By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Interest is high in shifting away from fossil fuels as motor fuel. Still, a practical real-world alternative fuel vehicle for the RV lifestyle has so far been elusive. Enter Marcus Lemonis of Camping World fame. Marcus wants you to get an electric truck from Camping World.
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Camping World has Endurance
A new partnership between the RV giant and Lordstown Motors, maker of the forthcoming electric-fired Endurance pickup, is now in place. Lordstown will make the truck, Camping World will service it, and presumably become a selling-point for the ‘lectric trucks.
With the usual level of braggadocio, the Camping World CEO spouted, “We can sell more than [they] can make!” The company says it will have a mock service call center up and running next June to support the truck, which will lead the release of the new rigs.
How many miles between “fill-ups”?
Will you want to get an electric truck from Camping World? With a suggested price point of less than $53,000, the American-built Lordstown Endurance costs less than plenty of other dino-fueled pickups. But what’s the real endurance of the Endurance? The company says they’ll be shooting for a between-charges range of 250 miles, a tow weight ability of 6,000 pounds, and a motor kicking out 600 horsepower.
That’s not a lot of tow capacity for folks looking for rigs suitable for something other than perhaps weekend adventures. And while 250 miles is “doable” for getting to the RV park, a question that always arises is this: What happens to the vehicle range when weight is put on the towball? And for those who plan on heading out not for an electrified RV park but for a boondocking adventure, what then?
Marcus Lemonis has an answer for that: A network of charge stations across the country. Where? At Camping World, of course! And to make the whole press release even more enticing, there’s the added hint of Camping World and Lordstown working together on an electric RV. That’s still “down the road” – but a teaser is always good to keep the interest going.
Electric RV?
Just what is an “electric RV”? Visions of motorhomes with charge cords dance in your head? Nope, apparently the idea is an “electrified” towable unit. Car and Driver reports, “The first vehicles will be ‘Class E’ electrified travel trailers that are powered via battery packs instead of the traditional generator when hookups are unavailable.”
Now there’s a “gee-whiz” idea: Imagine, not using a smelly generator when out in the wilderness. Seems like boondockers have been doing that for quite awhile. These new rigs will sport lithium-ion batteries, standing ready to tote the electrical load. But unless solar or wind is available to recharge them, users will still need to bring their “electrified” trailers back to a shore-power hookup.
You can visit Lordstown’s Endurance website here.
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##RVT979b
And exactly what is a ‘mock’service call center?
I live near Lordstown motors and I don’t want Marcus Lemonis anywhere near anything in our community. GM is building their new battery plant for electric cars here and Workhorse is to build electric trucks. BTW Winnebago has been working on an electric powered Motorhome for a couple years.
Does anyone remember the Jarvek 7?
As I do, I wonder what happened to Jarvek 1 through 6. Now, if anything new comes to the market place, I wait until all the ,I need it,want it souls help get all the bugs worked out. Maybe by then,I maybe in limbo waiting for a spot in God’s RV Park. I feel the same way about the vaccine, I’ll let others go first, work out the kinks. At 69, a retired bomb tech, my advice is no hurry, take your time, don’t be an expert, become a well informed individual.
Campgrounds will have to either invest in separately metered electric connections or go way up on the overnight rate. No way they are going to “give” you that energy.
My question to Marcus is this-where do they plug into to recharge at the campgrounds they are going to? campground owners are looking to try be ready for this, and what are the requirements for the truck. Will they be able to be recharged from the camper being plugged in and being connected to the truck? Will they plug into the 50 amp plug in the box and the camper uses a 30 amp plug or the other way around? A lot of campgrounds don’t have all 50 amp sites on every site. You better start getting info out to all the campgrounds so they can plan for this.
I link to RVTRAVEL.COM whenever I see a post on “thinking of getting an RV”. regardless of whether I know the person or not. I can’t help but wonder how it is that so many people remain unaware of Camping World’s horrible no good very bad record of servicing RVs. 55 years ago I read extensively on childbirth and trending practices bevore I had even met my husband to be. I lurked on the RVtravel.com site and forums (yes, we used to have forums) before buying my towable RV. I read up on energy star appliancesfor 2 YEARS before going with Splendide all in one washer/dryer in my block built house. Why don’t more people research before committing themselves? How can one reach the sleeping masses before the suddenly rise up, mutter Must…have…EV… and shamble off to Camping World?
