Future of Electric Towing Vehicles (EV)

The car industry is in the grip of a renewables revolution that will change the face of towing as we know it. With the meteoric rise of electric vehicles (EVs) globally, it’s only a matter of time before big fossil fuel-thirsty SUVs are on the nose in Australia. 

While EV innovation has a way to go before it can reliably pull a full-size caravan cost effectively here, like it or not, change is coming. And it’s long overdue, as Australia lags behind the rest of the developed world in transitioning to a sustainable vehicle future.   

The case for EVs

Australia needs to clean up the automotive industry in order to meet its 2050 net zero greenhouse gas emissions target. In 2022, the transport sector produced almost one-fifth of the country’s carbon emissions, with a 60 per cent share attributed to passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. Without intervention, the transport sector is projected to be Australia’s largest emissions producer by 2030.

KIA EV9

With these sobering statistics in mind, the race is on to transition to vehicles powered by electricity, which the Federal Government hopes will be 82 per cent derived from renewables within six years. 

Last year, 7.2 per cent of new cars sold in Australia were all-electric, growing to about 16 per cent when including hybrids. Yet SUVs and light commercial vehicles accounted for more than three quarters of new-car sales, according to figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, with the Ford Ranger the country’s top-selling vehicle.

While EV sales has doubled in recent years, Australia still lags behind the rest of the world, says Professor Hussein Dia, a transport engineering expert at Swinburne University of Technology. 

“We’re still below the global average,” said Professor Dia, who heads Swinburne’s Future Urban Mobility Research Program. “The global average is around 12 to 14 per cent. You have places in Europe where it is maybe 20 per cent, and you have Norway – [with] almost 87 per cent of all new vehicles being EVs.” 

In February, some headway was made with the Federal Government belatedly releasing its proposed model for a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, mooted to come into effect from 1 January next year. If legislated, the standard – penalising car manufacturers that produce large volumes of heavy-emitting vehicles – will stimulate greater supply and choice of EVs in Australia. 

“Australia and Russia are the only countries in the developed world that don’t have these [fuel efficiency] standards,” Professor Dia said. “This means that Australia is essentially a dumping ground for all polluting vehicles that cannot be sold overseas in markets or countries that do have these emissions standards, like the US and Europe.”

The towing dilemma

More EV choice and supply is a good thing for consumers, but there is an elephant in the room and that’s towing. Currently there is no all-electric vehicle in the Australian market with the grunt to pull a large three-tonne-plus trailer. 

Ross De Rango, head of energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council, says large battery electric vehicles (BEVs) capable of towing big vans and boats for long distances are on the horizon, they’re just not available in Australia yet. 

“Many EVs on Australian roads today can tow, with the caveat that when towing there’s a range impact, and most of the ones that can tow are limited to about 1500-1600kg. So, you’ll see electric SUVs towing camper trailers and small vans today, but it’ll be a while before big caravans are routinely being towed long distances around the country by pure battery EVs.

“Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are likely to play a significant part in the transition to EVs for drivers who sometimes tow heavy things long distances. These vehicles can typically cover 50-100km on battery power, drawn from an EV charger or power point, and have a petrol or diesel engine for the long-distance drives. The Ford Ranger PHEV is an example of this, coming in 2025, and suited for large caravans with 3.5-tonne towing capacity. The Mitsubishi Outlander has been available in Australia as a PHEV since 2014.”

2025 Ford Ranger Plug-in Hybrid

The roadblocks

So, what’s the hold up with EV innovation for heavy rigs? Not surprisingly it’s weight and drag, and these two factors ultimately impact range – the maximum driving distance possible before the battery needs recharging. Heavy vehicles need big, heavy, expensive batteries. Greater battery power comes at a cost of more weight, which ultimately requires more power, which further diminishes range. Coupled with the weight and drag of a large caravan, transitioning heavy vehicles to electric power becomes a more complex, and expensive, proposition.

The biggest contender for the Australian market is the Ford F-150 Lightning, packing a towing capacity of 4.5 tonne and a (non-towing) range of 480km. This would decrease significantly with a large caravan in tow. The battery alone weighs about 820kg – more than a Volkswagen Beetle - and accounts for more than a quarter of the vehicle’s kerb weight (2.9 tonne). While the Lightning is available in the US for a starting price of about US$50,000 (AU$77,000), Ford is tight-lipped on a launch date for Australia, which, like most imported cars, would involve modifying for right-hand drive. 

