Is the true EV motorhome on the way?

[Two on Tour]

Harbinger delivers first customer electric truck chassis to RV maker Thor

Thor will develop a Class A motorhome with 250 miles of range on the chassis.

arstechnica.com

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

With the battery at the back I don't think there will be many MHomes built with garages on the back. They will have to put something at the front to balance it all out. Maybe that's where the water and waste will go.?

 

[DavidG58]

We would definitely consider one providing the price differential is realistic

Would need to research charging options while travelling as they will not fit on current car charging bays

But there must already be a provision for larger commercial vehicles to charge they can’t all depend solely on charging at base

 

[paddymcc]

Hymer is part of Thor but I imagine it will be a while before we see anything on the road.

 

[Lenny HB]

If they could do one at 3500kg with a 1000kg payload and 500 mile range I could get interested.

I moan about the short 400 mile range of my Ducato at the moment, 250 miles on electric running fully laden will give far less than 200 miles,I still think they are a long way off being useable for the average Motorhomer.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Jev88]

Wait for Toyota Solid State batteries and it might just be viable???

 

[GMLS]

I suspect the Chinese will increasingly be a force in this sector (vans more than m/h).My Mrs has just got an electric MG4 company car and its a very impressive vehicle to be honest.Quality is way better than I expected.

 

[daventess]

I've never heard of anything good being called a "harbinger", eg "he was a harbinger of fun".

 

[Lenny HB]

I suspect the Chinese will increasingly be a force in this sector (vans more than m/h).My Mrs has just got an electric MG4 company car and its a very impressive vehicle to be honest.Quality is way better than I expected.

All the Tesco home delivery vans I've seen are Chinese EV's.

 

[gus-lopez]

There are plenty in the 'comments' that won't touch anything made by Thor

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[starquake]

If they could do one at 3500kg with a 1000kg payload and 500 mile range I could get interested.

The range I'm not bothered about, over a weekend with EHU connected you'd get a full recharge even with use of van in meantime. If using off grid, admittedly you'd probably want a decent fast charge capability though.

And remember doesn't UK legislation allow an EV motorhome to be 4.25 ton on a 3.5 ton license now? There was some deregulation here but by time this van releases, it's likely all sorted?

 

[starquake]

I suspect the Chinese will increasingly be a force in this sector (vans more than m/h).My Mrs has just got an electric MG4 company car and its a very impressive vehicle to be honest.Quality is way better than I expected.

And they are stupidly cheap. Father in law is looking to get the MG5 estate car (used) to replace the current ICE Astra diesel estate he has. The newer Estates with petrol are near double the price used as the MG5.

 

[starquake]

Would need to research charging options while travelling as they will not fit on current car charging bays

True enough in UK, but abroad there are already plenty of drive through bays in France suited from Fastned and others.

But the point is moot if you drive 200 miles, then stop on a site for a couple of days, then repeat. A 16A EHU for 2 days will cover your heat and recharging the van's traction, however it'll likely piss off the campsite owner if it's not metered electric, as you'll be using 16A constant for however long you are parked.

 

[Dutch 68]

We would definitely consider one providing the price differential is realistic

Would need to research charging options while travelling as they will not fit on current car charging bays

But there must already be a provision for larger commercial vehicles to charge they can’t all depend solely on charging at base

Have you seen the current rapid charging prices in service stations? Soon as you can’t charge at home it becomes extremely expensive, certainly for a very large vehicle,
Not the solution I believe for a vehicle designed to travel long distances

 

[starquake]

Have you seen the current rapid charging prices in service stations? Soon as you can’t charge at home it becomes extremely expensive, certainly for a very large vehicle,
Not the solution I believe for a vehicle designed to travel long distances

Depends on your "use". Some offer off-peak rates which are comparible with home charging -> with the peak price only applying 4-7pm. I rather suspect we'll see more of these price differentials going forward. Ionity is a rather key exmaple, if you use their posts with a membership the price per kwh is quite low (22p a kwh roughly via the deal from my manufacturer via their charge card). Don't believe everything you read about rapid pricing in the press. Octopus card holders have had offpeak pricing on certain networks for best part of last year lowering the price considerably on a few of the rapid networks (and Octpus card costs NOTHING per month beyond what you pay to charge, but you get an additional discount if you are a EV customer at home from them).

But in most cases, you will probably be parking at a campsite and paying them at their rate if metered, which will be half the price of diesel at least.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coolcats]

How much change will you get out of £500K ?

 

[Lenny HB]

The range I'm not bothered about, over a weekend with EHU connected you'd get a full recharge even with use of van in meantime. If using off grid, admittedly you'd probably want a decent fast charge capability though.

But I don't use sites or EHU.

And remember doesn't UK legislation allow an EV motorhome to be 4.25 ton on a 3.5 ton license now? There was some deregulation here but by time this van releases, it's likely all sorted?

I think it only applies to commercial vehicles.

