Will the autonomy of a Tesla Y be greatly reduced by towing a trailer? Marie-Pier must be reassured before our first “real” trip.
Before the departure
There was no question of having an electric brake system installed on our beautiful new Tesla Y.
After some research, Eric found a bluetooth electric brake system, CURT Echo 51180. We bought this device at Daniel Radio TV in St-Hyacinthe.
It’s a small family store that sells and installs many electronic components for cars and trucks: lights, sound system, car starter, CB, etc. A place that Eric knows well since he worked there for 10 years.
The installation of the brake system is really very simple. You simply insert the device in the connector of the Tesla at the level of the drawbar which is made for this purpose. You have to “scan” the QR code in order to “park” the device and the cell phone.
It is possible to adjust the “power” or “sensitivity” of braking according to our needs. You can also activate the electric brakes by holding your finger on a huge button on the application. It works very well!
And here we go!
We had already made some tests of autonomy only with the Tesla, before leaving with the caravan, in order to know how much Watt/KM we consume. On the highway, we were maintaining an average of 280 Watt/KM to 308 Watt/KM.
See the detailed statistics with my share via Teslafi
Still on the highway, but now with the trailer, we leave Ste-Julie, in direction of Boucherville, on highway 20. We surprisingly still maintain an average of 280 Watt/KM at the beginning.
Is it because the trailer is empty and there are no children or luggage in the car? Maybe…
Moreover, it’s as if we were not pulling anything behind us. The ergonomics of the trailer makes the wind slide very well on each side and does not impose any resistance on the Tesla.
There may be some variations in consumption of course with the small hills and holes in the road, but all in all, we are very happy with the first results.
We had done some research on facebook forums, and we had seen that many Tesla drivers pulling Prolite trailers had an average consumption of 350-400 Watt/Km. But that’s probably due to the fact that the Prolites are taller and a bit wider than the Oxygen trailer.
On our side, maybe we will consume less, but we will lose a little bit on the comfort level. The trailer is much smaller and compact than the Prolites or Helio trailers.
Results
We made a small trip on highway, country road and city, with our Oxygen trailer from Bonaire and our Tesla Y without luggage nor child and we finished with an average of 280 Watt/Km.
It’s a very satisfying first test and reassures Marie-Pier 🙂
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