Ford F-150 Lightning Electric Truck

Also yet to firm any plans for entering the Australian market are competitors GMC Hummer (5.4-tonne towing capacity), Rivian R1T (5 tonne), Chevrolet Silverado (4.5 tonne) and the much-hyped Tesla Cybertruck (5 tonne), among others. Currently, the highest towing capacity of an all-electric vehicle sold in Australia is about 2.5 tonne, available with the Kia EV9 AWD, which has a starting price of about $120,000. 

The cost of EVs is a deterrent for many, but prices are expected to fall as innovation evolves. After cost, range anxiety is the biggest barrier, especially in Australia where vast parts of the country are remote, distances great and charging infrastructure immature. But again, this is improving. There are more than 5000 EV chargers scattered across the country, including about 800 fast and ultra-fast plugs. In a partnership with the NRMA, the Federal Government is in the early stages of installing public fast chargers at 117 sites on major highways at 150km intervals. A further 1000 are expected to come online in the next 36 months.

Rivian R1T truck is charging at a Rivian service center

This will appease some would-be EV drivers but is unlikely to satisfy off-roaders who enjoy exploring remote pockets of the country for extended periods. Another roadblock for caravanners is charging station design and the limited supply of drive-through bays. Having to unhitch to charge is not practical, nor is taking up multiple changing spaces with a large rig. Queue anxiety and lag time are also cons.

The benefits

After the higher cost upfront, EVs are more economical than internal combustion engines (ICEs) in the long term. Not only are they cheaper to run, but they are also much cheaper and easier to maintain and less susceptible to break downs. 

Chevrolet Silverado EV

“[With] electric vehicles the motors have fewer moving parts … the maintenance is very, very low,” Professor Dia said. Contrary to popular belief, EVs are also more powerful than ICE cars, providing far superior torque. “With petrol and diesel vehicles the maximum torque is not instantaneous, you have to accelerate the vehicle and it takes a while until you reach the maximum torque where the vehicle is travelling at top speed and maximum acceleration,” Professor Dia said. “With electric vehicles the torque is almost instantaneous.” 

He says ICE vehicles lose 70 per cent of their power in the combustion process, with only 30 per cent powering the wheels. With EVs the power/loss ratio is reversed. EVs can be charged (slowly) from 10A and 15A plugs, including off-grid from solar-powered caravan batteries. Conversely, EV batteries can also provide 240V charge for on-the-road appliances and devices, and even top up the caravan batteries.

The EV trailblazers

A small band of trailblazers is already testing the limits of EV adaptability for Australian touring conditions, albeit in small caravans and campers. 

Australian Electric Vehicle Association ACT branch committee member Peter Campbell has a 2010 Jayco Flite camper trailer towed by a Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV AWD (1.6-tonne tow rating) and achieves a towing range of about 290km. He says efficient (non-remote) EV touring requires a change in mindset – doing multiple partial charges rather than “filling up”, and using a mix of expensive, super-fast (350kW DC) highway chargers, cheaper slow chargers (25kW) and ordinary 10A power (2.3kW). 

GMC HUMMER EV pickup, world's first all-electric supertruck with a roof tent

“A common rookie mistake is to think like you would with a petrol car where you just fill up to full and off you go,” Campbell says. “All RVs get a slower charging rate the closer they get to full … so it makes more sense to charge up to about 80 per cent – 20 minutes is enough for a toilet break and to find a coffee or something … then drive on for another few hundred kilometres, and then charge up to 80 again, rather than hanging around for twice as long to get to 100.” 

Campbell recently drove 600km in a day “with no difficulty at all”, using a slow overnight charge, then having two partial top-ups at 200km intervals. He can also “trickle feed” from the camper’s 10A plug at caravan parks, providing enough charge over two days for the next 250km journey.

Campbell says while EV caravanning isn’t for everyone, future innovations should focus not on bigger batteries, but on making caravans more compact and aerodynamic. “There’s always someone who insists that they’re (EVs) completely impractical, and until you can tow a block of flats across the Simpson Desert it couldn’t possibly be any use,” he says. 

“I don’t think it’s (EV innovation) there yet for towing the very big, boxy, heavy caravans that have got every possible luxury in them. On the other hand, yes, I think it is there for many of the trips that many people do in more modest vehicles, like camper trailers, where the roof goes down low so there’s much less aerodynamic drag and much less effect on range.” 

Catherine Best is the author of Ultimate Caravan Trips Australia.

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