Electric car stranded — it may be towed only on a flatbed
Towing on a rope or with two wheels on the ground spins the motor as a generator and kills the inverter. The repair costs many times more than the transport.
Symptoms
- The car has stopped and will not move
- Someone offers to tow you on a rope
- The wheels stay on the ground during towing
- The selector will not go into neutral
An electric car is not towed on its wheels. In almost every model the motor is permanently connected to the wheels — there is no clutch to disengage it. Every turn of the wheels turns the motor too, and a spinning motor generates current. With the system switched off that current has nowhere to go and flows back into the inverter.
What breaks: the power electronics and sometimes the motor itself. This is not wear, it is a one-off failure — a few kilometres of towing is enough.
"Neutral" does not solve it. In an electric car N is a software command, not a mechanical link. It needs a working 12-volt system and in most cases releases the electric parking brake, but it does NOT disconnect the motor from the wheels.
The only correct method is a full flatbed — all four wheels off the road. Dollies under the rear wheels are a compromise that most manufacturers explicitly forbid; we do not use them on electric cars.
What to do now: switch on the hazard lights, put out the warning triangle, wait outside the car behind the barrier. Tell us the make and model on the phone — that way we send a flatbed with the right winch and skates in case the wheels will not turn.
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If you are in a hurry, calling is fastest. The form is for when you cannot speak.