Most, if not all, electric pickup trucks for sale today in the United States have some sort of power export feature that allows owners to plug tools or any sort of electrical equipment into a socket and use the truck as a mobile generator. It's a great feature that helps electric vehicles evolve from just being cars to on-the-go batteries.
The Tesla Cybertruck is one of those EVs, offering a total of five outlets and a maximum continuous output of 9.6 kilowatts. Four of those outlets are rated at 120 volts and 20 amps, while the fifth–located in the bed–is rated at 240V and 40 amps. And it’s the latter that can transform the angular electric pickup into the perfect recovery rig for stranded EVs, as one owner found out.
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V2L FTW
Vehicle-to-load, or V2L, means that you can export electricity from an EV's battery to power things like tools, appliances, or even other EVs. The feature is becoming increasingly common on modern EVs.
YouTube creator Scottysize wanted to do a towing test with a twist. He loaded a Tesla Model 3 onto a trailer that was hooked up to a Cybertruck and then connected a mobile charger to the pickup’s 240V outlet to replenish the battery of the sedan.
The final step was to enable the electrical outlets from the truck’s center touchscreen and drive off into the sunset. The result? It worked!
As you can see in the video embedded at the top of this page, the Model 3 that was on the trailer drew a constant 7 kW from the Cybertruck and after 23 miles had added 5 kWh of energy, raising the state of charge from 58% to 64%.
Meanwhile, the Tesla pickup—which is known for being notoriously energy-hungry while towing—chewed through 22 kWh of energy, averaging just under 1 kWh/mile. But that’s not all because we need to add the 5 kWh that was sent to the Model 3 battery, making this setup useful only for short trips.
Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck
Adding everything up leads to a pretty dismal energy efficiency of 1.17 kWh/mile, meaning that a full battery on the Cybertruck (estimated at 123 kWh) would be good for just 105 miles. That said, all electric pickups suffer from the same range losses when towing, making them tougher to recommend for long-haul towing.
For short trips, though, this works just fine. Just think of local recovery companies that could use this solution to pick up a stranded EV, hook it up to a charger and replenish its batteries en route to the owner’s house or workplace, where the charging can continue from another source.
But what do you think? Check out the video and then let us know in the comments below.
