Tesla has released a new navigation feature to make it easier for people towing trailers to find charging stations that can accommodate them.
Towing trailers with electric vehicles is not yet super popular, but it is rapidly gaining in popularity, with more electric SUVs and pickup trucks having increasingly impressive towing capacity.
Tesla has had the Model Y and Model X with a limited but still useful towing capacity for a few years, but with now the Cybertruck and the opening of its Supercharger network to other EVs, including many pickup trucks, the automaker is starting to see more people arriving at its popular charging stations with trailers.
This can be problematic as if you don’t want to block several chargers, you are going to have to unhook your trailer to go charge your vehicle. That’s less than ideal and something gas-powered vehicles rarely have to do at gas stations.
Tesla’s solution has been to build a few “pull in” charging spots at some Supercharger stations that enable you to park with your trailer while charging (via Tesla Motors club):
Tesla is currently building more of these stations, but they are still far and few in between and hard to find.
The automaker is now making it easier to find with a new software update. Now, you can click on a Supercharger station, and it will tell you if it has trailer stalls.
Furthermore, if you are driving on “trailer mode” and searching for charging stations, those with “trailer friendly” stalls will appear at the top:
However, as usual, when traveling long distances in an electric vehicle, you are better off just doing a bit of planning about where to charge ahead of time, especially if you are going to be towing over long distances.
Now that Tesla can distinguish between trailer-friendly and non-trailer-friendly stations, the automaker can hopefully include it in its API for other automakers to integrate into their own navigation systems as many of them can start using the Supercharger network.
Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
Hi Fred. I’m the TMC member you reference in that article, the photo you used was taken by me of my X and the trailer I tow, a Safari Condo Alto F1743 (made in Quebec). No problem using the photo in your article, by the way. I’m glad to hear that Tesla continues to at least give some thought to making EV towing a bit easier.
In 2017 when I bought my X it was really the only viable EV choice for towing. Now there is Rivian, which is an impressive EV and better for towing in some ways, but unfortunately it is still missing a key feature that after 6+ years towing with my X I would not want to be without; having smart cruise control enabled while towing. Tesla has always allowed TACC to be used when hitched up, but for some reason Rivian disables their Adaptive Cruise Control when towing. I use TACC on the highway all the time when towing and it works great. I’m not willing to go backwards and tow with my foot on the accelerator much of the time. And of course Rivian has not yet released their version of auto steer and auto lane change, though I think that is coming soon. I wish Tesla would enable at least Auto Steer while towing, that would be really useful.
Here is an article idea for you; comparing towing capabilities and features between the Model X, Rivian R1T/R1S, and Ford Lightning. That would be an interesting report.
Thanks for all the work you do at Electrek and for keeping the pressure on Tesla to live up to its promises; it’s an ongoing mission.