If you’ve ever found yourself camping away from shore power, the subject of electricity generation and storage is probably important to you. Some folks want to be able to spend as much time as they can away from infrastructure, and one new camper is pitching itself as a real game-changer in RV power. The Evotrex-PG5 is being dubbed as the ‘World’s First Power-Generating RV’ that never needs to be plugged in, but I think that claim might be stretching the truth. Let’s take a look.
There was a time when CES was largely about electronics and computers. For the past several years, however, it’s become a showcase for car technology, too. Now, as tech companies are getting into camping, RVs are beginning to pile into CES as well. This year, we’ve already seen the weird and unrealistic ideas of AC Future, but AC Future wasn’t the only RV startup at CES. There was also Evotrex, and it’s making huge promises.
The Evotrex-PG5 is an interesting trailer in that its fuel sources aren’t anything new; it just implements them differently. The secret sauce to this trailer is that it has an automotive-style extended-range electric vehicle system. It has a big battery and a gas engine to top it back up. So, what’s this about being the first power-generating RV?
Another Techy RV Company
I first wrote about Evotrex back in November. Then, the company had nothing but renders and promises. The company is back again, but this time it’s not only bringing a whole lot more information, but a real prototype.
Evotrex is like most electric RV startups, and it’s filled to the brim with techy people and EV engineers. Evotrex was founded by Alex Xiao, Bruce Yang, and Stella Qin, alumni from portable power giant Anker and from Geely. Xiao is known for helping Anker build itself into a giant for more than a decade. Meanwhile, Yang was once vice president of Geely’s Technology Center. Qin held supply chain leadership positions at Anker, IBM, and Lenovo. The company operated in secret for a while, and is backed by Anker as well as a flurry of Chinese venture capital firms.
The founders of Evotrex have noticed that younger people are beginning to get into RVing, and a lot of those people don’t want to go to a campground. Evotrex seems to think that off-grid camping is a sort of new thing that needs to be solved. From TechCrunch:
These customers “want to bring their gadgets and other equipment on skiing, hunting, fishing, and other activities, and stay in the wild for like four or five days, which is different,” Xiao said. “They’re off-grid — off-grid living was not supported before within the RV life.”
Most people who take their RVs off-grid currently deploy a variety of power sources, including batteries, solar power, generators, and propane. Generators are usually standard equipment in motorhomes and in many camper vans.
The Evotrex-PG5 just takes these existing power sources and integrates them into a single trailer.
The Evotrex-PG5
Evotrex says its camper starts off with a solid platform. The body of the trailer is multiple layers of insulated fiberglass, and the chassis is said to be a high-strength steel “automotive-grade” structure. Evotrex says that the trailer is designed, engineered, and validated to automotive standards, and that includes the air suspension system. The air suspension can be adjusted on the fly, where the owner can raise the camper for off-roading, or lower the camper for better aero.
One final note about the undercarriage is that the trailer sports automatic leveling jacks. This is all great stuff. The build sheet of materials is already much better than most typical camper trailers, so Evotrex’s engineers did their homework for sure.
The heart of the Evotrex is its power generation system. Here’s what the press copy says:
A unified energy system that combines a massive 43 kWh LFP battery, 1.5 kW of solar, and Horizon, our ultra-efficient gas-powered onboard generator. Together, they generate over 270 kWh of total usable power on a single cycle, to deliver continuous, self-replenishing energy for extended off-grid travel. Power is automatically generated through solar, regenerative charging while towing, and Horizon’s optimized fuel-efficient operation, providing abundant, reliable power for HVAC, appliances, and amenities wherever the journey leads. The PG5 also supports V2L power export, allowing travelers to run tools, cooking gear, and campsite equipment directly from the trailer’s onboard power system.
Should you choose to charge the battery through a shore power connection, the trailer feeds from a NEMA 14-50 outlet or a NACS connector. The trailer can also export up to 12 kW of power to an external source. In addition to the above, the battery can also be charged during towing through regeneration.
