How Towing Affects Electric Pickups – Hummer EV, Rivian R1T and Ford

Electric pickups are fast and deliver incredible torque, which means they also have excellent towing capabilities. If you're interested in one of the most exciting electric pickups currently available or coming soon, and you plan to use it for real pickup duties, you'll want to know how much an electric truck can tow and how far it can go.

For example, the new Rivian R1T has almost twice the torque of the 2022 Toyota Tundra, not to mention more horsepower than a Ford F-150 Raptor or RAM 1500 TRX. It's fast and powerful. But how much weight can an electric pickup actually tow?

Last year, at Car & Driver's inaugural EV event, no vehicle could tow more than 5 tons. Now there are three such pickups: the GMC Hummer EV, with a towing capacity of 7,500 kg; the Ford F-150 Lightning, rated for up to 10,000 kg; and the Rivian R1T, which can tow up to 11,000 kg. To evaluate this emerging era of electric towing, Car & Driver hooked each pickup up to the same load: a 6,100-kg trailer, similar to the kind of trailer a family of four might take on a summer vacation.

All three pickups were driven on the same summer day, in the same temperatures, over the same flat highway loop at 70 km/h.

So, what were the conclusions?

These new electric pickups are excellent towing companions. Their massive power and torque make it easy to keep up with interstate traffic, while their high curb weights provide impressive stability when towing a heavy trailer. However, you won't want to travel too far, as a full battery provided only around 160 km of range for the Lightning, 110 km for the R1T and 140 km for the Hummer. Although the Hummer consumed electricity at the highest rate of the three, its considerably larger battery more than made up for the difference.

There are a few other things to consider. EVs can sometimes be unpredictable when charging; the Lightning was set to charge fully but stopped at 94%. Even adding the missing 6% would not have pushed it into the next 10-mile range bracket. Adaptive cruise control is available while towing in the Hummer and Lightning, but Super Cruise and BlueCruise hands-free systems are not. The Rivian does not allow adaptive cruise control while towing at all. All three pickups feature integrated trailer brake controllers, but none is available with larger towing mirrors, which would improve visibility at the expense of slightly increased aerodynamic drag.

For all three pickups, towing range was less than half of what they achieved while cruising with a light load at 130 km/h. The Hummer performed best, while the Rivian performed worst. However, the R1T is the smallest of the three and was therefore relatively more affected by the aerodynamic drag of the trailer.

The number of electric motors and the size of the battery will determine how much an electric pickup can tow, just as engine configuration affects the towing capacity of twin-turbo V6, V8 and diesel-powered trucks.