This Earth Day, we’re looking at electric vehicles, and whether the growing number of electric-powered pickup trucks on the road are ready for prime-time as towing vehicles. Today, we talk to an expert from MotorTrend—who also happens to use an EV to tow to trail rides on the weekends—about their pros and cons. Come back for Part 2 to hear the good and bad from horse owners who have taken the plunge and purchased EVs to tow their horse trailers.

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If you’re concerned about climate change and your contributions to it, there’s no better place to focus your attention than on the vehicle parked in your driveway.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the single largest human-related source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is the transportation sector. It accounted for 29% of emissions in 2021, more than power plants (25%), industry (23%) or agriculture (10%).

Within the transportation sector, light-duty cars and trucks contributed 58% of emissions, while medium- and heavy-duty trucks (those with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than about 8,500 pounds, including box trucks and tractor trailers) account for 23%. By comparison, the oft-maligned airline industry contributes only 8%.

With that outsized contribution to climate change, it’s no surprise that transportation is a prime target for emissions reduction efforts. One of the most promising frontiers in that effort is the transition to electric vehicles, commonly referred to as EVs, which are powered by massive batteries that drivers can recharge by plugging in at home or by using public chargers.

Yes, EVs really are significantly better for the environment than gas cars, although they do have their own environmental impacts. And yes, as with any new technology, there have been hiccups—some early incidents of battery fires have left a lasting stigma, even though a gas vehicle is much more likely to catch fire than an EV. More recently, EVs have been in the news because of issues with charging in extreme cold, and because they’re not selling as well as expected. They’ve also become a political flashpoint, with a marked partisan divide between those who would consider driving them and those who wouldn’t.

Still, Bloomberg estimates that 13% of new cars sold in U.S. this year will be EVs. They are simpler to maintain, cost less to fuel and are fun to drive.

Whether your primary motivation is reducing your carbon footprint or just saving money on gas, you may be wondering whether it’s possible to tow a horse trailer with an EV. The answer to that question is yes, but the more salient question is whether you should tow a horse trailer with an EV—and there, the answer varies widely.

While the current crop of electric trucks are mechanically well-equipped to tow, they’re also limited by their range (how far they can travel on a fully charged battery), as well as the availability and ease-of-use of public charging infrastructure once they exceed that range. Refueling an EV—particularly one hitched to a horse trailer—isn’t as simple as pulling into a gas station. So while EVs certainly can tow a trailer with ease, their utility for the task is going to depend a lot on individual circumstances, particularly with live cargo as opposed to, say, a boat or a camper.

If your hauling plans take you close to the limit of how far an electric truck can tow on a single charge, you’re likely better off sticking with an internal combustion vehicle. But things are changing rapidly, and the answer could be different in a year or two.

Electric Trucks Are Already Here

EVs are quite powerful, but it’s only in the past couple of years that electric trucks with robust towing capabilities have become readily available. The startup electric truck company Rivian was the first to bring a fully electric pickup to market, with its R1T launching in September 2021, followed by the R1S SUV. The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup, the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV and the mold-breaking Tesla Cybertruck are all currently available and capable of hauling horses. Chevrolet’s Silverado EV pickup will soon be available to consumers, after first launching as a fleet/work vehicle, along with a GMC Sierra EV, and the electric Ram 1500 REV pickup is due to arrive by the end of this year.

Only the Ford and Rivian trucks are currently on the road in substantial numbers, however. Ford sold 24,165 F-150 Lightnings in 2023, up from 15,617 in 2022, making it the 10th best-selling EV in the U.S. Rivian doesn’t provide a breakdown by model, but sold a combined estimated 47,200 pickup trucks and SUVs in 2023, which was more than double the number it delivered in 2022.

All these trucks have a towing capacity of 10,000 pounds or just over. All are also pricey, which is a common complaint about EVs. A 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning starts at just under $55,000 (compared to $47,395 for a comparably equipped gasoline version), while the 2024 Rivian R1T and R1S start at just under $70,000 and $75,000, respectively. The 2024 Chevy Silverado EV RST, the first model available to consumers, will start at an eye-popping $96,395, although more affordable trim levels are expected to follow.

