EV campervan or RV

Discussion in 'General' started by TheMagster, Nov 20, 2018.

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  1. TheMagster

    TheMagster Member

    I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants one... are there any EV campervans or RVs available in the US? All I've seen are concepts, like the VW minibus EV (which looks great to me). I'm also considering doing my own conversion project on either an existing EV or PHEV, or possibly converting an ICE van into an EV campervan (this I've seen done, especially with vintage VW busses). I would also consider an EV towing a trailer, but I'm more attracted to it being a single vehicle.

    One of the things I would really like to have on board is a toilet...which rules out a lot of smaller vehicles. I'm thinking about converting a Mercedes Sprinter van (or similar sized vehicle) to an EV, but I'm wondering if that's simply too heavy of a frame to be a contender.

    Another idea is a teardrop or tent trailer with built-in regenerative braking and small motors in the wheel hubs that can help carry it's own weight, possibly even push the car towing it a bit, to help improve range & mileage (this would help an ICE car or EV). These already exist at a small scale as bike trailers for long distance bike touring, but I haven't seen any at a larger scale.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2018
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  4. TheMagster

    TheMagster Member

    That's awesome! Also functions like a powerwall when not in use... brilliant! Though I'm guessing it would need a dedicated 240V circuit to achieve that.

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  5. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    If you're considering a camper trailer pulled behind an EV, I suggest you look at popup camping trailers. The low profile should help reduce drag, which would cause less of a reduction of the EV's expected highway range.

    BjΓΈrn Nyland found that towing even a small teardrop-shaped camping trailer reduced the Tesla Model X's highway range by half. So anything you could do to reduce aero drag would help with that.

     
  6. TheMagster

    TheMagster Member

    I do like popup and low profile teardrop trailers, that's certainly an option. The one remarksman linked to looks perfect to me! Maybe a low profile version of that would be even better. So cool that you can even move it around when it is detached (similar to Tesla summon feature).

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