By Chuck Woodbury
FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER
I have decided once again to climb upon my soapbox and speak my aging but incredibly wise mind. So here I am. I have asked our A.I. reporter Johnny Robot to create an illustration (seen above) that shows exactly where I am at this very moment. Johnny didn’t do a very good job with my appearance, but I don’t care if you don’t.
For new readers, I will mention that I have been an RV owner for 40 years, and for all that time I have been writing about my experiences. I am not a Johnny-Come-Lately “content creator” who bought his first RV last year and is now selling courses on “How to Buy an RV.”
The RV industry and its threat
My subject today is the RV industry, which I am very familiar with after many years as a member of the media. When I was young and naive, I was in love with everything about RVing. In my case, an RV was a shelter on wheels where I could work, live, travel and camp in beautiful places. I didn’t think about the RV industry much then except when my little motorhome had problems, which, alas, was on most trips; I would then curse the RV industry.
My motorhome, called a Casita (“little house” in Spanish), was made in Bakersfield, California, proud birthplace of Buck Owens. It was junk. But it looked good when I first saw it parked along a suburban Sacramento street with a “For Sale” sign in the window. I had been dreaming of traveling as a roving reporter since I fell in love with journalism working on my college newspaper. That little recreational vehicle would be my magic carpet.
The minute I spotted the 18-foot RV, I knew I must make it mine. It was love at first sight. And, by golly, I got it. Alas, I was a stupid RV buyer. For example, I didn’t even look at the ceiling, which I later observed was discolored from front to back with water stains. I was soon to learn it was a world-class leaker. Still, the RV was my 150-square-feet of paradise.
Now, the point of this story
I have encountered a lot of buzz lately about Elon Musk’s intent to begin producing a small, all-electric motorhome. Most images of it show a no-frills campervan. I have not yet found any official word on it, but of the half dozen sources I have found most agree it could be along by 2026.
And only $15,000?
The most recent news (or is it rumor?) is that it will cost only $15,000, which seems ridiculously low to me. But who knows? Others say it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, while others figure it will be between about $50,000 and $150,000.
No matter. What matters is that if Musk doesn’t come up with something soon, someone else will. Perhaps you remember when cheap little Japanese cars started showing up in America. (VW Beetles from Germany were already on the scene.) American automakers sat on their collective behinds and continued to crank out their finned behemoths that lasted 60,000 miles, then fell apart. “We can’t make any money on little cars like that,” they said of the imports.
Hah! It wasn’t long before those affordable little Toyotas, Datsuns and VWs were everywhere, and they lasted twice as long as the American models. Soon, American cars were considered inferior. It took a couple of decades for American manufacturers to realize they were in a heap o’ trouble.
I envision the same thing happening to RV makers when some innovative person or company comes up with a hyper-inexpensive electric RV that breaks all the rules of current American production. Heaven forbid someone comes along with an RV that runs more than 5 to 10 years before crapping out.
Don’t think that will happen? I do. I believe someone is out there right now with great vision already working on an innovative RV that will have today’s RV makers eating their dust. Please excuse my pessimism, but I do believe that will happen.
What do you think?
##RVT1174
Why do you feel pessimistic? There will always be Tiffans, just like there are still Cadillacs. I drive a Ford hybrid pickup that I tow behind my class C. If it wasn’t from pressure from external sources, I wouldn’t have what I (and DW) consider the perfect setup. If someone builds it faster-better-cheaper, I say that’s what makes this country great. Get behind the new ideas, and if they aren’t good, they’ll go the way of the dodo. But if they really deliver on their promise, we all benefit.
You are spot on correct, Chuck. Perhaps an affordable, well made RV is the jolt domestic manufacturers need to wake up to the blinding fact that they are producing an inferior product and charging a sinful premium for it. Great article!
Right again, Chuck. It has got to happen. The American RV industry is so bloated with inferior products that someone has to have a superior idea and who better than a foreign manufacturer? I’m sure there will be technical, tax, regulatory, and downright negative press erecting oppositional entanglements against anyone with the guts to try challenging the status quo of the junk RV enterprise but I say, let it happen…I’m the first in line…behind you of course.
I did not perceive pessimism, but instead clairvoyance.
LOL. 🤣
It will happen eventually. However, one note of caution: Musk is a poor estimator of price, timelines, and quality (see “Cybertruck”). That said, if it weren’t for him, electric vehicles would still have a range of 50 miles, and the manufacturers would tell us that that was all we needed.
Musk is usually late at delivering the impossible.
That would be great news. Once you drive an EV you realize the torque & motors on these things is a revolution in the automobile. So much more fun to drive with tons of power & stability. I hope the rumors are true but a few notes. If the rumors are 2026, knowing Elon it will be 2030. It will also have a high price tag, initially.
I’m really excited for what the guys at Lightship are doing. Hoping that comes out close to proposed price point with good quality. Wish there was a separate bedroom but perhaps the future as they indicate this is just the start. Looks promising.