Evotrex does not explain how long a single cycle is, but the short version is that you have a battery, solar, and an engine at your disposal. Apparently, this engine is also made to automotive standards. It’s unclear if that means that Evotrex is just using an off-the-shelf car engine or if it means that this engine could be used in a car.
This system has some neat trick features added to it. One of them is vehicle-to-vehicle charging, which Evotrex says will allow bidirectional energy transfer between the PG5 and an electric tow vehicle. This is said to extend the usable range of the tow vehicle and trailer, but Evotrex does not describe how this works.
Other tricks in the camper’s bag include the ability to charge an EV with 60 kW of DC power when the trailer is parked, the ability for the trailer to act as a large battery for your house, and a traction motor designed to help tow the trailer. That last one is nothing new. The Pebble Flow was the world’s first production camper trailer with a traction motor, and the Lightship AE.1 was right on its tail almost immediately after. AC Future is also working on a camper with a traction motor. Airstream and Dethleffs have prototype campers with traction systems, too.
More Glamping Than Camping
Complementing the tech bits is a luxury interior. Evotrex describes the interior thusly:
A luxury interior built for comfort and versatility, featuring a residential queen bed, a convertible dinette that sleeps two additional adults, high-efficiency appliances, and premium, durable materials. The home-like dry bath includes a full shower and toilet, while the modern kitchen offers a double-burner induction cooktop, convection microwave, range hood, and generous refrigeration. Large, openable windows equipped with integrated bug screens and shades maximize airflow, while thoughtfully placed lighting elevates both visibility and ambience inside the PG5.
The company notes that, because the queen bed is residential size and not an RV queen like most campers use, you can bring any mattress you want to customize your sleeping experience. I also like the addition of a dry bath. There’s nothing wrong with a wet bath, but a dry bath feels just a little more like home. Also notable is that the ceiling is high enough that someone who is taller than six feet can stand in the shower without bumping their noggin.
The interior of the PG5 is also a little bit like a toy hauler. With the push of a button, the rear wall of the trailer drops down, and you can use it as a 43-square-foot patio or use it as a ramp to load gear into the trailer. In terms of holding tanks, you’re looking at a 60-gallon fresh water tank, a 30-gallon grey tank, and a 30-gallon waste tank.
A big question is how long the PG5 can survive off-grid. Evotrex says that, generally speaking, if you treat the PG5’s HVAC system like your house’s heat and air-conditioning, the power will last three to four days before you need to refuel. Evotrex has also built a calculator that you can play with. It says that Sheryl and I would last three days before the camper runs its water tank dry.
It’s also a hefty trailer for its size. The base model, the PG5 Pioneer, weighs 8,350 pounds empty and has a gross weight of 9,500 pounds. The flagship PG5 Atlas weighs 8,900 pounds and has a 9,900-pound gross weight.
Is It Really The First?
The part that’s confusing me is the claim that this is the “World’s First Power-Generating RV.” Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but I would think that any motorhome with a generator counts as a “power-generating RV.” Evotrex has a press release that clarifies this statement to: “The Evotrex-PG5 is the first RV trailer with the ability to generate its own power.” But I’m also not sure about that. If you count solar panels as power generation, then once again, the Evotrex is not first. It’s not even the first extended-range electric RV, as that distinction goes to the Entegra Embark.
What would be true, I think, is if Evotrex said that this is the world’s first extended-range electric travel trailer. There is no travel trailer on the planet that has a 43 kWh LFP battery and an automotive-grade engine as a generator. I don’t think Evotrex needs to get all crazy with the “world’s first” stuff that startup companies crave. Just let the product itself do the talking.
Anyway, the 28.6-foot Evotrex-PG5 is slated to begin shipping in mid-2027 for the starting price of $119,990. That gets you the PG5 Pioneer. For $159,990, you can get the fully-loaded PG5 Atlas. This technically would make the Evotrex cheaper than the Lightship AE.1 and Pebble Flow competition, which currently start at $139,500 and $151,000, respectively.
PCMag asked Evotrex about how the company is going to be able to undercut the competition, and the answer given is that Evotrex has a China-based supply chain and China-based research and development. Thus, Evotrex says, it costs the company less money in labor and research than it would to develop the camper in America.
