9,000 Miles Of Proof: Electrical Vans Can Tow, However Battery Dimension Is All the things

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A few years in the past, I wrote an article titled “We Could Have Been Flawed To Mock GM’s Massive Battery Method To Electrical Vans.” Again then, it was extremely straightforward to level and snicker at autos just like the Hummer EV for carrying round absurdly large battery packs simply to go to the grocery retailer. However as I began to have a look at the realities of towing with an electrical car, it turned clear that dragging an enormous battery round was going to be the one technique to make the physics work.

Now, I’ve 9,000 miles of proof that I used to be proper, and proof that electrical RVing is definitely an excellent expertise.

This wasn’t a bunch of native journeys, nor was it a visit alongside carefully-chosen highways with higher than common infrastructure. We hauled a journey trailer from New Mexico to California, again up via the mountains of Arizona, alongside the remainder of Route 66 to Chicago, out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and all the way in which again dwelling through the South. We traveled via 21 states. We visited 7 nationwide parks and several other nationwide monuments, seashores, and lakeshores. We visited dozens of charging stations from each main charging supplier. We noticed the lights of a number of prime US cities together with darkish skies the place we noticed the Milky Manner over deserts and oceans.

What I discovered on this journey is that electrical vans can completely tow heavy masses over large distances immediately. The mechanical functionality is flawless. However the journey additionally proved that the present trade pattern of attempting to promote electrical pickups with 100 to 130 kWh battery packs is a whole useless finish. 

If you need an electrical truck to do actual work on the freeway, battery dimension is every thing.

(Observe: If you need the precise travelogue, campground opinions, and the story of the highway itself, I’m detailing all the journey over at Cost To The Parks beginning with The Street Caught Up With Us (However We Made It). This text is strictly concerning the {hardware}, the numbers, and the infrastructure we encountered alongside the way in which.)

The Upside: The Silverado EV Is A Towing Beast

Earlier than we get into the charging and vary, we have now to speak about how this truck handles weight. Mechanically talking, electrical towing is vastly superior to fuel and diesel. You get on the spot torque, zero scuffling with gearing and RPMs on inclines, good management of velocity taking place mountains, and easy merging with site visitors on even brief onramps. Virtually every thing that sucks about towing is solved.

As my son put it, “I’m glad we have now a truck now that you just simply drive with the camper like regular.” Importantly, he had an excellent baseline for comparability. Final 12 months, he went with us on a 4,000-mile journey pulling one of many identical trailers with a Chevy Suburban.

Halfway via our journey, we upgraded to a more recent journey trailer, selecting a 7,000-pound (loaded) inTech OVR Navigate. The Silverado positively seen the improve. The rear finish sagged a bit extra, and the dealing with on twisty mountain roads misplaced a tiny quantity of its sharpness as a result of we had been driving proper on the sting of what requires a weight distribution hitch (per the handbook, which is usually ignored by house owners).

Regardless of skipping the WDH, the truck nonetheless felt anchored to the highway. We drove via some excessive wind circumstances (there have been twister warnings within the space) that might have compelled a lighter tow car to cease till the storm handed. The Silverado EV simply absorbed it. The truck solely shook somewhat, and saved the trailer fully in line. Having a tow car that actually weighs a ton greater than the camper tends to maintain every thing planted.

Contained in the cab, the expertise was simply as stable. The seating, the HVAC, and the general facilities are glorious. We had been capable of journey comfortably all day. We routinely knocked out lengthy 400-mile runs with out feeling bodily damaged by the point we lastly parked for the night time. All of this consolation got here with the mid-range LT bundle (above the Work Truck, however under the RST).

While you put the truck in Park and arrange camp for the night time, the Silverado EV begins to do issues that even the most effective diesel pickups merely can’t do. Past simply pulling the heavy rig, having a 170 kWh battery sitting proper in entrance of the hitch means you successfully have an enormous, silent energy station wherever the camper is. 

The Silverado EV’s onboard PowerBase system pushes out as much as 10.2 kW of offboard energy. Understanding I may simply plug the camper straight into the truck’s 240V or 120V retailers to run the air-con, microwave, and lights fully eradicated any boondocking anxiousness. We may cease wherever and have the entire consolation of an RV park.

Not solely was this nice for tenting in parking tons, truck stops, and relaxation areas, however for tenting within the Outer Banks. We by no means went with out air-con, even on scorching days that might have made that a part of the journey depressing, and we did all of it with out paying for a full hookup campsite till our final day on the islands.

The Draw back: The Math of Pulling a Brick By way of Air

Right here is the place we have now to present the EV skeptics some credit score. They’re completely proper concerning the large vary penalty of towing. While you hitch a heavy brick to the again of your truck, aerodynamics take a brutal toll.