Shhh! Reading and comprehending consumer and investment information is a secret way to live a better life. Don’t spread it around!
I will not be buying anything from Camping World or its affiliates.
This makes me laugh. I wouldn’t buy a tarp from CW!!
OMG no way would I buy anything from CW, and have to bring it to them for service, absolutely not!
No thank you.
CW??? Seriously?? After the way we’ve seen them handle camper issues I think no trust there from us.
Buy a truck from Camping World?? Not me. In fact, I will not buy a bicycle from them due to the poor customer service at many of their locations.
Interesting,but Camping World? I think not.
Is there enough lithium in the world for all the cars/trucks they plan to build?
Can lithium be recycled to make new batteries like lead acid can be?
Is there really an electric fairy who, with the wave of her wand makes electricity or to recharge the batterys without using some sort of fossil fuel. We haven’t built any nukes for years, and even then it takes energy to mine and process uranium. That doesn’t come energy free.
Great minds WILL figure it out but in the meantime
“Beam me up Scotty”
Ever heard of renewable energy. Wind and solar is the way to go
Renewable energy provides about 12% of US energy and is not reliable. It may be the way to go, but it has a ways to go.
The article mentions using batteries rather than a generator when boondocking. This will be costly and inconvenient. A Tesla Powerwall 1, for example, without installation expense, costs $3,000 and holds 6.4 KWh. Assuming you can run this down to 20%, that gives you 5.1 usable KWh. That’s like running your Honda 2200 (1800 watts sustained) generator for less than 3 hours at full load. Just something to consider…
You know how many repeat customers camping world has? Virtually NONE, because they have the world’s worst customer service attitude on the planet for any company their size. They are ‘profitable’ because they spend zero dollars on customer service, once you sign the contract you can pizz off for warranty service & satisfaction. Add in the totally unknown / unwanted market of ‘lectric pickup trucks, all you’re going to have is a massive corporate bailout by taxpayers on a boondoggle bust of a merger.
Look at this! “($7,500)Federal tax credit 4″ They want taxpayers (you and me) to help offset the cost. Quit spending my money.
get back to us in 4 years and let us know how it`s going.
How many months will trucks be sitting for repair like the RVs that Camper World can’t fix now. And I would assume your not devoting this truck to just tow your RV. I’ll stick to the fossil burning and auto dealership for repairs. Haven’t bought anything from camper world before why would I want to now. I read somewhere that 80% of electricity is produced by fossil fuel and location for recharge is nil to none existent so why would I purchase a EV anything especially living in a cold climate.
The entire market has changed in the last few years, led in part by Tesla and their network of (super)charging stations. You can’t go to a Target or Walmart without seeing a charging station, and many shopping centers, hotels and business parks are adding them.
Solar/wind/electric is the new recreational marijuana for investors, as people who were on the bleeding edge of the technology are now starting (AMERICAN) businesses. Sure, Leemonis is trying to get into an emerging business, but Lordstown needs a sales network and electric vehicles need far less ‘maintenance’ and repairs compared to ICE powered or hybrid vehicles. Plus, LiFePO4 (and the other flavors of Lithium batteries) have better cold weather performance than lead acid ones (but you definitely need a garage in cold weather to prevent freezing).
Can I recommend you watch some of the videos from Matt Ferrell, who talks about these topics. Undecided with Matt Ferrell – YouTube
Where I may agree with the comments about the future of electric, we are miles and years from this being a realistic event. People tout 250 mile range but that is not pulling and the tow capacity is a baby camper (6000 lbs)
I am not adverse to renewable energy (in fact I want to add solar to our camper), but when and if the industry is able to pull 10000 lbs for 300-500 miles and recharge in 30 minutes, then you can start talking “electric trucks” to campers.
Why in the world would any company, run by actual sane people, want to get in bed with a company that has the worst follow-up, worst customer service, and highest disregard for after-sale customer in the history of RVs? Boggles the mind. Endurance evidently doesn’t employ anyone capable of a simple web search.
Camping World Servicing an Everyday Vehicle? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Good one!
He’ll turn this into a “Lemon” is for sure!
i would need to trust CW in order to make that sort of purchase, so no.