February Magazine - Nick Lomas EVs

you may not have read as far back as my post, but i did try to cajole Which Magazine to provide the information you are looking for, I think the club did some testing with a Jag fpace some while ago but was only towing something akin to a trailer tent and the distance towed was terrible this was my post

"Which magazine had a very good Feb supplement where they rated EV's/Hybrids giving costs for charging, mileage possible etc, i sent them an email asking them to grasp the nettle and put a caravan of say 1600kgs on the back of a suitably sized EV tow car and to publish the results for towing capability e.g. mileage, handling in tight situations such as pitching up on site, all the stuff a good diesel tow car would do

this was their reply

"As our reviews are designed to be a general overview for the general consumer, we wouldn't consider suitability for towing a caravan, ownership of which is estimated as being around 550,000 for the whole of the UK, as essential or universal enough to be included as part of our reviews. We always recommend that any members who have specific interests do outside research into those topics if a product that we recommend interests them"

take it as you will anybody got a printable suitable reply ?

P.S was talking to a friend in Houston yesterday, and he says they are now developing a battery that contains no cobalt can give a full charge in 10 mins and a range of 350 miles, 2 years to production, i guess it is a case of watch this space

I imagine with JLR announcing that they will change over to all electric car manufacturing by 2025 they will start to produce cars with proper towing capability. It's hard to imagine Land Rover selling a Discovery that can't tow? Land Rovers are used for all sorts of things beyond towing caravans. Clearly they won't be cheap and there is a danger that there will be a period in history where many might be priced out of electric tow cars and that could well have a very negative impact on our hobby. Or perhaps as Brue suggests upthread lead to more people moving to motorhomes as the price differential could be quite small or even to the advantage of the motorhome if one takes into account of the cost of both the caravan and the electric car?

David

I am bothered by the logistics of charging at home. When my two daughters lived at home there were four cars on the drive all required because of lack of public transport.  I believe that there are slow and fast chargers but I am unsure of the power needed. Often lengthy charging would not be suitable e.g. I was on shift and got home at 11pm and left at 5am next day for early shift.  daughters were often out late and up early for work as youngsters do! Would normal home electric capacity be sufficient? Where is all this extra power coming from as gas/oil heating is on the way out? What about all those who live in flats or terrace houses? I am not anti electric vehicles just worried that it has not been thought through or we have not been told as usual.

What about the add car required for most motor caravan owners 

I suppose if you bought a small EV as your day to day car you could use that. I doubt the numbers using MH’s for day to day transport are that large, so most would require another vehicle.

I would also question your use of most. When looking round CAMC sites and sites abroad, I would say it’s a minority.

I was thinking was a runaround at home rather than as a runaround from sites

I might have also mentioned the lack of joined up thinking with regards to charging EVs ,by those who are in charge? both at LA and HMG levels

Assuming I have understood you correctly that is exactly what we did when we got our first motorhome. We traded in the 4X4 for a compact car, in our case a Kia Venga. Whilst EV cars of the same size are still expensive compared to ICE cars they are a lot cheaper than anything capable of towing. A possible downside for those that might want to tow a small car behind their motorhome is the fact that, as far as I know, all EV's have automatic gearboxes which would probably preclude their use unless on an actual trailer. 

Ahh, my misinterpretation.