Electrification is rapidly entering all vehicle classes, including light- and heavy-duty trucks designed for heavy towing capabilities. Still, the quantitative impact of towing on battery-electric vehicle (BEV) energy use and range remains under-characterized. We conducted controlled towing tests with a Ford F-150 Lightning using two trailers of different sizes and varying payloads to isolate aerodynamic and mass effects and to span the full range of towable payloads within the vehicle’s rated capacity. The vehicle was instrumented at the CAN bus level, capturing motor power, torque, speed, and related internal signals from different control modules. On-road testing consisted of repeated back-and-forth passes on level, straight road segments at set speeds focusing on highway operation, where aerodynamic drag is stronger and real-world towing use cases occur. From these data, we extracted road load equations and dynamometer coefficients for each trailer combination, then reproduced equivalent conditions on a four-wheel drive chassis dynamometer across several standard cycles.
Results were consistent across runs, showing a significant increase in the vehicle’s overall energy consumption and a corresponding range penalty. Additional impacts on vehicle systems due to towing, including thermal management of the motors and battery, were quantified. Dynamometer tests of varying characteristics (highway, urban, steady state speeds and accelerations) allow isolation of specific behaviors in functions like regenerative braking operation and torque-split strategy.
Dynamometer results aligned with on-road measurements, enabling repeatable laboratory evaluation of towing scenarios. These findings provide a validated methodology and dataset to quantify towing impacts on BEVs, inform range prediction and route planning, support labeling and consumer guidance, and characterize sustained, high load real world operation of vehicle components.