Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid named Towcar of the Year
Some 28 cars were tested in this year’s competition to discover the best towcars on the market
The Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid has been named Towcar of Year 2024, beating a wide range of competitors including the Ford Puma and Bentley’s Bentayga.
The plug-in hybrid Porsche was one of 28 models tested by the Caravan and Motorhome Club for this year’s awards. The SUV scored top marks ‘in virtually every category to bag the overall title’, and it also won the caravan weight over 1,700kg class.
Nick Lomas, director general of the Caravan and Motorhome Club said: “The Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year 2024 competition saw nine of the 28 vehicles tested purely powered by electricity and three were hybrids. It demonstrates just how seriously car makers are taking the world of towing with an electrified vehicle.
“As well as seeing the advances in EV technology this year, there was also a good representation from traditionally fuelled vehicles plus a great mix of big-engined SUVs and pick-ups.”
Aside from the Cayenne winning the overall gong and its weight category, the electric Volkswagen ID.Buzz won the lightest category, caravan weight under 1,100kg, and Skoda took home two awards – the 1,100kg to 1,300kg class went to the sporty electric Skoda Enyaq iV VRS Coupe, while the Octavia Estate 2.0-litre TDI 150PS DSG bagged the 1,300kg to 1,500kg category.
Moving up to the 1,500-1,700kg class the newly-updated Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor walked off with the win, while the Nissan Ariya 87kWh Evolve e-4ORCE, the Ford Ranger Wildtrack and the long-wheelbase Volkswagen Multivan came out on top in the Electric Vehicles, Pick-up and Large Family Towcar categories, respectively. Meanwhile the Volvo XC60 Recharge scooped both the Hybrid and Family Towcar classes.
Two new categories were added to this year’s gongs – Luxury Towcar and a special Judges’ Award. Bentley’s long-wheelbase Bentayga EWB took the spoils in the luxury class while the Ford Puma, in ST-Line trim and fitted with a 1.0-litre mild-hybrid engine and six-speed manual gearbox, was praised by the judging panel for its great value for money, and how it ‘debunked the theory a good towcar must have a large engine and automatic gearbox’.
The judging took place at the world famous Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, which comprised several hundred laps of the two-mile high-speed bowl and ‘alpine’ hill route. Tests included hill starts on a 17 per cent gradient, a 26 per cent downhill brake test, and acceleration tests from a standstill to motorway speeds.
All cars were ballasted and were hitched to caravans ballasted to 85 per cent of the cars’ kerbweights, or towing limits if lower, to both create a level playing field and replicate accurate real-world towing conditions.
