By William Coleman
Fossil fuel is slowly but surely becoming a dirty word around the world and everywhere you look renewable and recyclable products are replacing old environmentally damaging ones. Now that the electric car is rising to power will we see the electric motorhome that’s up to the task?
I first noticed the rise in the electric vehicle with the Toyota Preuss, then the silent electric London bus and all of a sudden out of nowhere the luxury Tesla sports cars. So it seems like a natural progression that the electric engine will soon be fitted into a leisure vehicle. But are we there yet?
At this point in time the idea is very much a concept idea that, as rumour would have it, that we are only a few years away from it becoming reality. The current issue we face is finding a battery with enough juice to be able to go the distance while carrying the weight on board that comes with a motorhome. It seems as though Tesla may have cracked it.
The idea by Tesla initially started out by creating electric farming vehicles to replace the current diesel powered ones. After doing their research the question was asked would this engine work to power an RV? It looks as though the answer was yes.
There is currently an electric motorhome alternative out there by Dethleffs, which is not currently on the market for sale, which would get a range of around 100 miles before needing to be charged again. A hundred miles is just not enough and I do not know anyone that would want a leisure vehicle with such limitations.
This is where the genius behind the very successful Tesla models come in. The electric RV they are designing would have a range of up to 500 miles, on board weight dependent I’d imagine. With such a large range I could see this becoming quote a viable option for motorhomers around the globe. I imagine the price tag would maybe leave a few of us blushing though.
Last year when Tesla revealed their electronic diesel replacement tractor trailers they realised that the amount of weight that these engines haul would require a lot of power, so they simply designed a battery that would work. That same tech is more than powerful enough to pull around a miniature home away from home.
The current Tesla models that the motorhome would be based/built on have a maximum tow weight of about 36 tons which will have zero issue pulling along any motorhome over the rear axle, as well as anything else you could think of loading on board.
The current models they have released for the farming world comes in a 300 and 500 mile range, which should have different prices attached. These range estimates include towing a trailer so you can just imagine how well it would perform as a motorhome.
So here comes the real punch of this story, the price. Early estimates indicate that the Tesla “Semi” will cost between £120,000 and £144,000, depending on what battery size you go for. This is a pretty punchy costing for a leisure vehicle, but not out of reach for a lot of people who may be using a Hymer or other high end models.
As a visual design it really not very eye catching and would turn heads for all the wrong reasons. If this does come to market, which with the way the world is moving it likely will, it will need a bit of a face lift or it to appeal to motorhome customer base.
