This Camper With 240-kWh Battery, Twin Motors Is An Electric Car Owner's Dream

TruckElectric

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This Camper With 240-kWh Battery, Twin Motors Is An Electric Car Owner's Dream


Tesla Cybertruck This Camper With 240-kWh Battery, Twin Motors Is An Electric Car Owner's Dream 1614364044689


Let's help travel trailer companies build the next camper for EVs.
Right now, there are several companies developing a travel camper specifically for EVs. This includes travel trailer giant Airstream and one of the nation’s largest RV dealers: Camping World. A European company by the name of Dethleffs has a prototype(pictured below), and Polydrops already has one on the market.
I suspect that when camping trailers for EVs start hitting the market they will come in a variety of sizes, aerodynamic shapes, and with various features and specs. Mostly because these large companies haven’t made a camper like this before, it will be a first. The majority of traditional camper trailers aren’t very high tech. It’s hard to imagine that any of these companies are experienced with battery packs, solar panels, and electric motors. They will likely consult with companies who know more about EV technology.

Not only that, they don’t really know what EV owners want out of campers yet. Some of these companies could be conducting focus group studies or reading articles like this one, and the comments.

Tesla Cybertruck This Camper With 240-kWh Battery, Twin Motors Is An Electric Car Owner's Dream Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 12.39.32 PM

An InsideEVs reader by the name of Ed posted the above photo he created (It’s not a real company). When I contacted him he said, “I wanted to get the camper companies thinking about the concept. I think it has started to work.”

Bravo, Ed! Photos like this probably get the gears turning in the heads of R&D folks at the companies developing them. He even listed the features he’d like to have in his camper. Ed was the only one to post a photo he created, but many others listed features they’d like to see.

Martin, another InsideEVs commenter listed these features he’d like to have:
>10 kWh capacity
Smart towing: trailer is aware of forces at tow hitch and reacts accordingly, is aware of up-/downhill predictions
Replaces trailer control (security feature)
Replaces "mover" (slow autonomous remote-controlled movement for trailer positioning)
Autonomous 230V system inside trailer
Trailer can be connected to grid and buffer solar energy when parked at home
Eco Logical, another commenter, had this to say:
I'm looking for a zero emission electric camping trailer, no gas/propane at all, electric cooking & heating. The 4680 high voltage cell-to-chassis technology would facilitate a weight saving trailer structure. A Tesla or CCS charging outlet would facilitate fast DC transfer from the trailer to the vehicle (bidirectional is better). Trailer kWh capacity should match towing vehicle capacity i.e. 100 kWh if towing with a Tesla Model X.
Thunderbuck wants to see this in an upcoming camper made for EVs:
My dream: a trailer with its own small battery pack that can integrate with an EV's battery. Trailer would have driven wheels that would regen in concert with the tow car's regen, and could be driven under high-demand conditions (mountain highway grades, for instance).
Bill Johnson had this to say:
I've got a Cyber on order and am planning to get an RV trailer for an extended road trip. The closer I can be to grid free (no carbon footprint?) the better. Induction stove and electric/compost toilet, HVAC etc. looks like retrofitting work to me. I'm pretty sure I can handle it all but it would be nice to see commercial offerings already filling this void.
Like with most things, everyone has their own opinion on the best route to go. Now, I know this is just a few opinions and isn't everything that EV owners want with a camper. But, it gives us and travel trailer companies a better idea of what EV owners want.
EV owners, do you agree with the above InsideEVs readers? If there are other features you're looking for please let us know in the comments below.


SOURCE: INSIDEEVs
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mlee168

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I would love to buy one of these. I will be looking a teardop trailer once my cybertruck comes in.

I would love if it is able to provide a few miles of emergency charging for the truck if needed. Would like to be able to charge the battery in trailer w/ solar. I would not have issue carrying around 300-500 watts of panel to charge the trailer battery.
 

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This Camper With 240-kWh Battery, Twin Motors Is An Electric Car Owner's Dream


1614364044689.png


Let's help travel trailer companies build the next camper for EVs.
Right now, there are several companies developing a travel camper specifically for EVs. This includes travel trailer giant Airstream and one of the nation’s largest RV dealers: Camping World. A European company by the name of Dethleffs has a prototype(pictured below), and Polydrops already has one on the market.
I suspect that when camping trailers for EVs start hitting the market they will come in a variety of sizes, aerodynamic shapes, and with various features and specs. Mostly because these large companies haven’t made a camper like this before, it will be a first. The majority of traditional camper trailers aren’t very high tech. It’s hard to imagine that any of these companies are experienced with battery packs, solar panels, and electric motors. They will likely consult with companies who know more about EV technology.

