4 ms·

Why hasn't EV tech hit the RV world? How many batteries could one of those Greyhound bus size RV's, or smaller ones, hold? Maybe it has and I'm ignorant. I ge

by matt_s 6y ago

Why hasn't EV tech hit the RV world? How many batteries could one of those Greyhound bus size RV's, or smaller ones, hold? Maybe it has and I'm ignorant. I get that corporate shipping industries would benefit but a lot of delivery vans are the same platform as an RV. I think a Ford F350 is the size of those 25 ft uhaul rentals - about same size as a decent sized RV. RV's typically park somewhere for days, campgrounds could be good places for charging stations. If you have a stay booked for 5 days, it could even slow trickle charge over that time.

daniellarusso 6y ago
Cybertruck can tow a fairly large Airstream.
- rootusrootus 6y ago
  How far? That's really the biggest issue with electric towing right now. To get a reasonable range while towing a travel trailer, the EV needs four times the battery capacity, maybe more. This is a pretty big capital investment, and then you're toting around an extra few thousand pounds even when not towing. We will get there eventually, but I expect that tow vehicles will be amongst the last personal vehicles to be successfully electrified.
- naewonawonga 6y ago
  Cybertruck is not real.
porknubbins 6y ago
I don’t know if there is a technical reason why EV hasn’t come to RVs, but having worked with some RV makers they are basically tiny luxury product makers compared to one of the biggest industries on the planet so probably like 1% of the R&D goes into RVs per inch compared to cars.
- Johnny555 6y ago
  Most RV makers buy an off-the-shelf chassis from Ford or Freightliner, so they can benefit from truck based electrification work.
aidenn0 6y ago
Interior space requirements plus maximum exterior width requirements mean that RVs will be approximately box-shaped. Box-shaped vehicles are just going to have massive energy demands above 45MPH or so due to physics. On top of this, the engine just doesn't mass that much more (in absolute terms) than a car engine, so the mass savings for an electric motor are not increased that much. All this means an electric RV with any reasonable range is going to be heavy. Hybrid technology might makes sense though as they already have demand for a large-ish battery, and dynamic braking could really reduce wear on the brakes.
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  Weight too. Many RVs are already making compromises with furnishings, water (fresh, grey, black), electrical (non-motive, but often much of lighting, electronics, heat, cooking, hot water, cooling), and gear. Add 100s or 1,000s of kilos of batteries, and further compromises are necessary.
Groxx 6y ago
At a guess, at least two parts apply, though broadly I do think it's a pretty promising option: 1) EV has been very expensive until relatively recently + RVs are a relatively low volume market => slow to re-design all vehicles. Yes, they re-design the stuff on top fairly often, but not AFAIK the chassis itself. I'd definitely be interested if I'm wrong about this though, rapid chassis evolution would probably be interesting to read about. 2) RVs are often used for long-distance and far-from-Civilization™ trips, which very much does not fit well with the (lack of) charging infrastructure. And even when you do go along highways, the charging time (due to higher power use + storage) is going to be substantially longer than on cars, which are already quite lengthy. re 2: Driving to somewhere with RV hookups would mitigate that a lot, which honestly would cover the vast majority of how many RVers I know use their vehicles. Charging overnight or longer is probably fine... but campgrounds will definitely not like you (and a bunch of other RVs) drawing that much power, they're simply not wired for enormous load. It'll take time for that stuff to be rebuilt.
Johnny555 6y ago
The average RV puts on around 5000 miles a year, so I don't think the cost benefit equation works out in favor of electrification. The travel patterns of many RV'ers means they need big (and expensive) batteries -- drive 200 miles, then spend days or weeks in one place, but since they are driving at highway speeds in a non-aerodynamic vehicle they burn a lot of energy just pushing through the air and don't get to recoup much in regenerative braking like a delivery truck might. Even though many campgrounds are wired for 50A service, they may struggle when they have 100 RV's all trying to charge at the same time at that rate.
hattmall 6y ago
Think about a Tesla's max range. Something like 500 miles. That might be something you run up against once or twice in a year with a normal car usage, but with a RV that's like every trip. If you could triple the range then you still need to probably quadruple the batteries for the size and dynamics of the RV, so that a 12x multiple for batteries. Assuming it's 1/2 the cost of a Tesla is the batteries then your looking at something like $250k just for the batteries.

