With recent premieres like the Grounded G2, Tesla Cybertruck Camp365 and VW ID. Buzz Peace mini-camper, the American market has been slowly catching up with Europe on the all-electric RV front. But it still lacks plug-in hybrid RV options, which many buyers would consider a necessary intermediary step for an RV. Camper giant Thor Industries and electric commercial chassis builder Harbinger Motors are looking to change all that. Their all-new Class A motorhome promises a robust 500 miles (805 km) of range from a combination of 140-kWh battery pack and petrol range extender.
Thor, the world's largest RV company, is calling its new prototype the world's first hybrid Class A motorhome, and while we have covered all-electric and Wankel-boosted Class C RVs, not to mention a number of electrified Class B camper vans, we have not seen an all-electric or PHEV Class A, the largest category of motorhome. Called the Test Vehicle, the PHEV motorhome is built atop a medium-duty electric chassis developed exclusively for Thor by Harbinger and runs an 800-V electrical architecture. The 140-kWh battery pack provides up to 150 miles (241 km) of all-electric range, double what we recently saw from the much tinier Volkswagen Caddy Camp 2 mini-camper van.
Instead of stopping the road trip at 150 miles for mandatory charging, the way electric RV prototype builders have done in the past, Thor and Harbinger more than triple that range by adding on a low-emissions gas engine-generator expected to qualify the chassis as a Near-Zero Emission Vehicle (NZEV) under the Advanced Clean Truck legislation from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The 500-mile total range estimate is a pretty complete day's worth of driving no matter how you cut it, but even if the driver does hit "E" before arrival, they can choose whether to fill up at a gas pump, power up the battery at a DC fast charger, or both, depending on how quickly they want to get back on the road. The Test Vehicle also charges via a built-in solar rooftop and regular campground electrical hookup.
We can't imagine driving much more than 500 miles in a day, but if we were to need re-powering, we'd likely fill up on gas to get back on the road as quickly as possible, then plug in overnight to charge the battery for the following day.
Outside of full-time RVing, RVs tend to do a lot of sitting in the driveway between trips. So Thor and Harbinger have designed the Test Vehicle for use as a backup home power source, which can use both solar-charged battery storage and gas energy generation to feed power into the home during an outage. In the future, it could also be hooked up full-time to sell power back into the grid during peak demand.
At camp, the large battery pack can be used to run all kinds of appliances and charge the likes of electric bicycle and power tool batteries. The solar panels and engine-generator eliminate any anxiety about running the battery too low for the drive home or to a nearby charging station.
"We founded Harbinger with a mission to modernize the medium-duty vehicle industry with our world-class electric chassis," said Harbinger CEO and cofounder John Harris. "Our collaboration with Thor and their family of companies allows us to help advance the RV sector and lay the groundwork for products that will enhance the RVing experience."
Beyond its hybridized drive system, the Test Vehicle incorporates other cutting-edge technologies that promise to be useful to road-trippers, including an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), steer-by-wire and a cushy double-wishbone front suspension. Thor says the electric drive system doubles the available torque of a diesel engine, providing confident acceleration in highway traffic and sure, steady climbing in the mountains.
The Test Vehicle isn't Thor's first stab at an electrified RV design, as the company has previously debuted the Vision Vehicle B+ motorhome concept with fuel-cell range extender and the eStream battery-propelled trailer concept under its iconic Airstream brand. It's also designed a concept campground set up for E-RV charging. In 2019, the American company completed the purchase of Erwin Hymer, the large European RV conglomerate that has been pioneering electric and plug-in hybrid camper design for the better part of a decade.
Despite its name, the Test Vehicle seems to be the most serious of Thor's US-based electrified RV designs. The company says it plans to launch RVs based on the hybrid chassis in 2025. It's currently showing the Test Vehicle at the Elkhart Dealer Open House in Indiana, where RV dealers can give it a test drive on Thor's RV Experience Track.
Sources: Thor Industries, Forbes