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I have wanted to shift to an electric vehicle (EV) for a number of years but a car that can tow my 2018 Eriba Troll 530 and meet my needs has been out of reach until now. Recently I became the proud owner of a Kia EV6 GT-Line (rear wheel drive) to replace my Skoda Superb and the transition has been fantastic. Towing with an electric vehicle is a completely different experience from a conventional combustion engine car.

There is a lot of curiosity, some doubt and too much misinformation out there. The bottom line is that the EV6 is a quiet, powerful, brilliant handling towing vehicle. A fantastic, effortless experience. And a perfect pairing with an Eriba. It is certainly turning heads.

The EV6 can legally tow up to 1600kg. Well within the Eriba family. My Eriba it is plated 1400kg (inc payload) although I tend to tow it 1200kg-1300kg. I have read that although weight plays a part, aerodynamics has the biggest impact. The Eriba is perfectly placed being one of the most aerodynamic caravans on the market with it's original classic design, pop-top roof and slanted/pointed from making it very stable to tow and more efficient than the run-of-the-mill white box caravans.

I have always towed quite at quite conservative speeds. Even with my previous very capable diesel. I have never been one to fly down a motorway dragging a box behind me at dangerous speeds. So the shift to towing with an EV with an eye on efficiency was an easy transition. My EV6 has an advertised range of 328 miles on a 100% charge when it is not towing. Range is affected by a number of factors including types of roads, driving style ands whether you are in eco or sport mode. Conventional cars rarely get close to their mpg, and I have found my EV6 range is around 290 miles the way I drive it. Others I have talked to achieve ranges above the advertised figure. When towing, the range is more or less halved. Towing with conventional cars is also severely affected too, but rarely mentioned.

On my first trip towing, I set off with 100% charge in the morning of the ridiculous July 2022 heatwave. It was already 33C. I drove 71.5 miles on a mixture of roads and speeds including a 60mph stretch on the motorway. I averaged 2.6mi/kWh and arrived with 66% charge remaining. It was a dream to tow. I had expected a lot more energy would have been used and was both surprised and pleased to arrive with 66% charge remaining. This certainly removes any range anxiety I initial had. The return tow was the same effortless experience. Same route in reverse and I achieved a slightly lower efficiency of 2.3 mi/kWh.

According the the stats, the vast majority of caravan trips are within 100 miles, I know mine certainly are, so this performance easily accommodates this. For the time being I’ll stick within 100miles as I get to understand the car when it tows. I will eventually do longer trips and will plan for 1 stop for a 100 to 180 mile journey and 2 stops for a 180 to 250 mile journey to provide a modest range left once unhooked at the destination. I have never towed further than 250 miles in a single trip in my old diesel, so doubt I’ll be doing it in the EV. Perhaps once I get used to my comfortable range I’ll have a trip into Europe and see how that goes.

The Kia Ev6 is a brilliant EV that is fabulous to tow with. A perfect match for an Eriba.
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How long does it take to charge up? We're doin 1200 kms to the Haute Savoie next week. Don't see us in an electric car. Surely most people travel more than 100 miles!

Quote: Islay Corbel wrote in post #2

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How long does it take to charge up? We're doin 1200 kms to the Haute Savoie next week. Don't see us in an electric car. Surely most people travel more than 100 miles!

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It is the problem most people face with EV's. The great majority of journeys are v short, with the odd 100 milers all of which can be handled by an EV. But then there are the holiday or business long hauls, whether solo or towing and they're the couple of trips a year where you don't want to mess about and they're the ones that cause people to think the time isn't right yet.

I have another issue though.

Our garages are in a block on the edge of a barn/farmyard development and none of them have power. We have another drive on the opposite side of the development but it is at the bottom of our garden 40ft from the house. The actual house supply comes in at the opposite end, so 70 ft or so from the drive. We do have a cable from an external point on the lounge wall which runs across under our side garden to a trellis fence that is our boundary to a mews footpath. The cable runs down the fence to a light on a post by the drive/footpath gate.

If we take power from the point of entry we have to run it under the side garden (15ft) along the fence line and then bury it to get past our entry gate . Then it can emerge and join the light cable down to the drive and have a charging point fitted somewhere there. I assume that it wouldn't be possible to run a charger off the light cable which just runs to a 13amp junction in the lounge. Doing so would be a hell of a lot simpler but presumably the power isn't up to it.

The thought of the cost of running cables to the drive from the meter box is scary.

Pic is of the drive with our previous car parked. The footpath gate is on the left behind the car.

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Hello,

Did you go for the model with V2L and have you tried powering your Eriba from the vehicle battery? Caravan YouTuber Andew Ditton has recently switched to an EV6 and has some interesting videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot0vUGmrAys

Quote: PhilipM wrote in post #6

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Hello,

Did you go for the model with V2L and have you tried powering your Eriba from the vehicle battery? Caravan YouTuber Andew Ditton has recently switched to an EV6 and has some interesting videos.

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Quote: Steamdrivenandy wrote in post #5

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It is the problem most people face with EV's. The great majority of journeys are v short, with the odd 100 milers all of which can be handled by an EV. But then there are the holiday or business long hauls, whether solo or towing and they're the couple of trips a year where you don't want to mess about and they're the ones that cause people to think the time isn't right yet.

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Out of all the caravans on the market, the Eriba is probably they best one for matching to an EV due to its aerodynamic design.

Plus 1 for sticking with my diesel for the moment just to out of reach electric towing cars at the moment. They are very good if you have deep pockets but for me to swap I would have to put up around 40K plus. Now with that amount of money to put in I can buy a lot of fuel for 40K like the idea but until they drop in price it is a non starter.

One thought that has come to me is if you need to charge the car at a service station, then the caravan has to be parked up and secured while you move the car to the charge point.

So getting back to the caravan or lorry park, possibly going against the incoming traffic could be an issue.

For example, at Gloucester Services north and south bound the caravan park is first on the left with the car park and charge point further on in the car park on the left. As far as I can see there is no way a car can get back to the caravan park once charged up.

On a trip north last week I noticed that Hopewood Services had 14 (I think) Tesla charge points with 4 in use, with only 4 charge points for other vehicles all in use, and a couple of people waiting.

There are a lot of infrastructures that will need to be adjusted if electric vehicles are to become the norm, not just installing charge points.

Alan

And long distance journeys stop offs tend to mean urine soaked lorry parks or caravan pull throughs full of cars and vans, with overcrowded overpriced facilities. As a caravanner I want much, much better than that.

I don't know what it's like in Britain, but fewer and fewer people actually buy their car here. It's all done by leasing. It will be interesting to see how that develops with cars that can tow. Or, we'll just be renting a towing vehicle for when we need one.