Can Electric Cars Tow? We Max Out A Tesla Model X & Kill The Battery to Find Out! Adventure X Ep.1

[Music] this is the number you want to pay attention to we're at 924 watt hours per mile oh is that triple or Andre can you hear me can hear me I need you to go 55 miles an hour 52 miles an hour and I'm gonna draft you because it's gonna be negative one by the time I get there [Music] hey guys welcome to one of the most important videos of the year because we are towing with our Tesla Model X we're maxing it out 5,000 pounds on our efficiency loop we're gonna run the loop empty sixty five point two miles of high way test and then we're gonna load up a two axle horse trailer and see if it'll tow that's sixty five point two miles and get us back to the supercharger without running out of charge so it's early in the morning let's charge up the Tesla all the way to full and see what happens [Music] so we've been charging here for almost I don't know 45 minutes or so and you can see that the charge rate has slowed down to 127 miles and the more full you get the slower charges now like we mentioned this car is supposed to get 325 miles on a full charge that is according to the EPA but that number is going to change based on how you drive it how much you're towing Wow that really should affect it let's do some quick math to see whether or not we're gonna make it back to the supercharger on a full charge so grab my calculator to the start of our 65.2 mile highway loop you have to drive 36 miles just to get to the start of the loop so 36 plus the first loop which is going to be empty 65.2 plus the second loop which is going to be towing so another 65 point two miles plus 36 more miles to get back to the supercharger so 202 point four total miles today but we're going to be running through battery much quicker when we're towing so in theory 325 is much greater than 200 and 2.4 but are we minute make up that extra hundred twenty-five miles with the towing section so I'm really worried about that we are at 324 miles of range soon to be the max of 325 and I think it's time to hit the road I do want to see 325 just just so I can say I see hit we're fully charged up that cost us 1475 we started at 748 it's now 901 an hour 13 minutes let's go ahead and unlock the charge port unlock charge port go and put it back is little holder here that little guy will close automatically let's hit the road hey so check it out I made it to the love truck stop where we start our highway efficiency loop behind me over there well that's the highway so to give you took about thirty six point nine miles and the car said I've only used thirty three miles of range so we're doing well we're down to 292 miles but I'm missing a trailer and I'm missing an Andre oh no you're not missing anything because I brought the trailer and it's parked right there with a semi trucks and why we at the truck stop when we're not using any fuel yeah that's a good question but we're actually gonna use the scale here to see how much the Tesla weighs and then we're gonna weigh the Tesla one we hook it up to the trailer to see how much the trailer weighs as well but first I think we need to go wait empty and then hit our unladen and PQ before I guess who would be electricity loop electricity loop but also this is our standard route so we can compare it kind of and you'll see to some other vehicles [Music] [Applause] [Music] you see that yellow line right there in the scales if they're separate plates that measure each axle so we'll know the exact weight distribution of this car as well that's cool yep so this is the cat scale Andre is gonna get a ticket number we go inside and see how much the Tesla weighs empty already all psycho item 5 to achieve upon death [Music] I've got the way ticket here dude I've never seen this before check it out a perfect 50/50 weight distribution 2,700 pounds per axle 5,400 pounds just for the car by itself and I checked out the sticker in the door on the driver's side for a gross vehicle weight and we have about 1,400 pounds of payload which is really good okay so I think it's time that we load into the car and hit the highway on our empty MPG oh I keep saying mpg on our empty efficiency loop I'm so used to doing this gas vehicles yeah and we're gonna run a bunch of numbers explain our procedure and see what the results are towing in untell oh yeah we all saw the sunroof screen here the Tesla provides it's really hot today well upper eighties lower 90s pretty hot for Colorado I would not recommend doing this while moving because it's kinda has a few parts and then now we have a shade so that we don't get as much heat coming through so how do we set the trip meter I mean don't we need to reset our trip meter and/or predict where we're going so this is where things get tricky so we have a sense last start and we have a since last charge so we are completely reset and this is where we'll start both loops right right here it's exactly let me grab some numbers you so what does the computer say our remaining miles to empty is right there remaining mileage according to the car 289 what about our percentage so we're gonna go into display energy display energy what's that percentage right there eighty nine percent of battery remaining now our current drive you see that doesn't give us the kilowatt hours review so we're gonna have to go off the since last recharge so nine