Will there be a successful all electric RV (motorcoach, not just TT)? Yes – if we can perfect a better alternative to today’s heavy batteries and slow charging. Electric motor traction is up to the challenge now. However, my bet will be on some form of plug-in hybrid that uses some form of on-board electric generator that weighs less than the current batteries. The generator could be fossil fueled, but I doubt it. There are a number of other technologies ‘this close’ to being viable candidates.
Chuck, I think you are right and it’s way overdue!
A new company to replace some of the “bought up” manufacturers? Very needed. Our 2008 Damon Challenger on Workhorse chassis just keeps “going and going”. It’s time for a new, quality built, RV.
Since many components of RVs already come from China, I predict that China will be the industry disruptor when they start exporting entire RVs to the USA.
And why would that be a bad thing? All cars are much better now because consumers had more quality choices and the big 3 had to stop acting they had a pseudo monopoly because now they didn’t. We all won in the long run.
Agree. And if we started getting serious about enforcement of anti-trust laws, instead of winking at every proposed merger or acquisition that seems to pass muster (looking at you Thor and Camping World) we’d be far better off.
Thank you, Chuck! 🙂 Unlike you, I am a relative newcomer to RVing and I look to you and others for my RV education. I haven’t thought about such a seismic change coming to the industry. I don’t disagree, but I also haven’t an opinion. I will wait and see how things go. Meanwhile, I’ll subscribe to RV Travel so long as there is one and continue to learn from its writers and travel. 🙂 Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
It’s just beginning. Some from the UK, some from Australia. Did you notice that when the American companies started copying the imports, the American versions are, at least, 30% more $. They would never had even tried to improve if the imports didn’t arrive on our shores and were available.
Actually, it’s already happening on a small scale. Look at all the custom B vans out there built on a sturdy cargo base. You can get one for less than a Winnebago and far better built.
There is only so much RV buyers can “afford RV junk” to continue to buy. Smaller, better built RV’s are already starting to show up and we are in the process of “downsizing out of our 40′ DP” into a 30′ version this year.
Loved the article. For those who doubt this likely scenario, think back to the completely ‘brain-dead’ predictions from RV industry leaders about the huge surge in sales on the horizon, disregarding the impending economic doom that was already underway with ‘Bidenomics’… They completely misjudged reality and consumers watching their budgets get blown to smithereens…
I think you mean the world inflation caused by Covid and consumer spending.
Chuck, like you, I’ve been actively traveled all 50 states and most of North (and Central America) since the late 1960s beginning with a cabover on one of six F250 4x4s. I’ve had some incredibly wild adventures with that rig from being stranded on the Baja for 6 weeks due to the bridges washing out in San Quentin (consequently spent 6 weeks helping Philip Cousteau and his crew analyze whale deaths in San Ignacio lagoon while waiting for my ferry ride reservation off the peninsula) to camping near the Great Slave Lake of Canada only to waken to a hunter’s dog pack circling my camper (hunter had stuffed a hollow log with garbage and honey to attract a troublesome bear). It’s been and (cont)
(Cont) continues to be a wild ride with no end in sight! That being said, and with our great country’s political divide, I wish your heading had included the word “manufacturer” and not included “coming after you” because it implies a political jab that Elon Musk is taking aim on RVers. I think a much more accurate title (and I loved the meat of the article, just not the title wording) would have been “ Watch out RV Manufactuers, Elon Musk is about to rock your world” or something along that line. “Coming after you” implies that both the seller and customer have the big bad wolf after them when in fact good ol Elon is doing what he does best, putting pressure on traditional complacency.
The Cybertruck was only supposed to cost $40,000 when it was announced. MSRP is something like $125k when it finally came out.
I would fully expect any Tesla RV to cost $200k for just a 25′ TT. 🙂
I believe the subject matter relates to gas/diesel rv’s, not trailers.
The current cost of the Cybertruck is priced for early adopters, for which there are many. It costs a lot of money to start a new vehicle line, especially one that is so full of new innovations. Tesla is milking the early adopters for what they can get before dropping the price to something reasonable. Why would they sell it for less than they can get? In the short term that the Foundation Edition Cybertruck was released, it has moved into first place in EV truck sales selling more than the F150 lighting and Rivian combined in July. An all electric RV from Tesla will be expensive when first released, but like all their other models, the price will drop significantly over time.
As long as RV builders stick with the status quo of LCI, Dometic and Furrion for their builds, nothing will change in the industry. I do hope someone will bring an innovation to motorhomes, and travel trailers as well.
Say what you will about Elon, but he certainly knows how to disrupt a comfortably entrenched industry. And considering the sorry state of quality in today’s campers, the RV industry could certainly use some disruption. Will whatever he makes sell for $15,000? Not likely at all. But if he can deliver a quality product that’s not full of defects from the get-go for two, three, or four times that, the rest of the industry will be forced to respond for the better or perish.
