Cannot Tow and cannot go off road

Quite clearly there are some things that EVs cannot do, in the same way that there are many things my Morris 1000 could not do (like actually go forward) but the picture of my neighbour’s Tesla conveniently busts 2 myths at once – first of all it is clearly TOWING, and secondly it has clearly gone off road (Neighbour offered to clean it before the picture but I thought it was far better dirty)

With early electric vehicles this certainly was the case , but newer EVs are actually pretty good at towing –  with instant torque and often drive being supplied to all four wheels. Heavier batteries also give increased traction but like any vehicle that is towing a caravan, boat, or trailer the range of the vehicle will be impacted and, to be fair, range would be more impacted in an electric vehicle than in a petrol diesel one. 

It does however remain one of the fairly regular comments about electric vehicles, where the conversation goes “But it cannot tow can it?”.. “Do you actually tow anything?”… “No, but in case one day I might”

What use are they in floods?

Very few vehicles can fully submerge – although, as is often pointed out, since first invented, by necessity, submarines have used electric power as diesel does not tend to work well underwater (as well as the fumes suffocating the crew of course).

However, they can also be quite useful in power outages. In fact the whole vehicle/load technology was developed as a result of the Tsunami that hit Japan and the government realising that there were a lot of potential power plants in the country (called Nissan Leafs)

And in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand last year, BYD Atto 3s with V2L (effectively using the car as a 240 volt power supply) were used by the Red Cross to provide power for essential equipment. Unlike diesel generators, they can also be used inside a garage.