You can push a tesla in most typical push situations. Sure its heavy, but its in the ballpark of pushing any large sedan or SUV, not just electric ones. You can enable free-rolling wheels in the car and push away, especially if you have luxury of two people pushing.

The weight of a Tesla is not some unprecedented figure for a passenger car - a model 3 is no heavier than many BMW 5 series configurations etc.

The far bigger problem for pushing EVs in my experience is blown pyro-fuses that lock the axle after crashes preventing the wheels from turning - a common issue after an EV shunt. This is why you will often see EVs "dragged" out of shunts by the recovery vehicle until they can get the locked wheels onto dollies. This is only an issue if the EV being pushed has been in an impact generally, but the bar for a pyrofuse blow seems to be low too - it will trip even if airbags haven't deployed. The wheels on many EV motor axles wont turn again until the pyrofuse is replaced.

I think the earlier example that required a full recovery truck - that sounds exactly like a blown pyrofuse, which is by far the most common reason an EV ends up requiring a full lift/dollies rather than a simple tow on its own axles.

This is also why you generally always smell burning in the cabin after a tesla shunt too - nothing to do with a battery fire, its the smell of the pyrofuse burning out under the rear passenger seat.

> https://www.wired.com/story/evs-fire-pyroswitches-cut-risk-s...