the Arosy, we can only guess. My guess is that 55 mph towing the Argosy is probably similar to 80 mph towing nothing and 73 mph towing the UHaul. But then weight comes into play if there are a lot of hills or start-stop traffic.

Shoutout to SpaceEVDriver!

Your writeups are amazing and we appreciate all your knowledge and experience with EVs.


Thank you for helping educate us rubes

 

[cyure]

Shoutout to SpaceEVDriver!

Your writeups are amazing and we appreciate all your knowledge and experience with EVs.


Thank you for helping educate us rubes

hear hear!!!

 

[AlanL]

Total energy cost goes as velocity cubed

I need a brief physics lesson please. I know drag increases as the square of velocity. At a steady speed on level ground there is no increase in kinetic or potential energy, so where does the extra velocity multiple come in?

 

[Chavannigans]

I need a brief physics lesson please. I know drag increases as the square of velocity. At a steady speed on level ground there is no increase in kinetic or potential energy, so where does the extra velocity multiple come in?

Air gets thicc when you go fast

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I need a brief physics lesson please. I know drag increases as the square of velocity. At a steady speed on level ground there is no increase in kinetic or potential energy, so where does the extra velocity multiple come in?

K.E. = 1/2 mV ^2

But that's without atmosphere.
Add atmosphere into the mix and you have to speed the particles up to at least the speed of the vehicle to move them out of the way.

 

[Chavannigans]

K.E. = 1/2 mV ^2

But that's without atmosphere.
Add atmosphere into the mix and you have to speed the particles up to at least the speed of the vehicle to move them out of the way.

Dont electric motors also have a weird efficiency ratio?

When I was in the commercial HVAC world an engineer told me that a if an electric motor was running at 100% load and another was running at 80% load, the one running at 80% uses 50% less energy or something like that.