Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

Yeah I've ridden in an S85--very impressive. The P85D must be a truly scary ride!

I've wondered what it would take to have a fully EV RV. There would be plenty of room for batteries under the coach but I'd guess range and recharge time would be the real issues there: All that battery would take a lot more than the 50A supply at the campground can supply (I can fully charge my Focus on the 50A supply at a campground in about 3.5 hours).

I expect pure EV won't be practical for a very long time. Cost associated with batteries would be prohibitive except for the mega rich. In order to have any real range even a small motorhome like an Axis/Vegas would need at least five times as much battery capacity. And if you had to buy something like 500 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity it would take more money than what many diesel pushers cost (just for batteries).

On the other hand if the cost goals for batteries are met in the near term, it will be very affordable to eliminate the RV generator and replace it with batteries to power typical ACs for up to 10 hours or so. Those who will boondock for days will still need to add solar, generator, or run large engine-powered generator once in a while.

What I would like for myself is a factory-built plug-in hybrid. That way range won't be a problem, the engine-driven generator would be built-in for fast battery recharging, battery charger from grid would also be built-in, air conditioning would be electric, and most important, the hybrid's battery can double to power the coach as a house battery, including the AC.

I think we'll first see plug-in hybrids integrated as RV on Class Bs -- in part because of lower cost due to smaller size.