point four is what it is kilowatt hours and the domitor is 312 just to make sure we're going 66 miles this is our abbreviated highway loop for efficiency all right we just got on that Highway this is interstate 76 and I'm sitting cruise control at 70 which is our standard speed for testing and 75 is the speed limit okay Andre so I went ahead and set our turnaround point into the navigation and the entire loop were doing today back to the love's truck stop is sixty five point two miles so the turnaround point is thirty two and a bit miles away outside of Wiggins Colorado but what's cool is when I set the turnaround point here it tells me what the battery percentage will be by the time we get there so it says seventy-eight percent but what's even cooler is I can actually go into my trip here and I can show you exactly how production yeah the prediction on how the battery is going to decrease and this is data that Tesla provides and I believe it's actually crowdsource based on other users and you can see based on for example elevation changes how fast that battery is going to decrease or at eighty eight percent right now by the time we get to the turnaround we should be at seventy eight percent and actually see consumption in watt hours per mile and this is the metric that Tesla uses in their vehicles measure efficiency so the higher this number is the watt hour per mile the less efficient we're driving the more power we're using the lower it is the more efficient we're driving so right now on this trip so far we've been seven miles we're averaging 391 watt hours per mile and once again we want that number low for the most efficient snow can I lower the suspension or does the cart do that automatically do you know yeah I do I can actually show you how it works so right now you can see we're in low and that's because the suspension lowers at highway speeds to improve aerodynamics and handling but when we're towing it's not going to do that because it recognizes us in the trailer so what I'm going to do here is every 15 miles I'm going to keep track of the watt hour per mile average so what that means is when you get to 15 tell me and I'm gonna track this number right here okay and we're gonna keep a rolling total and then at the end we're also gonna see what the car says the watt hour mile average is for the entire trip I love it it looks like Google Maps maybe it'll map that's powered by Google yes and you can zoom in quickly sent wait boys I mean what can be better than the giant screen like this yeah it is super super precise I mean like you can even see all those details in alright we're exiting and turning around so wow the region breaking is really working dude what is our remaining range to 57 to 57 and then let me find that in percentage as well 79 percent 79 percent remaining but yeah if you're packing the highway okay on the road again I'm gonna sing some more no no okay 32 miles back to love's which makes perfect sense let's see on the trip we're expected to be at 66 percent by the time we get back to LA the truck stop hook up a trailer dude there's gonna plummet so somebody's two degrees automatic yep so 72 degrees Auto we do have our Sun changes and no autopilot cause we can't use autopilot or Tony but we are using a depth okay Andre so we have a couple different modes in this vehicle we have acceleration and chill and standard we have regenerative braking and standard or low and we also have range mode but we're kind of driving this car like most people would which is just acceleration standard regenerative braking standard no range mode what does wrench mold do a range mode acquired a Tesla will save energy by reducing the climate control power so essentially making heating or cooling less effective but I think most people like to be at their desired temperature right yeah I don't want to be sweating too much here so we're just kind of driving it like most people would as Tesla sets it up and then we're gonna do the same thing towing as well [Music] [Applause] okay it's time to record our last 15 a mile average so in the last 15 miles here we go 60 we've been averaging wow that's terrible 330 watt hours per mile which is currently actually our highest number of the four and that could be because we've hit some uphill right Andre yeah and so what's happening is we're at about a mile above sea level in Colorado can you show them the current altitude episode 5000 19 feet by where we turned around and Wiggins that's a little bit lower by about a hundred feet or so so we're slowly creeping up towards the Rockies so that may be why we're using a little bit more energy but what's cool about this loop is it's an Outback right yeah so we start in the same place in the end in the same place so it should all balance itself out yeah that semi truck was rolling coal rolling coal Andre what about us are we rolling any coal well it depends in Colorado there's some coal used to produce that electricity so we might be rolling a tiny bit of coal but no we're electric only literal coal is a little rolling we're almost there we're almost there so once again the navigation and the computer said that from the turn around back to love's would be at 66 percent battery remaining but we're actually beating the estimate we're currently at 68 percent battery remaining so that's good well let's go and get the trailer and hook it up yep for sure [Music] so there's a trailer that we now have to unfortunately put on the Tesla but we're gonna have to do some numbers calculations I think at the very end to calculate mpg equivalent so you're gonna have to stay tuned to that to figure out what mpg is untying and with towing what are our final stats for this trip so we went sixty five point seven miles we have 221 miles remaining and we also have 68 percent of battery remaining what's our kilowatt hour ending twenty eight point seven so in the last sixty five point seven miles on the highway our efficiency loop we actually used sixty eight miles of range that's probably because of air conditioning and some other inefficiencies right yeah there could be an infinite number of factors of why that is but but we're pretty close for about two point three miles off according to the indicator there and how many kilowatts did we use kilowatt hours I should say twenty eight point seven or we ended up using 19.3 kilowatt hours on the sixty five point seven mile trip on the loop without towing we've used twenty one percent of our battery okay well we'll see what happens with the trailer [Music] for throwing tests today we're using a way safe hitch it's all aluminum it's a solid shank it's really strong it's rated up to 10,000 pounds and it can also tell us well how much tongue weight we have approximately the hitch on the Tesla is pretty low so we're gonna have to go up to adjust the height of the trailer top so we want to make sure that the Tesla and the trailer are all level that improves your braking capability your handling and aerodynamics as well of course the Tesla has air suspension right yeah it's good self leveling air suspension now you may have noticed that on the highway to suspension lower down right yes when we hook up the trailer the vehicle knows that the trailer hooked up will go into trailering mode and won't lower down on the highway so it's a safety thing which is great yeah it's good as always it's time to hook up the safety chains and on the Model X the chain hooks on the hitch are really hidden up in there so we're using these extensions or the chains of course the breakaway cable is here also attached to that extension there we go what about this guy Andre are seven pin connecter well that's the most important parts well it's also kind of hidden so you have to look for it of course we also install the trailer brake controller but we're not using a weight distribution hitch we're under five thousand pounds on the trailer we're not required to use one and using a weight distribution hitch whether unibody vehicle can cause some issues with kind of warping the the body of the vehicle so we don't want to mess with it so today we are using the Cimarron to axle for trailer brought to us by trans West now let's see what we got in the back here don't want to let anything out Andre what is your steam there it's my Steve unicorn it makes noise look whoa it's alright this begs the question where are horses we're not using any horses today because this trailer by itself is just over 4,000 pounds and we have a little bit of weight in the nose to balance it so let's go wait find out exactly what this weighs and it's also a really wide trailer so Tommy we need to attach those mirrors oh yeah the extension so our trailer is seven and a half feet wide and the standard Tesla mirrors just aren't doing it so we had to go and get some towing mirrors now these aren't gonna affect aerodynamics which is not brilliance but it is a big safety thing so please just clamp on existing there's hopefully they help hold up at 70 mile I don't want to break our brand-new test mirrors because these are quite expensive here coffee's open and then they actually end up ratcheting like that we tried three different brake controllers but we ended up with this wired solution we used double-sided velcro here to mount it to the dash one of the coolest new features on the Model X is that it comes pre-wired for a brake controller so all we had to do was connect the included pigtails to the end of our prodigy p2 and then plug it in underneath the dash [Music] [Music] breaker breaker 1-9 this is my welcome to the world's toughest truck drag race [Music] there's a long-ass time to fill inside up a check we go home now you use a cassette tape and start the 80s stay tuned for more news and real-world reviews I'll see you next time see you guys next time via KHOU we're towing with today is a 2019 Tesla Model X long range this is the one with 325 miles of range 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds and we have the 20 inch wheels on this so there are several different wheel configurations if you get the 22 inch wheels for example the towing capacity goes down this is the highest towing capacity of any Model X four thousand nine hundred and sixty pounds right okay that's great so our trailer lights are working we have our brake controller hooked up into the Tesla I love that testing is that pre wiring just go the next step and give us a real brake controller next time alright so we're gonna weigh all the axles now with the trailer to find out the exact way thank you so Andre you have the second cat ticket here and I assume the number we want is gross weight yes so combined Tesla and trailer nine thousand eight hundred and sixty pounds just so happens that that's precisely forty four hundred and sixty