Towing Adds Much More Range Than You Might Expect

This Tesla Model 3 owner says you can take away range anxiety by always keeping a tow strap in your EV. In order to prove his point, he has another car pull his Model 3 over a relatively short distance, which generates an impressive amount of range so that he can drive back home.

YouTuber Cyber Hooligan drives out to the middle of nowhere and intentionally lets his battery get down to just 3 miles or range, or 1 percent stage of charge. There are no Tesla Superchargers nearby. In fact, the closest is 61 miles away.

While the car will almost certainly travel much further than 3 miles, driving a full hour or so isn’t going to happen. He could simply try to make it home, though his home is 64 miles away, so that’s not going to happen either.

Cyber Hooligan enlists a friend with an old beater Toyota Camry to pull him down the road to see how much range it might add. Thanks to the Tesla Model 3’s regenerative braking system, the car will charge while you tow it, and the same can be said about other electric cars.

We aren’t recommending or endorsing this method of charging, but this is more proof that it actually works. Moreover, it adds more range – or at least reduces range anxiety – much more than you might expect.

Cyber Holligan has the Model 3 towed about 6 miles in total. As you can see in the video, you can watch the range increase as he’s being pulled. After just 6.2 miles of “charging,” he’s able to make the entire 64-mile trip home.

The Model 3 doesn’t ever display 64 miles. And, as we said, it likely had more range than the 3 miles it displayed in the first place. After the 6.2-mile pull, the Model 3’s display shows 40 miles of range. The car also tells him that he could make it to the nearest Supercharger with 13 percent to spare, though he says he made it all the way home.

Regardless of the specifics, towing an EV adds range, and the amount is pretty decent considering the distance of the towing trip. This certainly isn’t practical, and it’s really not safe either, but it works, and that’s the point. Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.