Towing - Any way to manually put Vehicle into Neutral should 12V battery die/electrical system malfunction?

[Great_Cookie]

Hi All,

Hypothetical Scenario and one of those situations that we hope we never find ourselves in - but watching some YouTube video on how a Lotus Eletre was ‘stranded’ and subsequently towed was super painful.

Essentially was wondering IF the 12V battery dies/malfunctions - then we somehow need to:

1. Jump start/power up the 12V battery - Those instructions have been covered in the owner’s manual (first screenshot below)

2. If jumping doesn’t solve the issue and/ HV battery is the issue/for what ever reason we need to tow, that’s where the true nightmare begins.

Owner’s manual seems to suggest that flat bed tow is the only way to tow the vehicle (see second screenshot) but to do so, we need to get the vehicle into “Roll Mode” (ie Neutral Gear) - side note: also interesting to learn that Roll Mode/Neutral goes back to Park after 30min automatically.

I guess my question is whether there is a (manual override) way to get the vehicle into neutral gear WITHOUT electrical assistance (ie if the 12V system catastrophically dies) - otherwise there are an absolute heap of contra-indications that you WILL cause harm to the vehicle by either dragging or towing incorrectly.

Or can anyone else suggest something that I might be missing here?


Video Link to what prompted this post: My £150k Lotus Eletre DISASTER! This Went From Bad To Worse!

 

[Awaz]

Perhaps the best thing to do in that case is to call Porsche Assistance. We have three years breakdown cover.

 

[Great_Cookie]

Perhaps the best thing to do in that case is to call Porsche Assistance. We have three years breakdown cover.

Agreed - but similar to the YouTube video posted - I believe Porsche Assistance is sub-contracted to a normal service provider (eg AAA, NRMA) - the Eletre in question was called via in-car Lotus Assistance and (spoiler alert) the damage done to the vehicle to drag it ended up breaking some carbon fibre trim and damaging the vehicle’s suspension mainly because it couldn’t be put into Neutral.

Which is what prompted me to ask if there were any manual way to put the vehicle into ‘Neutral’ should 12V battery system fail - to minimise damage - doesn’t look like it I guess, but I also acknowledge it’s probably have to be a pretty catastrophic vehicle failure and circumstances to get to that point.

 

[ColdCase]

Some tow operators put sliders or dollies under each wheel of an unfamiliar car and pull the car onto the flat bed regardless., Is that manual enough ?

The problem may be that some operators are more careful than others.

You can do the same thing to move a car, or uses those jacks car museums and shops use to move display or disabled cars from one spot to another.

 

[dgkhn]

I guess my question is whether there is a (manual override) way to get the vehicle into neutral gear WITHOUT electrical assistance (ie if the 12V system catastrophically dies) - otherwise there are an absolute heap of contra-indications that you WILL cause harm to the vehicle by either dragging or towing incorrectly.

Or can anyone else suggest something that I might be missing here?


Video Link to what prompted this post: My £150k Lotus Eletre DISASTER! This Went From Bad To Worse!

Oh, sooo painful to watch that. It is easy enough to picture that scenario in one of our cars.

 

[PrudentOcean]

That tow truck driver is either unqualified for the job or just doesn't care. He had to have known that dragging the Eletre sideways like that would break something.

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