EV Camper Vans?

Davydd

Davydd

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Posts
5,967
Location
Minnesota
At the Florida RV Super Show Thor and Winnebago floated concept vans. Thor says their van will have a 300 mile range and Winnebago said 125 miles. Both were on the Transit platform. Winnebago said the battery was 84K watt. That is about 6X the biggest Volta battery system put in a camper van. They justified with research most people only go 125 miles. You could have fooled me. I put on 5,000 miles in this past 2 weeks in month of January. Haven’t they realized the advantage of camper vans is you can drive them a long way? Anyway, 125 miles wouldn’t get you up to the lake regions of Minnesota from Minneapolis and then where are you going to charge your batteries coming home. I suspect similar scenarios all over the country and out west worse. They said they have been developing it for 2 years. How long will it really become feasible?

I guess it is coming… ;)
 
That is only 113 HP, how this power will be able to move about 10K pounds uphill, I assume very slow?
 
Even that won't work very well in states like Texas, where it can be hundreds of miles to anything, but in the East they may work out.
 
The Winnebago and Thor evb's were financial decisions, expected. There are are folks that will spend whatever for whatever. The press alone....................(includes this forum).................
 
Boondocking would be completely off the table. My next car will be an EV, but an EV motorhome makes no sense for our lifestyle. The only way it works is for people who stay at full service campgrounds with hookups. Yuck.
 
Punkinhead said:
Boondocking would be completely off the table..
Click to expand...

It still might be possible: if an EV RV could get 300 miles on a charge, and if it could charge to 80% in 30 minutes or so, and if charging stations were as common as gas stations, and if you had a mounted propane tank. I expect that all of these "ifs" are not that far off.
 
If everything else goes electric, then RV's will as well. Or they will disappear. I doubt the RV market can support a separate market for ICE chassis.

I've said this before, but I will say it again here. The most likely future takes humans out of the driver seat entirely. That could mean transporting people and their "vehicle" or RV becomes a service. If there continues to be a ceiling on battery capacity, trading out the batteries or the power train would be easier, cheaper, and more attractive to customers than having people wait for them to charge.

In short, its hard to predict what the RV industry will look like in the new age of transportation. Who knows, we may end up with super highways that have wired power for longer trips.
 
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There are super chargers now where it is claimed you can get a 5 minute charge. I think that is lab stuff now at Purdue University. Trading out batteries might no go over. It is not as simple as just disconnecting a positive and negative post.

Anyway, it reminds me of propane bottles. I bought a brand new bottle and after I emptied it, I exchanged for another used bottle. After I emptied the exchanged one, I took it back and they refused to take it because it had date expired. So how does one contend with a new van and batteries in having exchanged for one that is nearly expired.

I’m not too worried about any of this because I doubt the total infrastructure change over to eliminate ICE will occur in my RV lifetime or even in my real lifetime.
 
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Davydd said:
There are super chargers now where it is claimed you can get a 5 minute charge. I think that is lab stuff now at Purdue University. Trading out batteries might no go over. It is not as simple as just disconnecting a positive and negative post.

Anyway, it reminds me of propane bottles. I bought a brand new bottle and after I emptied it, I exchanged for another used bottle. After I emptied the exchanged one, I took it back and they refused to take it because it had date expired. So how does one contend with a new van and batteries in having exchanged for one that is nearly expired.

I’m not too worried about any of this because I doubt the total infrastructure change over to eliminate ICE will occur in my RV lifetime or even in my real lifetime.
Click to expand...


The battery exchange would probably work like welding gas bottles where you own the batteries but contract the exchange of them. For bottles the cost of eventual recertification is handled by the vendor as would be replacement as part of the contract. There would have to be major shift in standardizing of batteries and country wide cooperation of exchange places, which I don't see it being feasible in this country with all the various brands and competitions going on all the time.
 
booster said:
The battery exchange would probably work like welding gas bottles where you own the batteries but contract the exchange of them. For bottles the cost of eventual recertification is handled by the vendor as would be replacement as part of the contract. There would have to be major shift in standardizing of batteries and country wide cooperation of exchange places, which I don't see it being feasible in this country with all the various brands and competitions going on all the time.
Click to expand...

booster, here in my area there was a class action suit, and they paid off. They were not stating that the tanks were not full, rather 80% of 80%. Nothing changed, it is on the tank now.

If someone wants to cheat, it's simple. Just take one's owned tank when out of date and exchange it for a 'rental'? Then continue having it filled 'full'. I purchased a new one.
 
Times have changed. Everything is a "service", and people are used to it. So my guess is that "watts as a service" would be perfectly acceptable to the market going forward.

The bigger problem is technical. In addition to the standardization problem that @booster mentions, swapping EV batteries is not as easy as it sounds. E.G., remember that these batteries are actively heated and cooled, so there are hydronic connections as well as mechanical and electrical ones. Elon demonstrated the process once at an event, but it was clearly a stunt and has apparently gone by the wayside.
 
I expect semi trucks and RVs to be the last diesel vehicles on the road. The propane tanks will probably disappear as the improved house electrical systems take over, but it will be a long time before heavily loaded , long distance, battery powered vehicles make economic sense.
And both trucks and RVs have a longer service life than cars, so demand for diesel from existing units will go on a long time, but the price will rise accordingly.
 
You all should check out the video on YouTube from that show. There is a full tour of the Thor. Very impressive, and like Tesla (I own a model 3) they plan to involve themselves in trip planning, etc. There are more and more chargers being installed every day. Owning any EV is a decision that requires some commitment to changing your lifestyle. But the benefits are immeasurable. Personally I can’t wait.
 
I Told Them My Opinion

I participated in the Winnebago survey and stated that I would need to be able to drive 5 hours between overnight recharges, and I stand by that statement still. Turtle Island (North America) is very large, and trips can take many days, even with two licensed drivers.
 
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