by matt_s 6y ago

daniellarusso 6y ago

Cybertruck can tow a fairly large Airstream.

rootusrootus 6y ago
How far? That's really the biggest issue with electric towing right now. To get a reasonable range while towing a travel trailer, the EV needs four times the battery capacity, maybe more. This is a pretty big capital investment, and then you're toting around an extra few thousand pounds even when not towing. We will get there eventually, but I expect that tow vehicles will be amongst the last personal vehicles to be successfully electrified.
naewonawonga 6y ago
Cybertruck is not real.

porknubbins 6y ago

I don’t know if there is a technical reason why EV hasn’t come to RVs, but having worked with some RV makers they are basically tiny luxury product makers compared to one of the biggest industries on the planet so probably like 1% of the R&D goes into RVs per inch compared to cars.

Johnny555 6y ago
Most RV makers buy an off-the-shelf chassis from Ford or Freightliner, so they can benefit from truck based electrification work.

aidenn0 6y ago

Interior space requirements plus maximum exterior width requirements mean that RVs will be approximately box-shaped. Box-shaped vehicles are just going to have massive energy demands above 45MPH or so due to physics. On top of this, the engine just doesn't mass that much more (in absolute terms) than a car engine, so the mass savings for an electric motor are not increased that much. All this means an electric RV with any reasonable range is going to be heavy. Hybrid technology might makes sense though as they already have demand for a large-ish battery, and dynamic braking could really reduce wear on the brakes.

dredmorbius 6y ago
Weight too. Many RVs are already making compromises with furnishings, water (fresh, grey, black), electrical (non-motive, but often much of lighting, electronics, heat, cooking, hot water, cooling), and gear. Add 100s or 1,000s of kilos of batteries, and further compromises are necessary.

Groxx 6y ago

At a guess, at least two parts apply, though broadly I do think it's a pretty promising option: 1) EV has been very expensive until relatively recently + RVs are a relatively low volume market => slow to re-design all vehicles. Yes, they re-design the stuff on top fairly often, but not AFAIK the chassis itself. I'd definitely be interested if I'm wrong about this though, rapid chassis evolution would probably be interesting to read about. 2) RVs are often used for long-distance and far-from-Civilization™ trips, which very much does not fit well with the (lack of) charging infrastructure. And even when you do go along highways, the charging time (due to higher power use + storage) is going to be substantially longer than on cars, which are already quite lengthy. re 2: Driving to somewhere with RV hookups would mitigate that a lot, which honestly would cover the vast majority of how many RVers I know use their vehicles. Charging overnight or longer is probably fine... but campgrounds will definitely not like you (and a bunch of other RVs) drawing that much power, they're simply not wired for enormous load. It'll take time for that stuff to be rebuilt.

Johnny555 6y ago

The average RV puts on around 5000 miles a year, so I don't think the cost benefit equation works out in favor of electrification. The travel patterns of many RV'ers means they need big (and expensive) batteries -- drive 200 miles, then spend days or weeks in one place, but since they are driving at highway speeds in a non-aerodynamic vehicle they burn a lot of energy just pushing through the air and don't get to recoup much in regenerative braking like a delivery truck might. Even though many campgrounds are wired for 50A service, they may struggle when they have 100 RV's all trying to charge at the same time at that rate.

hattmall 6y ago

Think about a Tesla's max range. Something like 500 miles. That might be something you run up against once or twice in a year with a normal car usage, but with a RV that's like every trip. If you could triple the range then you still need to probably quadruple the batteries for the size and dynamics of the RV, so that a 12x multiple for batteries. Assuming it's 1/2 the cost of a Tesla is the batteries then your looking at something like $250k just for the batteries.