Why EVs and AWD Cars Get Flatbed-Only Towing Near Cambridge

An electric AWD car can't be towed on its wheels at all, even briefly — the motors keep spinning as generators and feed voltage into a system that's parked, not running. Boston Towing Service loads every EV picked up around Cambridge onto a flatbed, wheels fully off the ground, dispatched 24/7.

Can an EV be towed on its wheels for even a short distance?

No — not for a block, not to pull it out of a tight spot and reposition it. Every wheel on an electric car is still connected to a motor, whether the ignition is on or not, and a wheel that's rolling is turning that motor. Turn it fast enough for long enough and the motor starts acting as a generator, pushing voltage back into a system that expects to be parked, not spinning. Boston Towing Service puts every EV it picks up around Cambridge on a flatbed, all four wheels off the pavement, rather than risk it.

That's true even for the short repositioning pull that feels harmless — off a crosswalk, out of a bike lane, a few feet to get clear of traffic. There's no length of dragged wheel that's officially 'safe'; there's only whether the wheels turned at all.

Why is an AWD electric car a different problem than an AWD gas car?

A gas AWD car splits power from one engine through a transfer case and a driveshaft — mechanical parts that can, at least in theory, be disconnected. Most AWD electric cars don't have that option: they run a separate motor on the front axle and another on the rear, each wired straight into the battery with no shaft between them to unbolt. There's no single point to disconnect and roll the car safely, which is part of why flatbed loading isn't a precaution for these cars — it's the only method that works at all.

That split matters for repair, too — a bad transfer case on a gas AWD car is one repair. A dead front motor and a dead rear motor on an EV are two separate, unrelated repairs, which is one more reason not to guess about how the car should move.

Doesn't the battery pack make the car too heavy for a normal flatbed?

The battery pack is the heaviest single part of an electric car, and it sits low in the floor rather than up front like an engine block, which changes how the weight loads onto the ramps and where it settles on the bed. A flatbed and winch rated for a mid-size sedan can still come up short on an EV that weighs more than its gas equivalent, so Boston Towing Service checks the vehicle's actual curb weight against the truck's rated capacity before loading, not just its length.

Tie-down points differ too. A gas car's frame rails are usually predictable; an EV's floor is mostly battery casing, so straps and hooks have to land on the points the manufacturer actually rated for towing, not wherever looks solid.

The car won't shift out of Park and the 12-volt battery is dead — now what?

Every electric car still runs a small 12-volt battery for accessories, and when that one dies, the systems that normally let the car shift to neutral or release an electronic parking brake go down with it. Most manufacturers build in a manual override for exactly this — a cable, a release panel, or a fuse pull that lets a trained operator put the car in neutral without power. Skipping that step and winching against a locked drivetrain is how a tow ends up damaging the exact motor it was trying to protect.

There's a second reason to get that override right: with the 12-volt system down, power steering and brake assist go with it, so the car has to be winched, not steered, the last few feet onto the bed.

Can the tow truck charge the car on the roadside?

No — a flatbed doesn't carry a charger, and roadside charging isn't something any tow truck is equipped to do. What it can do is get a car that's run out of charge to the nearest working charger, or home, on the flatbed rather than leaving it to sit.

Is EV flatbed towing available any time around Cambridge?

Boston Towing Service runs the same 24-hour schedule for an EV pickup as it does for anything else — a dead battery or a car that won't leave Park doesn't wait for business hours, and neither does the truck. The dispatch yard is in East Boston, but flatbeds go out to Cambridge and the rest of the company's 22 service areas on the same call.

If only one motor fails, can the car be towed on the wheels that still work?

No — even if one motor completely fails, the axle it's connected to still rolls when the car moves, and a dead motor doesn't stop generating voltage just because it's broken. The safe assumption with any AWD electric car is that every wheel is live until a flatbed proves otherwise, so Boston Towing Service treats a partial motor failure the same as a car running on all four.