 

[CatOnaBike]

HGVs are not going electric, except for urban-only trucks. A long distance HG EV would need stupidly heavy batteries. HGV fleets in Europe are switching to bio-CNG aka biomethane or hydrotreated vegetable oil. It's not hard for a van/motorhome to be converted to CNG but the tanks needs to be 3x bigger than a LPG tank, say 170-200 litres for a transit-size van. And the tanks are very high pressure, so they weigh a ton. But it's much cheaper than electric. HGV fleet people are hoping that the lifetime cost of biomethane will be 30-40% lower than diesel. And theoretically biomethane is carbon neutral and allows the haulage industry to get to net zero.

 

[ontheroadagain]

HGVs are not going electric, except for urban-only trucks. A long distance HG EV would need stupidly heavy batteries

Tesla don't agree.
www.tesla.com/en_gb/semi

 

[starquake]

HGVs are not going electric, except for urban-only trucks.

You may want to look at Scania's and other truck manufacturers statements on this. TLDR, they disagree.

The key point is it's a minimum of half the cost of LNG to operate, and that key point makes bio-methane quite uncompetititive. For short term ie, next 5 years, we will see a mixture of LPG/LNG etc trucks and BEV. However long term they do expect by 2030 most trucks to be BEV.

Also California has "unhelpfully" ruled all trucking to/from their ports has to be fully zero emission ruling out Biomethane from one of the largest ports in the world. That comes in... this year. Hydrogen and BEV trucks will be only vehicles allowed for Drayage in CA this year.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

The range I'm not bothered about, over a weekend with EHU connected you'd get a full recharge even with use of van in meantime

I can see that not being allowed on a pitch.
Maybe at a seperate charging point on site somewhere, yes, and paid for seperatly, but not on your pitch within your pitch price.

 

[Gromett]

HGVs are not going electric

Sorry for laughing, but you are wrong on this

 

[Gromett]

With the battery at the back I don't think there will be many MHomes built with garages on the back. They will have to put something at the front to balance it all out. Maybe that's where the water and waste will go.?

Not at the back. The are placed at various and configurable place along the chassis rails depending on capacity.

 

[Gromett]

If they could do one at 3500kg

The weight limit with be 4250KG by the time it becomes an issue. Already this for commercial EVs.

 

[Gromett]

Maybe that's where the water and waste will go.?

The water/waste can go on the outside of the chassis rails. Look at the space between the outside of the rails and the out edge of the wheels.
Also some stuff could be hung underneath the batteries.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Lenny HB]

The weight limit with be 4250KG by the time it becomes an issue. Already this for commercial EVs.

At 4250 it would still probably have naff all payload and range.

 

[Gromett]

At 4250 it would still probably have naff all payload and range.

I don't know. Quick fag packet maths suggests it would give decent range with full battery pack config. Can't comment on payload though as that depends on what is built on top of it.
Rememer this is aimed at the RV market not the Eurobox market. They may come out with a van style one at a later date.

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Sorry for laughing, but you are wrong on this

Why, may I ask?
Not ALL HGV's will be electric.
Some will still be diesel, surely, and the flow-through from diesel to electric replacements will take several years at least.
In my opinion only, anyway.

 

[Gromett]

Why, may I ask?
Not ALL HGV's will be electric.
Some will still be diesel, surely, and the flow-through from diesel to electric replacements will take several years at least.
In my opinion only, anyway.

I am not saying it will happen straight away or even in 10 years but eventually ALL ground transport will be battery.

Batteries are improving at a rate of around 7% per year so doubling in capacity every 10 years. The investment in batteries has RADICALLY increased in the last 5 years and new tech is being investigated at unprecedented rates.
Batteries will improve in both volumetric and energy density by leaps and bounds over the next 10-20 years.

There is a minimal level needed which is dictated by drivers hours and speed. We are at that now for the best in the industry (Tesla) and heading that way with others. The big break through will be solid state where the the electrolyte is no longer a liquid and metallic lithium can be used as the anode. That will be HUGE.

The big thing to consider though is cost. Cost is the biggest dictator for the transport industry. If they can reduce the cost per mile by going electric BUT have to accept they can no longer do overnights then the industry will change to fit that.
Maintenance costs on electric trucks will fall and reliability will be higher (in theory). No other solution is cheaper than Diesel is currently except Batteries. Hydrogen and Bio fuels are both more expensive and the former has safety, reliability and maintenance issues on top the extreme cost issues.

I expect the vast bulk of transport will continue as it does now as it is within the range of current and near future batteries. For the extremes of the transport industry they will make changes to how they operate as the cost saving will be worth it.
There will be charging stations built eventually. There will be unexpected tech as well.

 

[dna]

Not at the back. The are placed at various and configurable place along the chassis rails depending on capacity.

View attachment 877794

I've just been and found that exact diagram on their website! If only I had caught up on the comments before looking onthe web.

They are quoting the smallest version of the chassis as rated for 16,000lbs (which in "American" is 8 tons or just under 7.5 metric tons). That would be a good sized motorhome in the UK.

Whoever designs a motorhome on this chassis will have a challenge designing water tanks etc to fit around all the equipment between the rails and avoid getting them too near the ground

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}