Luxurious journey trailer maker Bowlus was one of many very first American RV producers to lean into high-capacity battery energy, launching a lithium-powered trailer able to quick-starting a useless Tesla manner again earlier than electrified RVs had been trending. Now that the electrical tenting competitors is catching up, Bowlus is making the transfer to grow to be an all-electric RV model, eradicating the choice of LPG and powering every of its three trailers fully with lithium batteries.
Bowlus introduced its lineup change this week, saying that it follows the success it is had with the Volterra, the corporate's first totally electrical trailer mannequin, launched in 2022. The transfer to pure battery energy represents a slight shift in course however was at all times woven into the imaginative and prescient founder and CEO Geneva Lengthy had when reviving the Bowlus nameplate a decade in the past.
Ordinarily we is perhaps inclined to dismiss a declare like Bowlus' "imaginative and prescient" as PR-bolstering revisionist historical past, however the firm has been main the way in which in American electrical RVing for practically so long as it has been promoting trailers. Its Lithium+ mannequin launched again in 2016, bringing first-of-its-kind capabilities reminiscent of operating air con off the grid and providing emergency EV-charging capabilities. So even when full electrification wasn't a cornerstone of the Bowlus imaginative and prescient when Lengthy was exhausting at work on the very first Highway Chief, it grew to become an actual a part of that imaginative and prescient quickly thereafter.
Bowlus plans to part out LPG, so clients can nonetheless request an LPG tank on their trailer construct. The choice will probably be eliminated on new orders and every trailer will probably be out there with battery energy alone from there on out.
"Our transfer to completely electrical is vital as a result of it units a precedent," defined Lengthy. "The place most RV manufacturers use previous know-how involving propane and gasoline or conventional batteries, we're making new floor, identical to we at all times have. Image your self having fun with nature with out the noise of a generator – it’s a completely immersive expertise to be all-electric."
Curiously, Bowlus will not improve its out there battery packs to compensate for the lack of LPG. The 25.6-foot (7.8-m) Heritage base mannequin will nonetheless include a 2-kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery, the mid-level 27-ft (8.2-m) Terra Firma an 8-kWh battery, and the flagship 27-ft Volterra a 17-kWh pack. As earlier than, Heritage consumers also can improve to 4- or 6-kWh packs.
On the plus aspect, the shortage of added battery capability retains base costs on the similar degree, ranging between US$159,000 for the Heritage to $310,000 for the Volterra. We suppose Bowlus can at all times improve battery measurement sooner or later ought to clients demand or just as battery know-how improves and costs come down.
The Aerosolar system Bowlus launched on the Volterra helps campers get probably the most off-grid energy attainable. The light-weight panels adhere carefully to Bowlus' signature Streamline Moderne form and cost the battery whereas driving and stationary at camp. Bowlus says they're 12 p.c extra environment friendly than typical photo voltaic cells, serving to to maintain the massive 17-kWh battery operating off-grid indefinitely, relying upon the person's electrical utilization.
Bowlus' transfer to an electrical lineup comes as quite a lot of new and established gamers are searching for to develop the US all-electric RV market. Simply this month, startup Lightship previewed its L1, a 27-ft trailer that makes use of an 80-kWh lithium battery not just for tenting facilities but in addition to energy a self-propulsion unit that deletes efficient weight on the tow automobile. That mannequin is scheduled to enter manufacturing subsequent 12 months.
Different US startups and small producers which have proven or launched electrical manufacturing camper designs embody Aero Construct, Colorado Campworks and Colorado Teardrops. Massive RV producers together with Winnebago, Airstream and Thor Industries have additionally revealed electrified RV designs, however these stay within the idea and growth levels.
Supply: Bowlus
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