pounds of trailer so about forty five hundred pounds yeah so we're close to the max of forty nine sixty actually very close plus there's a three of us in the vehicle as well yes so we're kind of maxing this Tesla out yeah for the trailer and three people but we have about five hundred and forty pounds of tongue weight which is more than ten percent just barely yeah but it makes it more stable okay so I'm happy with this let's get on the highway and CRF dos well let's hope we make it back that's what I'm most worried about okay okay you know another interesting thing normally when you burn fuel your vehicle gets lighter and lighter and lighter yeah and this one you don't get lighter do you well you know what the more interesting thing is we are still like thirty six thirty seven miles away from the nearest supercharger board and there's really no destination charges closer there's one like 30 miles away so that's more interesting I'm worried that we're not gonna make it let's hop in and get on the road okay another way we know that we're ready to go with a trailer is this blue trailer symbol on the dash if there was a problem with wiring it would be a different color but blue is good and over here trailer mode is active and Tommy will tell you a little bit more about it once we get going okay so let's record our numbers Andre so what is our starting range are starting range is two one eight two eighteen sixty seven percent starting range starting kilowatt-hours are twenty nine point zero okay so we have our current trip reset this of course is with the trailer behind us that is our since last charge I wish they give you kilowatt hours in the current trip as well and so they only give you watt hours per mile which is okay Miami control is set to auto at seventy two we have our net in place here okay so let me plug in our destination here which is the same yep so same turnaround points now let's see what it predicts right off the bat because it's detected the weight right yeah it definitely knows we're in trailer mode so let me go to energy and trip it says we're going to be down to 53 percent by the time I get to turnaround point we was a pretty big drop so I think it knows we have some kind of trailer behind us but wait till either accelerate it's just weight going on the highway let's go into consumption let's do a five-mile average and let's see what happens we want highway already pulling out of the parking lot we are off the chart which is nine hundred watt hours per mile yes and I can't zoom out any further meant to take the interstate it wasn't being aggressive with the throttle either hell we're being very pretty delicates as you would towing alright so same speed 70 miles an hour yep cruise control on when we get up to speed slow acceleration yeah gentle like I did before okay we're already down to 66% merging out of the highway and looking at the computer in the center how does it feel so far it feels great the air suspension is working wonders it's comfy the trailer is stable I'm gonna set my cruise control right now 270 in the Tesla oh my god it's still off the charts okay well let's see if it comes down right because you know this is just the first initial burst this is obviously us getting onto the highway this was our last loop this projected range changes quickly based on you know real-time data the one on the cluster is one I'm more interested in we're down to 65 percent of math okay can you go camera and now look check it out we can actually see the trailer as you go down the road the chains are connected everything is connected the Tongass log nice now what's cool is when you hook up the trailer the vehicle automatically engages trailer mode so there's no like tow haul button you have to push it just knows and in trailer mode according to Tesla sub autopilot feature an auto steer summit latest as well as rear parking sensors functionality may not be available that makes sense right yes also traffic aware cruise control increases the following distance from the car in front of you which is awesome the air suspension system does not automatically raise the ride height based on save location so you can actually set a system where the car will raise over rough terrain or bones with a trailer connected nor will it lower from standard to low side collision warnings are active but automatic steering interventions are disabled towing a trailer and carrying accessories increases vehicle weight and drag as a result driving range can decrease significantly but this is why we're doing this video right we are eight minutes into our drive and already the battery percentage has decreased from 8 expected 53% at the turn around to an expected 48 percent at the turn around so Andre we are coming up to our first 15 miles on the loose towing now as a reminder in the first 50 miles of our empty loop we averaged 274 watt hours per model so it's gonna be more than that I can already tell you that we're at 14.5 this is the number you want to pay attention to we're at 924 watt hours oh is that triple or so it's three point three seven three point three seven times your energy well yeah times the watt hour per mile that we've been averaging yeah which means we may be able to make it back to the truck stop but there's no charger there right so we may end up sleeping at the truck stop all right I have to go 36 miles back to the new supercharger