Smooth Acceleration, Smooth Braking

The first thing most people notice about EVs is that they’re nearly silent; there’s no rev of the engine, only the sound of the tires turning. The fact that these vehicles seem to glide across the pavement gives the impression that they’re dainty and gentle, until you slide behind the wheel and step on the accelerator. Which brings us to the second thing people notice about EVs: They’ve got a tremendous amount of power.

Aaron Gold is a senior editor at MotorTrend, where cars and trucks of all types are extensively tested and reviewed. The publication named the Rivian R1T its Truck of the Year in 2022, and gave the Ford F-150 Lightning the same honor in 2023.

Gold also can be found hauling his wife Robin’s mules around Los Angeles for trail riding excursions. The No. 1 reason to consider an electric truck for hauling horses, he said, is the immense amount of power they have, and how smoothly the driver can apply that power.

“People at MotorTrend get so sick of me talking about horse towing because it’s so much more demanding than regular towing,” Gold said. In fact, when MotorTrend did a head-to-head test between the Rivian R1T and the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Golds’ Circle J two-horse slant, warmblood height, bumper-pull trailer, with two horses aboard, was pressed into service for the towing portion.

“Obviously, it’s not important to horses, but the power with electric trucks is off the hook,” Gold said. “Not that you would ever do this with a horse trailer, but you floor a Ford F-150 Lightning with a 10,000-pound trailer on a 7% grade, and it takes off like a drag racer. It’s incredible how much torque they have.

“What’s much more important, I think, for people towing horses is that you can apply that power really, really smoothly, even in situations where, like, you’re on a steep grade at a stop, where an internal combustion truck is going to roll backwards. With an electric truck, you can get on the power and start it very smoothly,” he continued. “We drive extra gently with horses, because they’re balancing. We can’t do anything sudden, and electric trucks are so great for that, for applying power smoothly and evenly, even in adverse situations—on hills, on rough terrain, off-road. And there’s no shifting, so there’s no shift shock, which can get harsher [when towing] in an internal combustion truck—for shorthand we call them ICE trucks; ICE for ‘internal combustion engine.’ So especially full-throttle in an ICE truck, there’s a real jerk. That doesn’t happen in an electric truck.”

“We drive extra gently with horses, because they’re balancing. We can’t do anything sudden, and electric trucks are so great for that, for applying power smoothly and evenly, even in adverse situations—on hills, on rough terrain, off-road.”

Aaron Gold, MotorTrend senior editor

A second feature of electric trucks that improves the towing experience is regenerative braking (often referred to as “regen”), Gold said.

“What regenerative braking does is it uses the motors as generators, which slows down the truck because it creates resistance. It also puts juice back in the battery,” he explained. “It’s the electric version of an engine brake [used on large vehicles like tractor trailers and buses], except it’s on all the time. It’s very smooth. It’s very effective. A lot of cars and several electric trucks have so much regenerative braking that they can bring the truck and the trailer to a stop. One of the side [benefits] about electric trucks is you almost never go through brakes, because regen does so much of the work.”

Many EVs also have a one-pedal driving mode, where regenerative braking starts to slow the vehicle as soon as the driver lets off the accelerator, so she almost never has to actually step on the brake.

“What we found is that one-pedal driving with a horse trailer is magnificent; once you get a feel for it, you can be so much smoother than you can using two pedals,” Gold said. “The safest way to slow down any rig is to use the engine and not the brakes, because the friction brakes can overheat. So regen is very effective, never overheats, and is a great way to come down the hill. When you’re coming down a mountain with a heavy trailer, not only does it control your speed, but you’re adding range to the truck.”

A few other benefits: Because electric trucks don’t have internal combustion engines, the space under the hood is usually turned into a front trunk, or “frunk,” which provides additional hidden, lockable storage. Many also have on-board outlets so you can plug in power tools, fans, or even your laptop while you’re away from home.

And an under-appreciated benefit Gold noted is that because the trucks don’t produce exhaust, your horses aren’t breathing it (at least, not from your truck) when they’re in the trailer behind you.

Charging Infrastructure A Major Barrier

While the actual towing experience with an electric truck is, by most accounts, pretty stellar, where the rubber meets the road is in the practicality of using these vehicles. Their biggest limiting factor is their range. Just like in ICE trucks, you can’t go as far on a single “tank”—or battery charge—because of the extra work the truck is doing to pull the trailer.

Most manufacturers offer different battery sizes with their trucks, so they have varying ranges, but a good general benchmark is around 300 miles, under ideal conditions. Weather, terrain, speed and driving style can all adversely affect range.