I personally don’t believe the change will come in the type of drive train as that will follow current trends from vehicle manufacturing. Change will come in the means of construction. Someone will figure out how to “print” an RV to raise the quality of construction and eliminate the need for poorly trained workers. Inroads are already being made in construction of “sticks and bricks” homes and I believe RVs are next.
At this point, RV quality cannot get any worse. Giant boxes on wheels, full of Chinese products. Slam them together as fast as possible, with little, to no QC.
This, coupled with service centers staffed by low/no skilled “technicians”.
Well stated. I think even “newly seasoned” RVers are aching for a product that offers quality and reliability in the current sea of disappointing offerings. Hopefully, that company will have the courage to give the middle finger to the RVIA and it’s pandering.
I’m a little surprised that there is so much negativity of RV quality available today. I owned a Lazy Daze for several years and found it to be of incredible quality and workmanship at a reasonable price. They don’t move very quickly to new technologies as they don’t want to tarnish the brand will new Chinese junk. For anyone frustrated with the current choices, I recommend taking a look at these class C marvels.
Lazy Daze was one of the best, but unfortunately all good things came to an end..
Speaking of pessimism, a lot more than desire to produce EV-RV will be needed.
That magical electric infrastructure to charge EV RVs will be installed at what percentage of RV Parks and what percentage of sites within those parks? COST? Will they all need seperate metering so the guest can get a seperate invoice at check out? Will these magic busses have a diesel gen to keep the fridge and A/C units running while boondocking because solar ain’t gonna cut it? If your fridge does run down the batteries the gen will come in handy. How many acres of land will be needed at a LOVES truck stop for 8-12 hour fuel stops?
My point is that we are still several decades away, not 2026.
All good points.
Maybe where you live. We just returned from Quebec and Eastern Canada. The number of Tesla, Kia, Hyundai, VW, GM and Ford fully battery electric vehicles on the highways is in the 10% range now. Charging stations everywhere we shopped and in ALL of the privately owned campgrounds where we stayed. Also in the Western US you will find many 30 to 50 station Tesla Superchargers (see Dateland, Ca) which many manufacturers have designed their vehicles to accommodate.
The future is coming on all fronts.
How big were the parking spaces for the Tesla Supercharger stations? 65 foot pull thrus? Easy in, easy out? Cars are one thing, but RVs with roof mounted A/C units and residential refers is another. Don’t get me wrong, it’s coming, it is just decades away for RVs.
Can’t boondock on solar alone running an A/C unit.
A camper van for $15,000? They can’t supply a battery capable of moving a van for twice that but you can’t stop the rumor mill. Considering the lack of quality in the RV market, people will be interested in anything that promises improvement. Can Musk produce an electric RV for a reasonable price? His promises for a $50,000 dollar truck didn’t materialize and his low cost small EV is nowhere in sight. If you look at the build quality of his vehicles you will see that much improvement is needed. I think the build quality will be an improvement over what is available now but will the average RVer be able to afford it?
I read Buck Owens biography and I’m pretty sure he was born and raised in Texas. He got to Bakersfield when he was driving truck and later moved there.
No. Musk is not going to do anything. He could but it would be far more expensive then he says and take longer to get started. The problem with RVs are they are still built the way they used to build cars before robotics and automation. They are also built in small quantities and for less cost then if they were built to todays automotive standards. If the public is willing to pay 2 or 3 times more for an RV then you might get automotive quality in that RV.
There was a time when propane powered was to be “the next big thing”. It was promoted as plentiful, cheap, clean and versatile. You could run your fridge, furnace, generator, air conditioners and main engine off it. Heck, propane off the rig could even be used with the Blackstone and fire pit. It didn’t catch on.
An EV RV will come but I think the motors will be powered by something other than batteries needing charge stations. Deuterium and tritium seem most plausible right now but that might change in a couple years….
Dear Chuck,
I agree with you 100%!, that the future of RV will change dramatically, in the years to come.
Musk is already building RV’s, those that can travel to Mars. I don’t think there’s enough money in earthbound RV’s to interest him.
Musk just may come up with an electric RV. He will need something to live in when he gets to Mars.
That will never fly….that will never replace the horse..etc.
I bet’cha there will be new RV’s in the future.
I won’t be one to purchase as I seem to have gotten a little older as my Winnebago has too.
We will just enjoy the time and miles we have left.
“Lucy” just received new front airbags last week and I just got my latest shots. We are good to go for many more miles. We are optimistic!
If not Elon then maybe something from Germany. I’ve been looking at some videos and other information available of motorhomes from Niesmann + Bischoff, Hymer, Carthago, Knaus, Weinsberg, Dethleffs, and Bürstner. They appear to be far and away better designed and built than those of U.S. manufacturers. If they were imported or built here in the U.S., I’d be lined up for one. Sure, most are smaller, but then, so were the first Volkswagens.
imagine a 15k camper. he would come out way more via quantity rather than what he would on a high priced one. everyone would have one.
a quick google search for electric RV will deliver this beauty
https://lightshiprv.com/