As more and more types of vehicles become electrified, a persistent question has hung over all-electric pickup trucks: What happens when you tow? Now that the first mass-production, long-range, all-electric pickup truck—the 2021 Rivian R1T—is on the market, we can find out.
With more than 100 years of gas- and diesel-powered towing on the books, the world is pretty familiar with what happens when you put a trailer on the hitch. Fuel economy while towing is, compared to driving around empty, abysmal. Pulling thousands of extra pounds, especially at freeways speeds, takes a lot of extra fuel. The same applies to battery-powered vehicles, which today don’t have the luxury of a gas station at every freeway exit.
Although we’ve towed with electric SUVs in the past, they could only give us a general idea of what to expect. SUVs just can’t tow as much as full-size pickups and aren’t really intended to on a regular basis, anyway. Pickups, though, need to be able to fully utilize their beds and tow hitches day in and day out if the owner demands it. Their owners, in turn, need to know what the vehicle’s real-world limits are, so we hitched up a 9,000-pound trailer to a new Rivian R1T during our Truck of the Year competition to find out.
For the full story, check out this article from Motor Trend.