obviously the amount of power we're using right now is astonishing what is even more astonishing is how Tesla manages to keep these motors cool at 93 94 degrees I mean that's a lot of power going to these motors by the way I was just passing a truck and there was still a lot of acceleration left yeah if I have wanted acceleration I could have it so there's a lot of power still here all day were coming up to the 30 mile updates now just as untying this second 50-mile stretch actually went a little bit better in terms of consumption so let me know on or 39.9 there you go so 896 average yeah watt hours per mile the first one was 926 we're doing better but that's pretty pretty terrible is it without the trailer at the 30 mile mark yep 269 oh boy I thought this would be kind of a cakewalk it's not gonna be a cakewalk so I'll go write a turnaround point we're down to 34 percent battery and we started with 67 so 67 minus 34 we use 33% battery to get here 33 yeah and we heard and we have 34 percent battery left to get us back to the truck let alone the charges to the truck that's 1% per mile which is exactly would be like like empty did we get back we're not gonna make it what we're gonna have to do now is I think we're gonna have to get a little creative because at this rate let's see it took us 33 percent to get here just to the turnaround points and we have 34 percent battery remaining to get us back yeah that's basically it so I think it's time to get get a little crazy look we're gonna have to slow down speed right well and we can get coming to range yeah minimize okay minimize we're doing range mode on let's turn off the AC this is gonna be a sweatbox radio off this is awful we're not gonna make it back we've gone how far have we gone thirty three point two miles and we have used 33% of battery so that's one percent per mile we're going 60 miles an hour set of 70 air conditioning is off at 96 degrees outside the prediction right now is we'll be back at the truck stop with 17% matters me but but I still don't quite trust this prediction No do you know I don't either because last time now we're at 60% in like a mile last time it dipped so incredibly fast because last time what it said we were gonna be at the turnaround 153 we were at the turnaround with 34 and now it's a 16% with that we're gonna be alike nothing now the computer there still says we have 95 miles remaining right here on the cluster but if you go off of our graphs here and the consumption within the last even let's say it says that play up 30 miles of range yeah let's go let's go 30 miles in the time stamp it says that we have 32 miles remaining and that the screen since 94 I'm gonna go out this because we are burning way faster than what the screen is showing oh boy guys this is not good is this gonna be trailering in the future is this toeing in the future because if it is this is not brilliant no and this is the only about 4500 pounds we're not towing 10,000 or more right [Music] okay so it's time for Plan B it's time to call Kent's son Ling well we're currently running out of battery on our Tesla and we may need a rescue so we're Roggin rook nearby so we're gonna try to make it to the loves truck stop but I don't think we're gonna make it back to Boulder to charge up if we need a tow back to Boulder could you are you around right now is that possible you need to bring no bring a flatbed yeah so we need a flatbed and then we just stick the car the flatbed we tow it to Boulder and then I back it off thanks Kent okay bye-bye so Andre since we slowed down our watt hour per mile is gone down significantly so now we're down to 826 versus 897 before yeah and I figure we're going 55 now well it speed limits 75 by the way yeah I know so it's not really comfortable going this slowly on the interstate but so far so good nobody has songs everybody had time to pass us yeah for sure so hopefully hopefully fingers crossed we're gonna make it back to the truck stop and then if we're super lucky we may even make it back to Boulder [Music] okay Andre so we are what 8.2 miles away from our destination let's look at the consumption we've been averaging in the last 30 miles 750 so it's been going down since we slowed down AC off 19 miles projected though at the current will make it to the truck stop yeah but with a 50 mile range so we'll make it to the truck stop for sure but whether or not we'll make it to a charger that's the problem yeah that's the that's the current new issue so we have one percentage remaining right here so the main display is now kind of more accurate yep so the main display has caught up with more of the real-time display here more or less every 50 miles I've been calculating the average watt-hour per mile and you can see it started at 926 and since we slowed down a SIOC windows just barely cracked we're down 688 which is still terrible better yeah but at least better so please we are so close to the lovestruck stop four point eight miles four point eight miles the instant thing here says 16 miles of range or 18 miles depending on how you calculate it there and the cluster announced is 38 mile guys this is going to be close 38 miles on the cluster so can we have a warning on the screen now plan your next charge are almost too far from known supercharger location or charging locations so chargers and actually we only really have a couple that we're going to