Our first trailer obtained about 1.0 miles/kWh towing at 65 mph (our ABRP reference determine). After we swapped to the 7,000-pound inTech, our effectivity dropped right down to 0.9 miles/kWh. If you’re doing the maths at dwelling, 0.9 miles/kWh means a 130 kWh battery pack (the usual “prolonged vary” packs you discover in vans just like the F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1T) gives you about 117 miles of complete vary from 100% to fully useless. A Tesla Cybertruck’s 123 kWh battery does a number of miles much less.

However out in the true world, you by no means drive from 100% to 0%. 

First, you want a security buffer. I discovered that the arduous approach in Oklahoma. We hit some tornado-producing storms with large headwinds that completely shredded our vary. I rolled right into a charging station in Oklahoma Metropolis with the truck screaming at me in decreased energy mode at 4% after 45 minutes of nerve-racking hypermiling. After that shut name, I made it a tough rule to intention for a 20% arrival state of cost simply to present us room to breathe when the climate turned ugly. Later within the journey once we encountered sudden Texas winds, we didn’t need to sweat it.

Second, you hardly ever cost previous 80% on the highway as a result of the charging speeds drop off a cliff as charging tapers to guard the battery. Going to 100% means spending wherever from 1.5-2.5 hours relying on the truck.  If you’re unplugging at 80% and aiming to reach at your subsequent cease at 20%, you might be solely utilizing 60% of your battery pack for precise driving.

While you apply that 60% most-usable window to a 130 kWh battery, you solely have 78 kWh to work with. At 0.9 miles/kWh, your leg-to-leg towing vary shrinks to precisely 70 miles. If you’re driving 65 miles per hour, you might be stopping to cost each 65 minutes.

In a Tesla Cybertruck with its 123 kWh pack, the maths is even worse. You get about 66 miles of ideally suited  vary between chargers, that means it’s important to pull over and plug in just an hour after you hit the freeway.

You aren’t road-tripping at that time. You might be simply crawling from plug to plug and/or spending as a lot time at chargers as you might be shifting.

Brute Drive: How Our 170 kWh Truck Solves This Drawback

That is the place GM’s technique largely neutralizes the issue. The Silverado EV was designed with an exceptionally excessive ground. It’s barely extra work to get into, however that structure provides it the bodily room to deal with an enormous 170 kWh battery pack (a 205 kWh battery pack can also be out there, however that reduces towing capability from 12,500 lbs to 10,000). It doesn’t attempt to be hyper-efficient to unravel the towing downside. It merely brute forces the aerodynamic penalty with uncooked capability so you possibly can nonetheless have cheap instances driving between chargers.

Even sitting at 0.9 miles/kWh pulling the heavy inTech, that huge pack gave us a theoretical vary of simply over 150 miles. By using that capability, we naturally fell right into a rhythm of doing 90 to 110-mile legs (staying between 20%-80%). That gave us about an hour and a half to 2 hours of stable driving between stops whereas nonetheless protecting that essential 20% climate buffer in our again pocket.

Having that a lot battery additionally fully modifications the way you expertise the charging curve. You need to keep within the quickest a part of the curve. Regardless that our prolonged vary Silverado EV is capped at 310 kW, we may roll right into a station as excessive as 40% and watch the electrons pour in at prime velocity for a bit. You don’t need to dip under 10% to get max charging speeds.. The tapering wasn’t that noticeable till round 60%, and it didn’t get terribly sluggish till properly after 80%. We normally set our goal for 70% or 80% and obtained again on the freeway in a couple of half hour.

Because of this we spent extra time driving than charging, typically by a ratio of three:1 (1.5 hours driving for a half hour charging). This may sound horrible for those who’re an astronaut diaper-wearing highway warrior pulling a 40-foot fifth wheel for six hours between stops, however in my expertise towing with ICE vans, somebody in my household is all the time prepared for a break earlier than even two hours has handed. Get sufficient people in a truck with organic wants that aren’t completely synchronized, and hardly anybody can RV sooner than you possibly can towing with a Silverado EV.

On final 12 months’s journey towing with a Suburban, we didn’t get there sooner. Somebody’s all the time eager to cease and take a break. Charging virtually all the time occurs once we had been going to cease anyway.

All of this having been mentioned, a actuality of electrical RVing (like all electrical road-tripping)  is that the truck is usually prepared earlier than you might be. We might be consuming a meal, taking a nap, or simply resting within the camper. As an alternative of dashing again to the cab when it hit 80% or no matter was strictly wanted to achieve the following cease, we regularly simply let it maintain charging, typically all the way in which to 100%. Then we’d rethink our subsequent cease. 

We even had a number of scorching days the place the truck instructed turning off the cabin AC to cost sooner. We had the choice to retreat to the camper, however typically we simply selected to attend a number of additional minutes so we wouldn’t need to drop the steps and transfer everybody to the camper for shorter charging stops.

Backside line: 170 or 205 kWh is sufficient to align RVing with human wants. Smaller batteries simply aren’t as much as that except you pull a small teardrop, pop-up, or A-frame camper (a good selection for a lot of households and people).

