Do not tow e-cars yourself: Batteries and electronics are at risk

Created: 03/02/2022, 14:05

If an electric car breaks down, it is better not to tow it away on your own.

© VW/SP-X

What is not a problem with classic combustion engines with manual transmission can have fatal consequences with electric cars.

If an

* breaks down due to a dead battery, for example, you could simply tow the vehicle with another car.

However, the traffic club ACE warns against this independent towing, because in addition to electric cars and hybrid vehicles, automatic cars can also be damaged with this method.

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If you want to tow a normal car with a manual gearbox, that's not a problem, because the gear can simply be taken out to disconnect the engine and the wheels.

However, this is not possible with e-cars and many hybrids, which is why the wheels turn the e-motors during towing, which in turn generate electricity.

However, if power is generated while the vehicle is not operational, power electronics and the traction battery could be damaged, ACE said.

Automatic transmissions are also at risk if they are driven by the wheels instead of the engine.

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The traffic club advises that if a car that is not suitable for towing by yourself is left behind, a professional towing service should be commissioned, which will then lift the wheels.

However, their experience so far has shown that e-cars rarely break down anyway, which is attributed to the relatively low average age of the vehicles and the lower number of components prone to failure.