Charging with a Tow

[Johnny B]

We've been watching A Long Way Up (AppleTV+) which documents a motorcycle trip on electric Harleys from the southern most tip of Argentina to Los Angeles taken by Ewan McGregor and his friend, Charlie Boorman, in 2019. Not only were the bikes electric , but the support and film crews were driving prototype electric Rivian trucks. You think you have problems finding a charging station? Try the Chilean Andes!

At one point, the Rivians run out of charge in the middle of nowhere. They flag down a tractor-trailer and the truck driver detaches the trailer and tows the Rivian for 30 minutes which gives the truck enough charge to get to its next destination. Although it's not clear what that distance was, the Rivian driver said the truck could be fully charged by towing in an hour. I'm not sure I believe this claim, but it raises a question.

Can the Mach-E be charged by towing or is there something in the design that would prevent this?

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[Logal727]

We've been watching A Long Way Up (AppleTV+) which documents a motorcycle trip on electric Harleys from the southern most tip of Argentina to Los Angeles taken by Ewan McGregor and his friend, Charlie Boorman, in 2019. Not only were the bikes electric , but the support and film crews were driving prototype electric Rivian trucks. You think you have problems finding a charging station? Try the Chilean Andes!

At one point, the Rivians run out of charge in the middle of nowhere. They flag down a tractor-trailer and the truck driver detaches the trailer and tows the Rivian for 30 minutes which gives the truck enough charge to get to its next destination. Although it's not clear what that distance was, the Rivian driver said the truck could be fully charged by towing in an hour. I'm not sure I believe this claim, but it raises a question.

Can the Mach-E be charged by towing or is there something in the design that would prevent this?

This is the stuff I like seeing on the forum. Can't wait to see the answers.

 

[generaltso]

In theory, it should work. But I haven't seen reports of anyone actually try it with an MME. @OutofSpecKyle did it with a Tesla Model 3.

 

[dtbaker61]

We've been watching A Long Way Up (AppleTV+) which documents a motorcycle trip on electric Harleys from the southern most tip of Argentina to Los Angeles taken by Ewan McGregor and his friend, Charlie Boorman, in 2019. Not only were the bikes electric , but the support and film crews were driving prototype electric Rivian trucks. You think you have problems finding a charging station? Try the Chilean Andes!

At one point, the Rivians run out of charge in the middle of nowhere. They flag down a tractor-trailer and the truck driver detaches the trailer and tows the Rivian for 30 minutes which gives the truck enough charge to get to its next destination. Although it's not clear what that distance was, the Rivian driver said the truck could be fully charged by towing in an hour. I'm not sure I believe this claim, but it raises a question.

Can the Mach-E be charged by towing or is there something in the design that would prevent this?

I would hazard a guess and say that as long as everything is working properly, you could get a flat tow while a mach-e is on, in drive, and 1-p mode is on to enable regen....and the speed of the tow was kept low enough so that the regen power was no higher than -100kW.... essentially like a DCFC

It would probably heat up the motors, HVBJB, and batteries if the tow went on for an hour, but it would basically be like using regen on a long downhill... using a tow rather than gravity or a charger to provide the energy.

 

[bshaw]

Can the Mach-E be charged by towing or is there something in the design that would prevent this?

As mentioned above, I'd be worried about overheating the MME.
A good ODBII bluetooth connector may reach far enough to monitor from inside the tow vehicle. You could keep an eye on a few temps and how much regen power was being sent to the batteries.

I think the regen in the MME was designed for occasional usage by 1PD driving in normal circumstances, as opposed to continuous load.
Was there an earlier thread about someone who took a long drive down a mountain pass and overheated their regen capability?

 

[Johnny B]

It would probably heat up the motors, HVBJB, and batteries if the tow went on for an hour, but it would basically be like using regen on a long downhill... using a tow rather than gravity or a charger to provide the energy.

In the video posted by @generaltso the Tesla turns off its regen after about 4 miles of towing due to overheating after going from 0 to 9%. One of the commentators mentions that he thought the Rivians may have a dedicated tow mode for charging, but wasn't sure.

 

[AZBill]

On production trucks, Rivian does not recommend this due to the over heating issue. They had engineering gear on board to monitor temperatures when the did the long way up.

 

[dtbaker61]

In the video posted by @generaltso the Tesla turns off its regen after about 4 miles of towing due to overheating after going from 0 to 9%. One of the commentators mentions that he thought the Rivians may have a dedicated tow mode for charging, but wasn't sure.

I am just going by what I've seen on my MME when going down a long downhill w 1-p regen. The motor coil temps and the charger connector temps start climbing when the regen holds over -50kw regen for very long.

I think if you had the actual kW displayed, like you can with CarScanner via ODB2, you would probably be 'ok' as long as you kept an eye on temps.

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