Ideas are sprouting like weeds in the cabbage patch in the Electric Vehicle world’s designs, batteries, and the rush to replace fossil fuels for powering the cars, trucks, and RVs of the future. Here are a few and how they might affect the RVs of the future.
A company called Trexa is offering a new electric drive system which can be customized by “specialty vehicle developers” (does that mean RV manufacturers also?) for their own varied needs. Trexa says its platform has a scalable wheelbase which could work for “compact, microcar and ATV-size” applications. No RV sizes yet, but this could represent a step toward a new model for RV makers, similar to the chassis provided by Workhorse and Spartan to the RV industry.
Trexa says this platform “offers an unprecedented level of versatility because it contains an
entire vehicle’s drivetrain within one low-profile enclosed structure.” A number of standards
are built into this platform, including four-wheel drive and four-wheel independent suspension which is “adjustable for ride height and terrain type.”
The lithium-ion battery system is scalable, depending upon the application, making itavailable for ranges from 25 to 125 driving miles.
A company called Balqon has developed a new lithium-ion battery powered heavy duty electric vehicle that could be possibly be astep toward an electric RV. The Nautilus XE20 electric yard tractor can tow loads of up to 40 tons at a top speed of 25 miles per hour, according to a press release.
One of the stumbling blocks in the way of mass acceptance of electric vehicles is the charge time to recharge the batteries. Two companies, Aker Wade, that has fast charging technology, and Coulomb, that has the ChargePoint Network, have made an agreement to launch the first charging stations for EV’s that will bring charge you up in less than a half hour.
The first stations are set to launch in the 3rd quarter of 2010 (no word yet as to where) and will be qualified for use with a number of electric vehicle brands.
Aker Wade CEO Bret Aker noted that with coming improvements in Li-ion technology, charge times will be reduced to as little as fifteen minutes. This is the point where consumers will likely abandon gasoline for electricity–the tipping point for electric vehicles.
The big guys too are jumping in on the action in a big way. Ford is ramping up its push to get electric vehicles to market, saying that it will plow another $450 million into the alt-fuel vehicles and build a next-generation hybrid and a plug-in hybrid in Michigan starting in 2012.
Ford’s old-school Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne is being transformed into the production site of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full battery-electric vehicles built off the company’s new global C-car platform. Ford also said it will design advanced lithium-ion battery systems for the next-generation hybrid in Michigan and will move production of battery packs from Mexico to Michigan.
It may be years before hybrids followed by EV are accepted by new RV buyers, with the possibility of electric toads coming along first. It would be a neat deal to charge your toad overnight in a campground or on the road from the motorhome. Trucks with enough umph to pull big fivers could see effective hybrids sooner than hybrid motorhomes, though. Interesting times for sure, as we try to move away from fossil fuels. And with the development of better, longer lasting and faster charging batteries, it could prove to be a big advantage to boondockers’ house power as well.
Check out my new ebook, BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands.
Maricruz
Whoa! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Superb choice of colors!
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Gabrielle
For RVs lovers there are two exciting days in their life: first the day when they buy the RV and second the day when they sell it.
Currently many owners are selling their motorhomes because the economical situation is getting worst every day. Buying a motor home directly from the owner is a win-win situation, if you find a motivated seller. I recommend this website if you want to sell or if you are looking for a used motorhome.
http://www.rvs-for-sell-by-owner.com
You can put your FREE ad for sale your RV in your State and region. This website has a friendly and easy to use. Also you can find valuable recommendation to avoid scams if you are selling your motorhome.
Good luck.
Steve Willey
sorry, tiny keypad and no spel check on my mini computer. That website where I got electric scooter was full of typos, correct is is http://www.iloveebikes.com
Steve Willey
It works now. I have an electric scooter, kind of looks like a Vespa, but its only 230 pounds. It goes on a rach behind the motor home. Charges from the true-sine wave inverter, and solar panels, or while I drive the MH, or in an RV park. Goes only 40 mph but has 25 mile range, so its great for local sight seeing, restaurants, even groceries because it carries 2 people plus 2 grocery bags on the floor. See many from bikes to scooters to motorcycles all electric on http://www.iliveebikes.com.
Brad Fuller
Alternative engery research is great and we need it to get away from fossil fuels. What this country lacks is good mass transportation to lessen the empact of fossil fuels. I will be dead and gone and probably my children also, before there is an elcetric engine that can be placed in a tow vehicle to pull a large trailer up seven percent grades in the mountains.
Vegasdan
Mary, it’s called “perpetual motion”. It’s impossible using any technology.
History Nut
Improvements are the result of a slow process. What we need out of the electric vehicle industry is an all-electric dinghy vehicle. It would charge at a reduced rate (to limit drag) while being towed or charge at a higher rate if ‘plugged in’ in an RV park. Thus it would be ready to go when we reach a park for the night. With an approximate 100 mile range (well within current technologies) it would be adequate for a day of sight-seeing while the MH sits at the park.