Infrastructure Actuality: ABRP, Pilot Stops, and Pull-Throughs

The bodily infrastructure remains to be the most important hurdle for electrical towing, nevertheless it’s not an insurmountable impediment.

First, the software program hole is actual for a lot of autos. Some vans do have higher software program, however the built-in Google Maps navigation in my truck merely can not compensate for the vary hit of including a trailer. The Guess-O-Meter did a good job of adjusting on the fly, however for precise route planning, I needed to rely fully on A Higher Routeplanner (ABRP). I spent the primary few days of the journey having ABRP “predict” routes I had simply completed, tweaking the settings till I had it obtained issues proper.

One other vital ability for electrical towing is evaluating the guess-o-meter to the remaining miles to the vacation spot. It’s good to intention for 30-40 miles of extra vary as you drive (with my rig, 30 miles is 20%). In case you discover the hole shrinking, it’s your sign to decelerate (typically attributable to wind) to protect vary and never run out. In case you discover the reserve miles rising (typically attributable to a tailwind), you possibly can velocity up a bit to make higher time. It’s crude, however efficient, permitting you to nonetheless get there when ABRP can’t predict Oklahoma thunderstorms completely.

As soon as we had the software program found out, we had to determine the right way to navigate the bodily station layouts. We managed to cost with out unhooking virtually each single time. Nevertheless, it required precision driving and ability at backing up, looking for end-cap chargers, and sometimes blocking unused elements of parking tons. Utilizing little methods and scouting forward with aerial imagery and road view, we solely needed to unhook at one Tesla Supercharger and one Pilot/EVgo station throughout the entire journey.

I’ve been writing concerning the partnership between GM, Pilot, and EVgo because it was first introduced, and I even reviewed my first one again in 2024. In 2026, we once more noticed that when these stations are constructed out accurately, they’re precisely what we wanted. We might roll right into a Pilot location late at night time and pull proper right into a devoted, canopy-covered EV pull-through stall. We may plug in, prepare for mattress within the camper whereas the truck charged, after which merely pull ahead into an ordinary RV parking house to sleep. Within the morning, we’d typically pull again round to prime up whereas making breakfast and taking showers earlier than hitting the freeway. It fully eradicated the stress of the charging cease.

Sadly, many Pilot/Flying J/One9 stations don’t have pull-thru charging. I do know their current truck stops typically don’t have room for that, however they really want to work on that extra. This was particularly apparent within the South alongside I-20, a freeway I drove from end-to-end on this journey. I in some way managed to cost with out unhooking in almost all instances, nevertheless it was a problem future EV truck house owners gained’t need to put up with.

Lastly, there’s the issue of worth. The financial savings of driving an electrical car at dwelling, together with vans, is simple. However, get out on the highway and begin paying 50, 60, 70 cents for every killowatt-hour, and the price financial savings cease taking place. It turns into dearer to tow a journey trailer with an electrical truck than a fuel or diesel truck.

That is one thing the trade must do higher at, even when charging suppliers have gotten higher at reliability over the last two years.

The Trade Delusion: Why “Mini-Vans” Alone Received’t Save Electrical Vans

After 9,000 miles, it’s clear that the trade’s pivot towards solely promoting smaller, cheaper electrical truck platforms is a giant mistake. The unhappy fact is that even full-sized vans fail once they have 130 kWh or much less. Smaller platforms just like the upcoming Ford Common Car truck or the Slate will likely be nice for suburban and concrete responsibility, however will fall far in need of expectations even pulling small teardrop trailers.

GM didn’t simply get this proper with huge batteries. The corporate obtained it proper by making huge batteries an possibility. The platform was made to deal with over 200 kWh of battery, nevertheless it’s out there with 170, 119 kWh, and should ultimately be out there with a variety extender. It will be downright foolish to promote everybody a large battery, however having it out there for individuals who want it is smart.

In a time when “client selection” is raised as an argument for abandoning or scaling again EV efforts, it’s the massive batteries that really give the trade the power to actually cope with headwinds.

Conclusion: The Verdict from A Journey Round The US

Mechanically, electrical towing is an absolute dream. The torque, the silent energy, and the steadiness are unmatched. It’s actually a much better expertise, and that’s earlier than you contemplate that you would be able to energy a journey trailer off-grid.

But when automakers need truck consumers to truly ditch fuel and diesel, they need to cease optimizing their platforms for suburban commuters. They should construct vans with the battery capability availabel to do actual work over lengthy distances in horrible climate. Proper now, GM is the one one really providing that.

If you wish to learn extra concerning the precise route, how the truck carried out within the nationwide parks, and the day-to-day realities of dwelling out of an EV-powered rig for months on finish, head over to Cost To The Parks to comply with the remainder of the journey.

All photos by Jennifer Sensiba.