The potential of running out of battery in your Rivian EV whereas far from dwelling or a charging station is one cause individuals have vary nervousness. Of course, calling a tow firm is an possibility if you’re ever on this predicament. However, it might be fairly the expense, to not point out you’ll watch for a whereas earlier than the tow truck arrives. There’s additionally the choice of flat towing your BEV if you might discover a automotive highly effective sufficient to deal with pulling your EV.
With the inclusion of regenerative braking, your EV doesn’t even need to be towed all the best way since it will possibly juice up the battery because it’s being pulled. This is true even for EVs just like the Rivian R1S and Rivian R1T. So sure, you can tow cost a Rivian and most different EVs, however there are some caveats.
How to tow cost a Rivian EV
First, you want a towing automobile highly effective sufficient to tug your Rivian EV and a tow strap that received’t snap because of the automobile’s weight. Also, the battery in your Rivian ought to have sufficient reserve energy to shift the automotive into drive mode from impartial. After all, the regenerative braking capabilities solely work with EVs in drive mode.
The Rivian R1T and Rivian R1S have tow hooks on the entrance and ought to be fairly simple to connect tow straps. That stated, you additionally want a safe connection on the towing automobile.
Changing the regenerative braking settings to match the towing automotive is critical. If it’s smaller and lighter than your Rivian, it could be a good idea to make use of decrease regenerative braking settings.
Conversely, if you have a highly effective automobile pulling just like the Toyota Tundra, you can up the regenerative braking to the utmost for the quickest charging. According to Car and Driver, the Tundra can tow as much as 10,200 lbs, so it shouldn’t have any points with Rivian EVs.
MotorTrend additionally claims that towing Rivian EVs with their gear selectors in reverse will cost the autos nearly as quick because the 220 kW DC quick chargers. This implies the producer accounted for tow charging within the design. There’s additionally one other EV with spectacular flat-tow charging figures within the type of the Lucid Air. It can purportedly provide 200 kW charging charges if towed at 70 mph with most regen activated.
Alternatives to look into if you run out of battery along with your Rivian EV
Aside from tow charging and calling a towing firm, there’s one different different accessible in choose EVs. These embody the R1T, R1S, Ford F-150 Lightning, and the Lucid Air. You can use the Bi-directional charging cable to share battery energy between autos. However, you want at the very least one in all these EVs within the neighborhood with sufficient cost to spare; in any other case, each automobiles will find yourself stranded.
Potential points with tow charging
EVs are considerably heavier than their gas-powered counterparts, primarily because of the weight of their battery packs. This will increase the danger of the tow strap snapping or harm to the towing automobile, particularly if it doesn’t have the required hitches and hooks. Using a tow bar as a substitute is best because it reduces the possibilities of breaking. That stated, not many individuals personal or carry tow bars of their automobiles.
Another potential difficulty is the danger of the tow automobile and Rivian EV colliding. As such, it’s doubly essential that the brakes in each automobiles be in tip-top situation earlier than attempting to tow cost an electrical automobile. MotorTrend additionally advises in opposition to pulling an EV behind an RV for the reason that again present generated by the motor could find yourself damaging your automobile.
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