Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion piece from Washington Post writer Michael J. Coren. The full article can be found here.
If the American Dream had wheels, it might look like an Airstream trailer. The silver torpedo beckons from the future, even as it evokes ’60s-era roadside burgers and moon rockets.
Like many things in American life, it’s electrifying.
Starting about three years ago, the electric revolution arrived. Incumbents began seriously field testing EV technology, and start-ups like Lightship and Pebble announced battery-powered, self-propelled trailers.
The result is a new generation of mobile palaces that look nothing like what my dad towed into state parks when we went camping as a kid. The electrification of American camping — at least the car-camping kind — is cleaner and quieter than the era of vibrating generators and hissing propane tanks.
A battery revolution
Start-ups Lightship and Pebble are both manufacturing the first all-electric RVs: battery-powered trailers that propel themselves. The technology consists of a large battery, roughly equivalent to those in an electric SUV, as well as a motor that drives the trailer’s wheels, using sensors that match acceleration and braking, sharply reducing the trailers’ drag on the vehicle towing it. The batteries also power amenities such as all-electric appliances and climate control. Solar panels top off the battery along the way.
This approach, argues Pebble spokesperson Ryan Levenson, replaces a patchwork of legacy systems — propane appliances, lead-acid batteries, portable generators — with a single electric platform. Pebble’s software also automates chores RV owners love to hate, like leveling, hitching and monitoring energy and water levels. “More than the technology,” he wrote, “it’s about making ownership feel less intimidating, more accessible and hassle-free.”