A lot of RV influencers are already calling this rig the camper of the future and say that it’ll change RVs. I don’t think it will. A lot of folks, myself included, don’t want a tech-laden camper and definitely don’t want to spend six figures on our next camping experience. As it is, the major RV companies are rolling out more affordable models just as these techy RV companies are coming swinging with their luxury trailers.
That’s not to say that the Evotrex-PG5 is bad. Quite the opposite. I champion any camper that appears to be made out of good materials and tries something different. The PG5 has that in spades. I just think it’s not as much changing RVs and more of another fun option that will hopefully appear on the market soon. If that sounds like something you want, Evotrex is already taking pre-orders. Otherwise, I can’t wait to see what this looks like in person one day.
Top graphic image: Evotrex
$120k and no pop out?
Let’s see if I’m following this: in order to use your EV as a tow vehicle, you need your trailer to have almost a thousand pounds of batteries to run a traction motor to take the weight off your tow vehicle. Then you need air suspension to lower the trailer to take the added aero load off your vehicle. Then you need an automotive grade gas engine to back up your thousand pounds of batteries that are taking the load off your tow vehicle. Then if you want to go far off grid you need 1.5kw of solar to back up the automotive grade gas engine that’s backing up a thousand pounds of batteries to take the load off your tow vehicle. And to take advantage of this sweet setup, I’ll need to stop at a fast-charging station and disconnect my trailer so I can charge it separately from my tow vehicle, then I will also need to stop at a gas station to fill the gas in my trailer.
I can’t wait for the Rube Goldberg Edition.
> Evotrex says that the trailer is designed, engineered, and validated to automotive standards
I certainly hope so, since it’s a road-going trailer.
Or you could buy a regular camper of the same size AND an F-150 Powerboost for basically the same price and have the ability to go off-grid with the PB as your energy source for any needs beyond what solar can provide.
This thing looks nice, and the layout, ground clearance and garage / porch at the back all seem like nice features for the audience that they’re after. However, all of the weight, complexity and cost in the powered axle, regen braking and EV sized battery are adding $40-70k to comparable units for the capability to be a good trailer for EV tow vehicles. This is also funny, because there are only two existing US market EVs that can tow it safely.
If they simplified the electrical, focused on the generator and cut the battery size to 10kwh and stickered it for $65 – 80k they would have a competitive product on their hands.
Tell me you know nothing about the RV industry without telling me you know nothing about the RV industry. Or you’re lying through your teeth. We’re off to a great start here!
I sincerely hope this means the brake system has a regenerative component, not that they’re charging the battery by dragging the regenerative brakes all the time. That’s a wildly inefficient way to charge something.
If by “RV queen” they mean “full size” as is the case with my trailer (yes, traditional RV companies have BS marketing departments too), then you can most certainly bring your own mattress. In fact, I did.
Are there actually RVs that come with non-standard mattresses or is this another strawman for them to fight? I can’t imagine the RV industry paying to have mattresses custom-sized for them.
An RV queen is the width of a queen (60″) but the length of a full (74″ instead of the typical 80″)
Mercedes certainly knows much more about the RV industry than you give her credit for!
That wasn’t directed at Mercedes. It sounded like that was a claim by the company, who demonstrably do not know much about RVs.
Ok, to sort of amend what I said earlier. You could put power generating devices on the wheels. Would it cost mpg’s? Yes. But if you’re towing this with an ICE vehicle would you be willing to trade a few mpg’s for fully charged trailer batteries when you got to your campsite? I obviously understand why this doesn’t work on an electric vehicle with the energy you gain would be less than the energy you have to expend to generate and it’s just not worth it. But with something like a camper people might be willing to have the trade off. There is a lot of AI bs in the ad though. I don’t think this company has ever heard of a generator.
Why wouldn’t you arrive with a fully charged trailer? Unless it’s a surprise trailer camping trip, you should have enough notice to plug the thing in for a day before leaving home.
Also, pulling an always-regen trailer is a terrible way to charge. It’s not free energy there for the harvesting – it costs in mpg or range from the tow vehicle, and in a much less efficient way than running the trailer generator or v2l charging from an ev tow vehicle.
