Tow hitch Effeciency

[RJUlrich61]

Has anyone tried to see what the range impact would be if you drove around with tow hitch connected and no tow hitch cover on the Model X?

Not saying I would intentionally do this, but how would it effect range at highways speeds?

 

[ChadS]

That's how my wife drives hers around. We assume it reduces range, but we assume it's just a very slight amount.

Years ago several of us took our Roadsters on a ~200 mile trip. We all got very nearly the same efficiency...except the one with a bike on the back, which got 5% worse.

Later I ran some tests with a small cargo box on the hitch. That seemed to have maybe a 3% impact.

With no bike or box, and on a bigger and less efficient vehicle, I suspect the difference will not be something you could reliably measure.

Note that speed matters - if you are just driving around town, the difference will be truly insignificant. But if you drive at high speeds on the highway for long distances, it will be larger.

 

[RJUlrich61]

That's how my wife drives hers around. We assume it reduces range, but we assume it's just a very slight amount.

Years ago several of us took our Roadsters on a ~200 mile trip. We all got very nearly the same efficiency...except the one with a bike on the back, which got 5% worse.

Later I ran some tests with a small cargo box on the hitch. That seemed to have maybe a 3% impact.

With no bike or box, and on a bigger and less efficient vehicle, I suspect the difference will not be something you could reliably measure.

Note that speed matters - if you are just driving around town, the difference will be truly insignificant. But if you drive at high speeds on the highway for long distances, it will be larger.

Thanks for the response, yeah makes sense.

I bought my car used and so far have been driving it around with the towhitch since I've been using it on and off for the past couple weeks, so have lefitthe towhitch on. drive mostly highway to work for half the month traveling at 70mph+, just curious what others have seen. I will be testing it next with it off to se the difference if any!

 

[ngng]

I average 382 Wh/mi with a Kuat bike rack on all the time

 

[ngng]

Thanks for the response, yeah makes sense.

I bought my car used and so far have been driving it around with the towhitch since I've been using it on and off for the past couple weeks, so have lefitthe towhitch on. drive mostly highway to work for half the month traveling at 70mph+, just curious what others have seen. I will be testing it next with it off to se the difference if any!

You'll see substantial efficiency driving slower. More than you'd ever see removing a hitch

 

[nathan.davis.s]

Has anyone tried to see what the range impact would be if you drove around with tow hitch connected and no tow hitch cover on the Model X?

Not saying I would intentionally do this, but how would it effect range at highways speeds?

I tow a boat quite often with my MX so I leave the tow hitch installed all the time. If it affects the range, the effect is too small to measure. That is, I use the same Wh/mi regardless of whether the hitch is installed or not and regardless of whether is hitch cover is installed or not.

 

[Prodock]

I second Nathan.Davis.s. We leave the hitch in all the time so we are ready to slide in the tow attachment and pull our 21 foot boat whenever we decide to go for a boat ride. We haven’t noticed any difference in range.