I’m late to this party but have a few thoughts:
1. I live about 15 miles from the Tesla Factory in Fremont, CA. I see many Tesla’s on the road daily and several of my neighbors have them as second cars (most are parked in the driveway or street not the garage). I have never seen a Tesla used as a tow vehicle on the road or at at boat ramp. I can’t explain why but assume it just doesn’t make sense for most Tesla owners around here. The only time I see Teslas and a a tow vehicle together are when they are on a carrier leaving or going to the factory (I find the latter much more curious).
2. I leased an electric smart car for over a year, not to because I had to get into an electric vehicle but because I wanted a car that I could drive in the car pool lane legally even though I would be it’s only occupant most of the time. CA issues several thousand stickers per year for specific car models (electrics and hybrids) which allow the car to be driven in the car pool (aka HOV high occupancy vechile) lane with one occupant. The fine for using a car pool lane with less than the minimum number of occupants is over $400 per occurrence so buying a used ev or hybrid with the sticker will cost upwards of $1k to $2k more than a car without it but if will save you an hour a day on the road it is hard to argue it’s not worth the cost premium. The stickers have a set life after which they are no longer valid, they are color coded so that it is easy for a LEO to tell if it is valid or not.
3. Technology is improving but other things that can drain your battery are just sitting in traffic with the ac or heart on. I used to drive 35 miles to work in the smart car which had a paper range of 90 miles on a full charge. Realistically it was closer to 60 miles before only 20% of the charge remained (aka the red zone on my battery meter). As a result of being unable to get a full charge while at work there were several instances in which I was stuck in traffic 10 miles from home with less than 20% charge remaining, wondering if I was going to make it home to the point that I turned off the heater/ac, stereo and sometimes even the headlights while pulling into the slow lane in case the car just died and I had to push it onto the shoulder (ev are heavy vehicles just try pushing one, even a small one several feet). As such, I had to charge twice a day, once at work and again at home overnight. Getting a charging spot at night was never a problem but I had to get to work early to get a charging spot at Apple and they were big on charging spots (employees charged for free and there were always 2 to several dozens of spots at each Apple owned or leased building). Once I got a spot I would rarely take the car out of it during the day, like for lunch or to run errands because I didn’t want to use up the charge nor be forced into hunting for another charging spot before the drive home. The charging app only tells you when a car is using the charger it doesn’t indicate whether a car is actually occupying the spot or not. On more than one occasion the power went out at home at night which meant the car didn’t get a full charge and I couldn’t use it the next day to get to work.
4. A few years ago I went on a Jeep jamboree 4x4 rock crawling event. One of the other entrants was a Korean company that developed an electric kit for jeeps. That is, they had an all electric Jeep at the event (Rubicon trail) and it did fine. The only difference is that they also carried and used a gas powered generator to charge their Jeep at Rubicon springs (the 1/2 way point of the Rubicon trail hitch has no runnning water, electricity or phones). The generator took up a large part of their storage though.
5. Until last year my wife worked at a contract manufacturer near Tesla that developed and built the prototype for the model x Falcon door hinges and latest generation of super chargers. Her take, the hinges at the time we’re junk / always breaking so Tesla had them redesigned but used the remaining stock in the cars being built at the time. If you got a Tesla with the older hinges it is just a matter of time before they fail, hopefully they fail, if at all, under warranty. As for the super chargers, I think they finally got the, to perform to spec but she was working on a revision in the teens. There is also the cost, $5k + inststslled. After spending $50k (I’ve heard model 3s can be purchased for $35k but don’t know anyone or seen a $35k model yet, that I know of) on a Tesla I’d be hard pressed to lay down another $5k to charge it faster.
In conclusion, I would only use an ev as a tow vehicle in Two situations. First, if i didn’t have to tow far or often (e.g. 6 miles round trip 4 times a year like the op). Second, if I had no other choice. I would buy or lease an ev again but only as a Second/around town car. When an ev runs out of juice You don’t have the option to quickly recharge it. Unless you carry a gas powered generator you don’t have the option of charging it where it died, you will need to tow it away (if I ever see an ev towing an ev I will do my best to take a pic of it).