Every statement by this company makes me break out in hives.
Can I get an AI filter to eliminate all corporate-marketing Newspeak from my browser?
“the ability to generate its own power” – like every RV with a generator ever.
“regenerative charging while towing” – misleading. Not while towing, that would just suck power inefficiently from the tow vehicle. Maybe while towing, *while braking* through on-trailer regenerative breaking.
“self-replenishing energy” – Really? Perpetual motion? Energy distilled from the air?
… oh, it’s a fuc&ing generator running off of gasoline and some solar panels.
And in little old Europe you will need a lorry drivers licence (heavy truck equivalent in US) for those weights, especially if the towing vehicle is a heavy electric pick up probably already near three tonnes.
I know it is impossible to tell from renderings and publicity photos, but what strikes me is its height — it looks as though it is as high as a 40 tonner too.
And in the campsites I go to there are trees, and it will not fit.
Even busses converted into RVs do not fit.
‘The founders of Evotrex have noticed that younger people are beginning to get into RVing’ … so they launch a youth-focused base model bargain priced at $120k!
Dirt cheap. Plenty left over to buy a Rivian to tow it with. Finally the 30 and under off the grid folks have an affordable option. They’re not going to be able to make them fast enough.
100% on point with this sarcasm. I camp at least 5-6 times a year with our local Airstream Club or other Airstream Club events. I’d say it’s 50-60% retirees and another 20-30% that are between 45 and 65 years old. Those that are on the younger side of the club are the ones in the 15+ year old ones. That’s just the reality of who has disposable income to buy an expensive toy, and also who has enough vacation time at work to use it.
Also, nearly every RV these days generates power. Most have solar power to run at least a few things like 12V refrigerators, water pumps, and inverters. Airstream has had a camper (the Tradewind) for a while with around 10kwh of lithium, 600 watts of solar panels,and the capability to run the AC for at least a couple hours on the battery.
“off-grid living was not supported before within the RV life.”
– Bwahahahaha… oh that’s good… whew, I needed a laugh today.
Off-grid living was the first use-case for travel trailers. I thought that quote was pretty tone deaf, too.
“OverlandingSprinter” – This guy gets it!
I can’t validate any claims as to which RV was first to generate its own power. What I can say is that the one time my family went on vacation using a travel trailer when I was a teen, that RV was so filled with trapped methane in the mornings, you could light up a small city.
i skimmed a bunch of MA DOT regulations last year (540CMR) leading to my understanding that trailers can’t be registered here in massachusetts if they have their own motive source.
i’m planning a deep dive this winter so will be able to provide a citation then…
It doesn’t move itself, so I’m not sure what the objection would be.
the state’s definition of ‘trailer’
“A big question is how long the PG5 can survive off-grid. Evotrex says that, generally speaking, if you treat the PG5’s HVAC system like your house’s heat and air-conditioning, the power will last three to four days before you need to refuel.”
Is it harnessing the waste heat from that REX for HVAC and hot water? If not they could probably extend that time quite a bit.
It’s a silly claim, I mean my trailer generates power too. Sure its only 100 watts, but it generates it, I can also export it.
You know what we need instead of a hyper expensive camp trailer system? A single box trailer power upgrade system. One box that has:
a big serviceable battery (talking about 300+ahr)
a 2kw inverter
high amp solar input
a separate high amp DC input
and most importantly, something missing from just about every one of these products on the market: A high amp DC output. Make the box weatherproof and light enough to stick in the tongue box. Done.
This is actually what off-grid RV people need. That and a few more DC HVAC options.
I’ve been working for weeks on a creating that type of system for a friends overland truck, and its annoying how I can buy all the pieces, but no one has all of them in one place…that I’ve found anyway.
I hear you. I’ve built systems close to what you described for a rural event. The good news is battery prices continue to fall despite the tariffs.
I’ve had good luck with Renogy batteries and inverters. I use weatherproof job boxes and tool boxes for containers, depending on the size of the batteries required.
