Road trips getting cleaner and quieter as RVs go electric

Bob Anderson — physician, pilot, executive — is nothing if not a perfectionist.

- By Kye Stock

Lightship RV Press site LIGHTSHIP was launched by two Tesla alumni after a disappointing RV journey.

He's owned his fair share of recreational vehicles and disliked each of them uniquely. There was the Earth Roamer (anemic axles, in his opinion), the $350,000 Newmar land yacht (complex emissions technology) and a 25-foot Airstream trailer (lots of propane). Yet Anderson, 81, keeps buying camping rigs. And he’s hoping the next one will be his last.

This fall, he’ll take delivery of a Lightship AE1 Cosmos, an RV as similar to an Airstream as a Tesla Road-ster is to a Pontiac Firebird.

What separates the Lightship from the rest of Anderson's letdowns is its propulsion system and design: The rig has two electric motors, so it can drive itself while hitched to the vehicle towing it, and the entire top half tucks down for better aerodynamics while underway. With these two hacks, the vehicle towing the Lightship will feel virtually no weight most of the time. On the interstate, Anderson’s hybrid pickup truck will theoretically get its standard 27 miles per gallon, rather than the 12.5 miles it manages with the Airstream behind it.

“It’s going to change everything in the RV world,” Anderson says.

This year may well be an inflection point for the RV industry, when serious alternatives are emerging to the gas-guzzling rigs chugging between national parks.

In addition to the Lightship, the Pebble Flow — another towable camper with an electric drivetrain — will hit the road. Meanwhile, a host of electric vans will finally be stamped out in high volumes, most notably Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz, the latest iteration of the brand’s storied bus. Even incumbent Thor Inc., which is to RVs what Apple is to smartphones, is putting the final touches on its first hybrid rig.