On the pull - Advice required for towing an electric car.

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electric cat
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Weight limits

Postby electric cat » Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:20 pm

Nearly all the evs currently on sale are Quadricycles which by law have to be below 400Kg WITHOUT batteries. They also have to be of limited power and top speed [< 50mph]

What the law says about quadricycles towing i have no idea but i would expect it to be pretty negative, even if it is only an empty trailer. Mind you having said that i've never seen anyone being stopped with one of those giant sandwich trailers on a bicycle!

that last sentence conjures up a really gross image!

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qdos
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Re: Weight limits

Postby qdos » Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:06 am

electric cat wrote:Nearly all the evs currently on sale are Quadricycles which by law have to be below 400Kg WITHOUT batteries. They also have to be of limited power and top speed [< 50mph]


Actually there's no top speed limit for a heavy quadricycle. the power limit is 15kw (about 21 horse power) in Europe. I do not believe the law can be bent for the weight of an EV being towed without the battery weight and I'm pretty sure that is likely to be very close to or over the 750kg unbraked limit when you do include the batteries and the towing attachment.

It's a bit of a minefield really and from what digging around I've done it's very fudgey to say the least.

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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:22 am

... and it's a common misconception about the number of EVs with top speeds above that.

I could name quite a few ;)

Twike,
Elcat,
Smart Car EV (both OEM and converted)
Dobolo etc etc :)
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

EVangelist and Media Relations Coordinator, www.ZeroCarbonWorld.org
Host, www.transportevolved.com

http://about.me/aminorjourney/bio

Fentoni
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Postby Fentoni » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:47 pm

Right, I think I've got it.
I'm going to tow a G Wizz backwards on a dolly hitch (i.e a two wheeled trailer) with the back two wheels raised in the dolly. If we are stopped by the law we can always claim we are recovering the EV with a nonchalent shrug of the shoulders 'Electric cars hey officer, what can you do?'
When I get to the destination me or my driver will drop off the van and I will store the lightweight dolly (which is only about 3 ft long) on a specially designed rack at the back of the G Wizz. Job done.
The reason why I want the G Wizz is because they have a decent outlet and servicing in London, there is a ready market for resale because they're not too quirky and lastly they're good value new at just over 7k.
If I had the money I would go for the Elettica with the nifty new Li-ion batteries giving a great range, it's also under 750KG and...well, it looks so damn good. :wink:

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:10 pm

Nice one, well that option works for me 8)

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!


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