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How Much Can the Cybertruck Tow? And What Range Will Be Lost?

We see some information about the Cybertruck's towing and range yielding some impressive numbers.
How Much Can the Cybertruck Tow? And What Range Will Be Lost?

Cybertruck Towing and Range

We see a Twitter user's details about the Cybertruck's towing ability and how much range will be lost while towing. He compares this using the same results the Tesla Semi had.

Let's go over them. First, we have a table showing the predicted amount of towing based on a range and kWh battery pack for the Cybertruck. It shows:

For towing 15,000 lbs.:

  • 180 kWh Pack with 500 miles of range: 400 miles real world range.
  • 150 kWh Pack with 420 miles of range: 330 miles of real world range.
  • 130 kWh Pack with 350 miles of range: 250 miles of real world range.
  • 110 kWh Pack with 300 miles of range: 200 miles of real world range.
  • 85 kWh Pack with 250 miles of range: 170 miles of real world range. For towing 10,000 lbs.:
  • 180 kWh Pack with 500 miles of range: 450 miles real world range.
  • 150 kWh Pack with 420 miles of range: 380 miles of real world range.
  • 130 kWh Pack with 350 miles of range: 300 miles of real world range.
  • 110 kWh Pack with 300 miles of range: 250 miles of real world range.
  • 85 kWh Pack with 250 miles of range: 200 miles of real world range.

This is useful information if you are planning on towing a camper trailer, a motor home, or anything that will weigh a lot with your Cybertruck. If you are simply packing stuff in the back of your truck, you most likely won't notice too much of an effect on your range. I plan on using the Cybertruck as my every day vehicle. A formula for calculating the Energy usage for an EV (electric vehicle) based on its weight, speed, and aerodynamics was used. It's an incredibly long and complex formula: Formula calculating EV energy usage You may also be interested in:

More Towing Range Than a Gas Ford F150

The Tesla Semi has 500 miles of driving range and is using 93% of its Energy or about 900 kWh while moving 81,000 lbs. and this is 13% from optimal efficiency with 0.36 drag aerodynamics. The Tesla Cybertruck will use several Plaid engines, the same engines the Model S and Model X Plaid vehicles are using.

These engines will have a 1,000 volt power train. This is optimized to not lose range under load because motors in the back will assist with the acceleration. A Ford F150 has a 23 gallon gas tank, and that gets about 460 miles of range without carrying anything. When you add weight to the truck, you get about 207 miles of range with a payload.

The F150 can handle 8,200 lbs. of towing and a maximum payload of 1,985 lbs. in its back storage area. EVs - especially Tesla's - are very efficient when compared to their gas car counterparts. A Cybertruck with a Tesla Semi engine and power train should have 200 miles of range with full loads with 85 kWh batteries and 250 miles with 100 kWh.

A 180 kWh pack would give it 500 miles of non-towing range and 400 miles under a class 4 load. When towing, I think that will affect the aerodynamics and possibly effect range as well. We will have to wait until people start doing real world tests.

Some think the Cybertruck will only have 200 miles of range while towing due to aerodynamics being impacted. What do you think of the towing capacity of the Cybertruck? Will you get one and use it to tow things?

In Related News: Tesla Autopilot ranked 7th by Consumer Reports

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News. Image Credit, Tesla, Screenshot

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Comments

Don (not verified)    December 4, 2023 - 8:51AM

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So this will be the Yuppie commuter toy,

All the numbers in the world can be spit out by Tesla, I cannot wait for You-Tube to trash the towing Range and show its similar to the Ford Lightning (which is useless as a truck).. Towing a Boat to the lake (only if you can charge at the lake) and if you make it to the lake so do not go too far.

Eric (not verified)    December 28, 2023 - 9:13AM

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With a 320 mile stated range the Cybertruck may well be a Cyberfail. This is because it likely won’t have the range to make it between Superchargers when towing since SC’s are typically around 150 miles apart. All Tesla vehicles never get the stated EPA range that Tesla advertises. My new Plaid MS charged to 100% with 397 stated miles got me to a Supercharger 254 miles away with 7% and 29 miles left in the pack (so an actual Real World Range of 283 miles). I purposely drove the speed limit the entire way ending up with a 336Wh/mi average. 283/397 = 71% real world range (RWR) vs EPA range.

Extrapolating this out with the Cyberbeast version with 320 EPA miles, the RWR when new is 227 miles. Adding towing into the mix, we lose about 33% (VERY optimistic estimate in my view) of the pack’s range which gets us to 149 miles. Since the pack capacity degrades quickly over the first two years, we are now down into the 130ish range driving from 100% to 0% charge. In reality though, 20% should be the minimum charge you should be aiming for to make sure you actually get to the Supercharger because RWR varies, so you’ll only have about 100 miles of RWR when towing. Have fun charging to 100% every 100 miles. It will take you 2.5 hours with Supercharging to make that 100 miles at an average of 40mph IF there is no wait at the SC, you don’t have to unhitch your trailer and you can somehow get to the next SC that is 150 miles away with only 100 miles of range. Yes with the optional battery extender (if it even truly exists), for and extra $15K you can take up a third of your bed space and get your range up to 177 miles towing to zero percent or 148 miles to 20% charge but even that isn’t practical.

I have a CT reservation which I’m cancelling for two reasons. I needed the 500 mile fantasy range they originally advertised to realistically tow and the price increase that happened over the same time period every other Tesla model’s prices wer cratering, leaves me suspicious of probable price gouging.

My verdict: The Cybertruck IS a Cyberfail if you plan on using it as a an actual… truck.