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Comment by reaperman | Hacker News Reader

I'd need to do some quick math to double-check but very rough ballpark estimates still make me think Teslas can be pushed by a single person. After all, a single strongman can pull a passenger airliner, and any car is nearly impossible to push uphill -- you have to really get some momentum built up first to let them coast up driveways/etc.

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It's not about weight or incline, it's the mechanical gearing in the "transmission" that can't turn the wheels without 100 percent power from the engine. You'll be able to push it and think it's really heavy, but it's just the transmission fighting you.

standards and automatic trans have neutral that disconnects driveshaft from engine, removing any resistance from the engaged gear. Most EVs either don't have neutral or a poor implementation of it, because of single gear transmission/direct drive.

> Most EVs either don't have neutral or a poor implementation of it,

I'm sorry, do you mean that neutral and "car wash/freeroll mode" are not 100% equivalent?

This really confounds me... if my car has a problem while driving down the road, I'd really like to have a chance of pushing it onto the shoulder if necessary.

A car that you can't do this with sounds very poorly designed to me.

They aren’t equivalent. Most EVs have a free roll mode, where you can push the car or take it through a car wash. You are still spinning the electric motors though.

This is fine for low speeds and short distances but is not advised for towing, like with tow trucks that leave two of the car’s wheels on the ground.

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