Idea sounds good on the surface, but IMO numbers don’t support it, so I seriously doubt it will happen that way.
The thing about hybrids is that there is very little middle ground regarding battery capacity. A hybrid that relies mostly on gas/ICE needs very little battery capacity to achieve most of the MPG benefit. Batteries in cars like Prius are tiny and would be next to useless for RV application. Many store under 1 kWh of energy, which is less than RV lead batteries.
If we step up to plug-in hybrids, the goal is to operate like an electric vehicle for a significant distance — let’s say 40 or 50 miles. Beyond that an engine takes over to supply energy, but fuel economy while cruising on highway is no better than a normal hybrid, so all that battery weight and cost doesn’t help much on 500~600 mile days after you exceed the first 40~50 miles.
I expect the most likely combination I will see in mass production will be a plug-in hybrid van converted to Class B camper. As a second vehicle, daily city driving will help justify battery costs, and on weekends and vacations, those same batteries will power the house. After that I expect the same technology will filter down to Class Cs and As at a slow rate — it’s harder to justify costs due to low driven miles per year. We are all guessing though.
Thor Forums
