Democratic lawmakers are eager to promote electric vehicles to the American people—especially Biden. But as an eye-opening for those who want to buy EV, —this couple’s experience might give you a tip—“not to buy EV.”
The first electric pickup trucks are finally arriving, and the ones that were driven so far—the 2022 GMC Hummer EV and 2022 Rivian R1T —But as one aspect of their performance remains unknown: How well do they handle towing, especially over long distances?
And according to one new Rivian owner who is towing a car across the country, the 2022 GMC Hummer EV and 2022 Rivian R1T are quite good — unless you don’t mind stopping to charge for several hours each day.
A modest, three-digit number of Rivian R1T all-electric pickup trucks have already been delivered to clients (mainly Rivian’s staff) since the vehicle was just introduced in the United States.
An Instagram user by the name of @gideontherivian took an open trailer with a Rivian R1T on it for a “couple” trip. The Rivian employee and his wife, have been chronicling their trip from Detroit to Los Angeles.
The owner says they’ve been tracking range and efficiency along their drive. They have depended significantly on DC fast-chargers along the route, frequently using Electrify America outlets at Walmart and Sam’s Club. Their Ford Shelby Mustang GT is being towed behind a twin-axle trailer, and when combined with the truck itself, the Rivian’s gross vehicle weight totals 14,260 pounds.
Although the Rivian R1T is capable of towing up to 11,000 lbs (4,990 kg), the manufacturer advises that the range may be reduced by about 50% when towing. The vehicle’s EPA range rating is 314 miles (505 km), which translates to 157 miles (253 km).
We must anticipate that the charging stops will need to be every 100-120 miles because, in the actual world, people rarely arrive at the charging stops with 0% state-of-charge (SOC) and charge to 100%.
The map indicated that the first leg of the trip had 8 charging stops and the second leg had 20, the majority of which were at Electrify America charging stations.
This would result in a total of 28 charging stations (excluding destination stops), spaced out across around 2,700 miles (4,344 km), or a distance of just under 100 miles (160 km).
According to The Fast Lane Truck, the couple was charging between 16% to 80% SOC, which would be 64% of the range and energy: 201 miles (323 km) EPA and 86 kWh.
Since charging slows down substantially above 80 percent SOC, we assume that staying at the charger longer was not worthwhile.
Driving roughly 100 miles would take between one and two hours, and charging would take an additional hour or so (just a brief estimate). It would imply that the charging took a total of about 28 hours or so.
The issue is not just that there are only 100 miles between charging sites and that charging takes a long time. The lack of drive-through charging outlets is a very serious issue.
The condition and design of the charging station affect the length of recharges in a variety of ways. With stalls that can be hauled through, some chargers have proven simple to reach with a trailer, Complicating matters, not all chargers have performed as they should have; some don’t output anywhere close to peak power, while a significant portion of them are broken.
In most cases, they parked with the trailer occasionally using numerous unoccupied slots because attaching and disconnecting the trailer is not simple.
“On average, we find about one of four chargers at a station is non-functional,” said @gideontherivian in an Instagram comment.
This long-haul capability is still inferior to that provided by internal combustion-engined trucks, which, despite being less sophisticated and more expensive to refuel, don’t require nearly as much time to resume driving. Furthermore, if you’re the kind of person who can afford a $70,000 pickup truck, time is probably more of a concern than money.
Watch it here: Youtube/The Fast Lane Truck
Sources: Westernjournal, Tfltruck, Fordtremor