If you’re eyeing an electric truck such as the Ford Lightning at your local Ford dealership in College Station TX, you might be wondering whether electric trucks can tow. The Ford F-150 Lightning can indeed tow a trailer, but its range depends on several factors. Let’s take a closer look.

How Towing Impacts Range

The range for an electric vehicle depends on several factors, so even when you’re not towing, you will likely experience various range discrepancies for a variety of reasons. However, there’s no doubt that towing impacts the electric range of your vehicle more than anything else. Some reports say that you can lose more than half of your range when towing. As a leader in the truck market, Ford is naturally aware of how important towing is to truck owners. That’s why Ford has innovative software to help owners of the new Lightning come up with some kind of range calculation while towing. This means that you can keep an eye on the range impact of towing in real time. According to a demonstration of this software by EV Buyers Guide on Youtube, the Lightning gets about half the amount of its normal range while towing.

How Far Can You Tow?

Estimating a towing range before towing doesn’t seem to be all that feasible. In the demonstration, it’s noted that the range while towing depends on quite a few factors, including the weight, outside temperature, and road conditions among others. If you’ve looked at the specs of any of the current or upcoming electric trucks, you’ve probably noticed how they all have pretty competitive towing capacities. For example, the Lightning is rated to tow 10,000 pounds. What the specs never say is how far the trucks can tow. That leaves it up to demonstrators like the one mentioned above.
In another test by Fast Lane Truck, the demonstration involved a Rivian R1T electric truck versus a gas-powered 2022 Toyota Tundra. Both trucks were towing a 2,000-pound trailer on a full battery and full gas tank respectively. The R1T made it 153 miles before needing a charge. The Tundra had only used 32.5% of its full tank by that point, which means it could triple the range of the Rivian.

What Does It Mean For You?

In short, right now, electric trucks are not able to match gas-powered trucks when it comes to towing ranges. Even if the truck is super capable of towing heavy loads, such as the Ford Lightning, the problem comes when you need to go any sort of distance with the load. To make things worse, many people tow things like camping gear to places where a charging station is unlikely to be available.
The good news is that electric trucks can tow very well for short distances. If you don’t tow often and you’re staying in town, for the most part, it’s not likely that you’ll need the extreme towing power of a full-size gas truck. But, this limitation is worth keeping in mind if you’re considering an electric truck.