Electric cars are ideal for dinghys. It is a shame that major manufacturers haven’t jumped on this lucrative potential market.
mary avitts
My son is a mechanic and he has told me that it is possible to use the wheels that are rolling to be the charge for the battery somewhat like the alternator on a car and that would make the vehicle self propelled almost and not need gas to do anything but start and the mileage would be unlimited once it was started it would be self charging.
Vegasdan
I can see it now…A 40 ft electric powered motorhome towing a 40 ft bank of batteries and being able to travel 60 miles a day, and plugging in to recharge overnight. I wonder what the RV parks will charge for electricty?
David Cross
If someone would build a ‘Prius like’ vehicle that had high ground clearance; could be towed 4 wheels down; with 4WD; a range of several hundred miles so I could explore the back roads and trails in this beautiful country, I would buy it in a minute. It would also be nice if it could be charged as it was being towed.
G Shea
CNG is the real answer, it works, is available now, and is used on BIG buses. Cost is 1.00 per gallon, burns 99.9% clean, cars get 70 mpg on it, and we have enough here in the good ol USA to last 200 years, and beyond. Why are we not using it when we have elected “green” leaders? They are as corrupt as the not “green” leaders. We are always promised the stuff we have to develop and it is never ready now. CNG has been used by trasit agencies, fleets of trucks, and hug numbers of taxis, yet where is the push to expand it? We will not run any RVs very far on any battery, but we can run them on CNG. If anyone in the RV industry released a CNG model, the response would be massive and could really help revitalize the failing industry. Who will be first? G Shea
Don
We must devote our efforts to developing alternate forms of getting around. Renewable energy sources are the way to defeat our enemies.
For the drill here, drill now crowd that told us we needed more refinery capacity – I recently read refineries are shutting down to keep supplies tight and have been for several years. They were shutting down their “excess capacity” at the height of the gas prices while tankers set off-shore waiting to unload. We didn’t have enough gasoline to keep prices down because the oil industry needed to keep supplies tight so they could run prices up. They don’t need to build any new refineries when they’re shutting down the ones they already had in operation. It isn’t good for their bottom line to allow gas prices to fall.
Keep up the good work Bob, it’s time a lot of folks came to their senses. It’s a shame there’s so much resistance to change. Developing Alternate Energy sources and efficient ways to use it would do a lot of good for this country and put people back to work at the same time. Or perhaps BIG OIL will take pity on us – NOT!
Tom
Every car/truck/RV/etc., with an engine is actually a small, portable power station at the consumer’s beck and call. Doing the math will illustrate that it’s both incredibly cost prohibitive and physically impossible to continue moving people/goods around the country in the manner we’re accustomed to by switching to electric travel powered from the grid. The physics just don’t add up.
Now, working on a replacement for oil is a commendable plan. However, it’s always more expensive with something is subsidized by the gov’t. We see that here, as well. While I have no problem with alternative fuel vehicles, I do have a problem with the gov’t driving direction.
We will see a viable “green” vehicle in the future. It will not suck electricity from the grid nor will it consume hydrocarbons. It will also not come from a gov’t funded program. (They’ve got their grant money to think about which means they’ll follow where they’re told to go)
When the oil is gone, we’ll see more trains, mass transit, and slower personal vehicles – until they come up with suitcase-sized fusion reactors, that is. 😉
Craig Powell
Waste of time and money because it is not going to work in the long run.
Francis X. Schilling
Yes, good old “free enterprise” – from the folks that brought you that crossover hit from 2008 “Global Financial Collapse”. Even oil companies’ most optimistic estimates have reasonably accessible supplies at or near a dribble in 40-50 years and prices will spike beyond what anyone can even conceive of today long before then, but we’ll all be off this rock by then so – who cares?! Nothing like heads buried in the sand fiddling away like carefree grasshoppers whilst the winter of dwindling oil production nears. Damn future generations to Hades – what have they ever done for *us*? Let’s all keep thinking that everything will forever be just like it has in our lifetimes and I am *SURE* that we’ll all be just okey dokey peachy keen. Yep, that’s the ticket!
In a less sarcastic vein, thanks for the article, Bob.
concerned
I think that these battery driven vehicles are a great idea if you are thinking of using them for short commutes or traveling around town for short trips. When it comes to using this technology for the sort of energy production that would be required for a full sized RV I believe we are barking up the wrong tree let alone using it to replace big rigs and their supercharged diesel engines. It appears that companies are jumping on the “green” horse only because of the tax credits that they can receive from the federal government. I suspect that within a few years people will be saying: “I wonder why we spent so much money on this technology.” Granted battery technology and charge times are falling, but it appears that they are near the end of their improvements. Can’t you just see what would be necessary at a typical “charging station”. Football sized fields with connections to charge a vehicle. We would be back to the “drive in” theater type of facility.
I suspect that the only reason we are headed down what I see as a dead end road is because of the “government” and the “government” needs to get out of the way and let those who build vehicles build vehicles that the people actually want. Nothing works better than the “free enterprise” system and government edicts only get in the way of progress.