make it to the nearest is the Denver supercharger 23 miles away the car says we have 28 miles of range on the cluster so I'm do what we're gonna do is we're going to unhook I'm gonna hop in the car bill they're slow as efficiently as I can I thought we could make it to Boulder I thought that was the closest one with the Denver ones actually a little closer [Music] okay we made it and we're gonna unhook the trailer and hopefully Tommy can get to a charging station somewhere I have the Denver supercharger programmed in here trailers unhooked it says charging needed to reach destination is 27 miles away I have 28 miles of range so I'm gonna go super slow AC off range mode on please car make it please make it [Music] oh man this is not what I wanted to be doing right now this is absolutely insane so I just called Kant told them to stay on speed-dial in case I need charging I'm just gonna creep along charge he needed to reach destination it doesn't think I'll even make it to the supercharger [Music] isn't it funny we're at the fuel stop but there are no Chargers here not it leans for Tesla now the computer needs to be accurate if we're gonna make it I cannot have this computer not be accurate [Music] Andre can you hear me can you hear me I need you to go 55 miles an hour 52 miles an hour and I'm gonna draft you because it says I'm gonna be negative one by the time I get there so we're gonna use the power of drafting I've read it works I'm gonna get super close gonna make it I think but I cannot go any slower with the minimum speed limit is 50 miles an hour it's actually I'm using hardly any power driving this closely behind you yeah I'll turn them on yeah let's turn them on so it turns out if you go 52 miles an hour behind a trailer you can actually well exceed the trip estimate so we're going to be at 0% when we get there before we are at negative 2 19 miles remaining well into the red their hazards on just really cruise along but we're not out of out of the fire yet because we still have to make it to the supercharger and there has to be a spot available there has to be a spot available or we could break this Tesla okay just got a warning message stay below 60 miles an hour to make it to your destination we're doing 50 to 5 percent battery remaining we still have 11 miles to go though come on Tesla don't let us down now I had to crack the window it's 97 degrees out there no a/c I am just boiling luckily we do have our net but it is toasty holy crap slow behind the trailer we are averaging for the last 15 miles an astonishing 197 watt hours per mile which is crazy it appears that it's somewhere in this parking lot oh brother boy it's at a hotel it looks like [Music] [Music] well the drafting trick work because he well let me show you two percent battery remaining under seven miles oh wait we can go more let's go further no we're done and breathe or drink more charge okay we're charging two percents two hours and ten minutes remaining and we're charging pretty slowly right now a hundred and twelve miles per hour but at least we're charging so look it says up here actually hi uses charge limits set to eighty percent and that must be because there's five other Tesla's here charging up at the same time but holy God we made it Wow unbelievable so eighty seven point four kilowatt hours used since our last charge to get here from one charge stop going 50 miles an hour behind Andre 204 watt hours per mile average which is incredible 37 miles or 37 minutes twenty eight point one miles we did it boys we did it [Music] all right so while the Tesla is charging let's do the final calculations then compare what happened yep so on both loops according to the trip computer we drove exactly sixty five point seven miles which is good let's start with range so according to the car with no trailer we used 68 miles of range when we started towing a hundred and ninety that's about three times he almost three times as much energy was used okay so what about percentage of battery now without towing we use twenty one percent of the battery with towing we used fifty nine percent of the battery okay once again but how does it compare to other vehicles let's do the mpg/eso miles per gallon equivalent yep so not towing we went ahead and did the calculations one hundred and fifteen point four MPGe that's better than the epa rating actually yeah the EPA rates at at 93 mpg on the highway so that's a grid resolver yep but with towing forty two point two eight MPGe that's two point seven times worse I mean we expect it twice you know to lose about twice the range but not two point seven times yeah I mean guys the battery while towing went down so fast but here's a question right we want to take the Tesla Model X up the I got lit but I'm not sure we can even get the trailer to the base of the mountain to drive up the icon so that's gonna be a future video yeah and stay tuned for that and go back to tearful car comm from news views and real world Model X reviews okay let's go do this boys down the road I'm actually having to accelerate to maintain the speed of the film like you really took off [Music] we've been averaging over thousands walk mild

Channel: The Fast Lane Car

Views: 296,189

Rating: 4.6398454 out of 5

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Id: jhX3BmhJXc8

Length: 38min 41sec (2321 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019