Not only that, they don’t really know what EV owners want out of campers yet. Some of these companies could be conducting focus group studies or reading articles like this one, and the comments.

Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 12.39.32 PM.png

An InsideEVs reader by the name of Ed posted the above photo he created (It’s not a real company). When I contacted him he said, “I wanted to get the camper companies thinking about the concept. I think it has started to work.”

Bravo, Ed! Photos like this probably get the gears turning in the heads of R&D folks at the companies developing them. He even listed the features he’d like to have in his camper. Ed was the only one to post a photo he created, but many others listed features they’d like to see.

Martin, another InsideEVs commenter listed these features he’d like to have:

Eco Logical, another commenter, had this to say:

Thunderbuck wants to see this in an upcoming camper made for EVs:

Bill Johnson had this to say:

Like with most things, everyone has their own opinion on the best route to go. Now, I know this is just a few opinions and isn't everything that EV owners want with a camper. But, it gives us and travel trailer companies a better idea of what EV owners want.
EV owners, do you agree with the above InsideEVs readers? If there are other features you're looking for please let us know in the comments below.


SOURCE: INSIDEEVs
Hi Guys,
Great posts, interesting topics surrounding EVs and Power.
Just introducing myself... a RV Designer who will be building RV prototypes with 5,000W solar arrays to power EVs, homes and live 100% sun power totally off grid.
Looking forward to engaging with other enthusiasts.
 
OP
OP
TruckElectric

TruckElectric

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Hi Guys,
Great posts, interesting topics surrounding EVs and Power.
Just introducing myself... a RV Designer who will be building RV prototypes with 5,000W solar arrays to power EVs, homes and live 100% sun power totally off grid.
Looking forward to engaging with other enthusiasts.
You will get more business than you can handle by designing a RV/Travel Trailer for the Cybertruck :love:

I'm sure you will get plenty of input for what is desired/wanted ;)

Looking forward to some of your design prototypes. Please post here! (y)
 

WildhavenMI

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240kWh battery....is this a $150k trailer?!
 


DarinCT

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240kWh battery....is this a $150k trailer?!
That's a great question. I started doing some napkin math. A 75kWh replacement battery pack with labor and the fixings is about 17K (about 13.5 for the pack). Let's go higher on the kWh because this is OEM so less labor and would not be needed three times as many parts. For just the batteries with the retail cost, we're about $45K. A powerwall2 on the other hand is 13.5kW at a battery pack cost of$5,500. At that rate, we're talking ~$98K (240/13.5)*$5500.

That's a pretty wide range. There's a reason I am comparing the two though. Household usage (trailer and CT charging) is different than vehicle use (CT). Are the batteries different? Not as far as I know but I could be totally wrong on that. This might be a good use case for second-life batteries.

Put another way, depending on the battery cost and interior quality, yep $150K seems about right.
 

Pappy

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Maybe I better wait a bit on purchasing that toy hauler? Give the industry some time to design what may suit me better for getting to those hard to reach places with my CT and have a warm, dry, place to enjoy a cup of coffee, or cold beer??
 

Crissa

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Would you even be able to use it for traction? What standard will it use?

Enough money can do anything, but... Should it?

-Crissa
 

Crissa

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That's incredibly inefficient, alas. You're going to lose up to 50% in transfer inefficiencies. You have to lift the voltage from one pack above the voltage of the other pack. That's why those portable DC chargers are so bulky.

-Crissa
 


Cyberman

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NOW, WITH TANK TURN FOR EASY PARKING!
 

Crissa

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I agree with the rest of your post, but I said 'up to'. DC-DC voltage conversion is pretty inefficient, especially at high amperage. The simplest solution would be to go through the AC charging system, which incurs a penalty to invert to ac, and then an up to 20% loss in the charging rectifier. AC is super-efficient at changing voltage, though, so it could balance the voltages more easily. So it just depends on how thoughtful the design is.

-Crissa
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