The internet is the perfect built-in audience for people with time on their hands, the desire to push limits, and new technology to play with. Take the case of this Tesla Model 3 owner, who recently decided to test exactly how much of a charge his car gets out if Tesla’s regenerative braking feature, and he very fortunately caught the whole thing on tape.
On November 7 Matt Shumaker posted a video on his YouTube channel, Tech Forum demonstrating how he got roughly 12 miles of range for one mile of towing. Shumaker and his son hitched the Model 3 to the back of a 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid and took it for a spin going roughly 18 miles an hour.
“This is is absolutely amazing,” he exclaimed in the video seen above. “We’ve gone 13.8 miles. One mile of tow charging gave us 12.8 miles of driving range before we started using energy again.”
One mile of towing resulted in 12.8 miles of driving at 18mph.
The goal of the experiment was to assess how much the recent Version 9 software update actually improved Tesla’s regenerative braking. For the majority of the video, Shumaker showed footage of his car’s energy consumption graph, which almost immediately registered a charge as soon as they began driving.
After towing it for a mile, Shumaker was able to drive the car for 12.8 miles, at the same 18mph speed, before it started eating into the battery. He noted that if you were to drive between 30 and 35mph, one mile of towing leads to a charge that can last up to five miles. That’s not too bad for a leisurely ride around the neighborhood, but don’t go trying this yourself.
The Tesla owner’s guide explicitly states that all vehicles should only be transported over long distances using a flatbed truck. Shumaker’s experiment doesn’t seem to have affected his Model 3. But any damage caused by improperly transporting a Tesla vehicle is not covered by its warranty. Tow with caution.
