CappyJax
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #16
The only way that you could recharge the batteries while flat towing is for the wheel motors to be acting as generators. For wheel motors to act as generators, they have to have an external source of energy. In the case of regenerative braking, it's the recovered kinetic energy from scrubbing vehicle speed. In the case of flat towing, it's the pulling force of the tow vehicle against the resistance of the EV's motor spin when acting as a generator. There is no "free energy" that becomes available to store in the batteries from flat towing an EV. In effect, the energy being stored in the towed EV's batteries is coming from the combustion engine in the towing vehicle. The tow vehicle is not just towing the weight of another vehicle whose transmission is put in neutral with its wheels rotating freely. It's towing that weight plus overcoming the resistance of the EV's motors when they're behaving as generators. This most definitely creates an added load on the tow vehicle and in some cases could exceed its tow rating.
You are not grasping the concept. You don't have the regenerative breaking applied when you are accelerating or cruising (That would be really stupid), you only apply it when you are braking. Therefore, it IS free energy, because instead of heating up the break pads of the RV, you are putting energy back into the battery of the EV.
Sponsored