“What we found is that, as soon as you plug in a trailer, you cut your range in half,” Gold said. “And 150 miles is not a whole lot when you’re horse-towing, especially if you’re going to someplace without power.”

“What we found is that, as soon as you plug in a trailer, you cut your range in half. And 150 miles is not a whole lot when you’re horse-towing, especially if you’re going to someplace without power.”

Aaron Gold, MotorTrend senior editor

Although loss of range when towing isn’t unique to EVs, it does present some particular challenges. “Even if you have 50% losses in a gasoline truck, first of all, you have the option to use 40-gallon tanks,” Gold said. The batteries used in EVs are large and heavy, so their size is a limiting factor.

The bigger issue is refueling, which is sometimes difficult with an EV even without a trailer.

Public charging stations are plentiful in some areas, usually located near major interstates, and in-car navigation or various smartphone apps can show you where the nearest chargers are. They’re often placed at gas stations, rest stops or in parking lots at shopping centers. Although there are issues with availability (how many other people want to use the chargers and whether or not there’s a wait), charger functionality (whether or not they’re working properly) and charging speed (some EVs can add a decent amount of range recharging for just 20 or 30 minutes, while others are much slower), those factors all vary greatly depending on where you are in the country and what vehicle you’re driving.

What is a much more ubiquitous problem for those hauling horses is the design of public charging stations. Unlike gas stations, which are “pull-through”—designed for you to pull up next to the pump and then drive forward to exit once you’ve refueled, and are thus easy to navigate with a trailer as long as the pumping area is large enough—most charging stations are designed like parking stalls. Depending on where the charging cable plugs into your vehicle, you would pull into the space facing forward or backward to charge.

“The problem is, from what we’ve seen—and we’re in California, where there are a lot of public fast chargers—but next to none of them, if any, are set up as pull-throughs,” Gold said. “In fact, most of them are in parking lots, so there’s no way to pull up to a fast charger without blocking other chargers. Unhooking a horse trailer is not an option, and if you take your horse out, you may never get him back in.”

This is a huge, and perhaps insurmountable, challenge for those hauling horses more than 100-150 miles roundtrip. Rivian has its own network of chargers, and some are designed for trailers, and various smartphone apps can filter for trailer-friendly charging, but the bottom line is that they’re not very common yet. If you plan your trip around the one trailer-friendly charger on a 100-mile stretch of highway and it happens to be out of service, you (and your horses) have a big problem.

Better Technology Is Coming

The technology involved with EVs, as well as the charging infrastructure, are both improving at a rapid pace, which means that towing longer distances may be more feasible soon.

“What’s coming next are solid state batteries, which are going to have greatly improved energy density, which means either more range out of the same size battery, or a smaller, lighter battery that offers the 300 miles [of range], which is kind of the magic number,” Gold said. “Solid state batteries could easily boost most electric trucks to 500 miles. And then if things don’t change—and I don’t know that they will, because we’re not going to make improvements to physics—you’re looking at 250 miles of towing range, which is much better.”

For now, electric trucks are best suited to those who trailer short distances. Those who understand their limitations and are comfortable with them might find them to be very capable tow vehicles, and might especially appreciate spending considerably less to fuel the truck if they also use it as their daily vehicle.

“I would say to everybody, look, keep an open mind about electric vehicles. The technology is still fairly new. There’s a lot of development that it has to undergo, and it definitely has some limitations; nobody’s saying it doesn’t,” said Gold. “But there’s also great potential out there. The pulling power and the speed that they can generate, the [low cost of] maintenance, and the idea of having a gas station basically in your house, having a full tank every morning.

“I think for a lot of horse people, electric trucks may not be there yet. For some people, they will be there. For people who are towing shorter distances and don’t necessarily need to take hay [in the bed of the truck] in massive amounts, an F-150 Lightning can make a lot of sense; so, I think, will the Silverado EV,” he continued. “I would say just look at the numbers and keep an open mind and watch the technology, because there’s really a lot that’s very promising and very exciting. And, you know, bottom line, it’s stuff that will make the planet cleaner and better for us and our horses. And save money, which I think every horse owner would like to do.”

Check back tomorrow for Part 2, “Is EV Towing Right For You?” with real-world towing experiences from four horse owners who took the electric tow vehicle plunge.