HOW TO...CHARGE AN EV WHILE TOWING

If you tow with an electric car, you'll need to plan trips carefully to keep it topped up, says David Motton

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Electric vehicles now account for one in five new cars sold in the UK. Believe it or not, that's around four times as many EVs as diesels. These strong sales figures are largely driven by the company car market, with attractive tax incentives to encourage business drivers to switch to electric cars.

Since the demise of the Plugin Car Grant in 2022, there have been no such incentives to encourage private buyers to go electric.

Caravanners have even more reason to think twice. Towing long distances with an electric car is more complicated and time-consuming than making lengthy journeys in an EV without a caravan.

If you are determined to switch to electric power, it can be done. You might have to change your approach to towing and plan carefully to make it work, though.

EV range while towing

All sorts of factors affect the range of an electric car. One thing that's guaranteed to have a negative impact is the weight and aerodynamic drag of a caravan.

In our experience, the range of an electric car roughly halves while pulling a tourer. The Camping and Caravanning Club and What Car? reached a similar conclusion when they tested the range of several electric cars, comparing solo driving to the range while towing. The Tesla Model Y achieved a range of 262.5 miles in solo driving, dropping down to 112.5 miles while towing a 1600kg caravan.

Pulling a lighter caravan helps make each kilowatt go further. In our recent test of a Kia EV6 (see p62), we achieved a range of roughly 140 miles towing a 1373kg tourer.