The definitive EV thread. No spin. No BS., page-379

The beautiful thing about a Landcruiser and towing is that it is already shaped like a brick (in terms of aerodynamic efficiency) and so there is less of a percentage hit to the fuel efficiency associated with adding a less aerodynamic load behind to be towed … but that inherent less aerodynamic shape for the car (compared to most EVs here) means it wears that inefficiency for shape even without towing (15/100 without towing).

Even still - that 6l/100 differential is a 40% increase in fuel consumption for towing bs not towing and so a consequential circa 40% reduction in range. That’s quite comparable to range reduction percentage experienced by electric and hybrid and plug in hybrid too.

A further example … our PHEV Outlander uses about 8l/100 when on the open road without a caravan behind. Add the caravan (circa only 1.3T) and that consumption moves to about 13-14l/100 for same driving speed. So a 5-6l/100 differential also but now that’s a 65-75% increase in fuel burn. Smaller car, smaller engine makes bigger difference when towing - physics works still.

Our Landrover Discovery diesel towing that same sort of load would be running about 7l/100 on long highway runs without load and around 14l/100 with a slightly heavier and more square shaped caravan we used to have at same speeds. Slightly larger car, less inherently aerodynamic and not as much of a percentage hit on range vs the outlander.

Of course around town for my daily driving distance that PHEV Outlander burns …. 0l/100 and just uses lithium supported stored energy resources.