Every overlander’s needs are different, but one thing that’s surprised me is how much electrical power humans consume and how much capacity LiFePo batteries lose in cold weather. I’ve learned to calculate power budgets conservatively.
The Victron Mullti RS and Easysolar cover a lot of that ground. Batteries are separate, but I’d generally call that a good thing.
Blah blah blah, camper. Blah blah $160k. GTFO. I think even damn lazy-ass YT-ers are having problems affording this crap because sure as shit normal people long can’t.
I see one innovation here: The NEMA 14-50 outlet or a NACS connector to allow charging of an electric vehicle. Everything else has been done in a self-propelled RV or travel trailer before.
Snark aside, Anker makes good mobile charging gear, so maybe the Anker alumni can build a higher quality trailer than our friends in Elkhart, Indiana.
That’s the only promising aspect I see too, I’ve been blown away with the quality and service of my Anker products.
Both the Lightship and the Pebble can charge an electric vehicle. The thing this one does differently on that front is offer external 60 kW fast charging, which is neat.
Thank you! I wasn’t aware those two had that ability.
Have any of these companies done any actual market research? Does the Venn diagram of:
People who want to have off-grid adventures that require a lot of electricity
and
People who have a quarter million dollars to spend on a trailer and a Rivian
How much overlap can there be??
RVs have always been complex machines (at least ones with full home type accommodations) but this takes it to a whole new level. Maybe subcontract Tesla Rangers to show up to the boondocks in CyberTruks to help you do repairs.
way too much.
It’s more the venn diagram of:
People who want *other people to believe they* have off-grid adventures that require a lot of electricity
and
People who have a quarter million dollars to spend on a trailer and a Rivian
People who are really getting out there are typically far more pragmatic than this.
I’m curious, I wonder if anyone has ever thought to rig up some sort of energy generating system to the wheels of the camper. You could then charge onboard batteries. I’m not an engineer so I have no idea how this would work. Just a thought though.
That’s essentially what the regenerative braking does. Any method used to generate power will add resistance, so if you’re trying to generate power from the wheels while maintaining speed or accelerating, it will cost you more energy than you produce (due to other losses like friction). However when braking you want to slow the vehicle so adding the resistance to generate power helps slow the vehicle and provides some energy production.
Ok after reading the article again it looks like it does have some sort of power generation on the wheels. If I understand it correctly regenerative braking only generates power when braking. I’m wondering if you can rig up some sort of power generating device, alternator, etc… to be driven off the wheels so it generates power full time.
You could, but then it would take more energy to pull it, so you’d be using energy from the tow vehicle to charge the batteries of the trailer, minus losses.
Lightship’s people told me they were working on something like that. However, their production travel trailer also does not actively charge while driving, only relying on regeneration. It seems the problem is what the others noted, in that you get back less energy than you spend.
That is exactly what regenerative braking is, turning a motor shaft with physical energy to generate electricity at the electric terminals. To do what you suggest on this RV, all you have to do is program the regenerative brakes to always be engaged. The amount of electricity generated for one turn of the wheel determines how much braking force is being applied. So a small amount of electricity could be generated with less impact to range of the tow vehicle. Increasing the amount of electricity generated decreases the range of the tow vehicle.
Also, if you are using the trailer motors in a generative mode, then you are not getting any towing assistance from the trailer, so the tow vehicle is pulling all the weight of the trailer plus spending the energy to generate electricity. Due to friction/heat losses, the extra energy the tow vehicle is using for generation is greater than the equivalent electricity that is being generated. So it is a net loss scenario. Accordingly, it really only makes sense to use the trailer’s generative capability for braking unless you have a tow vehicle with energy to spare.
I see the appeal, but the basic physics doesn’t support this. The wheel charger creates resistance (turning mechanical motion into electricity; the power has to come from somewhere) and this resistance has to be overcome by the pulling vehicle. So, all you’re doing is very inefficiently transferring power from your tow vehicle to the trailer, using the motion of the road as the transfer medium.
You would be far better off just using the tow vehicle battery/gas for power at the campsite.
I would think you could have electric motors doing regen to put energy in the pack as well as replacing the conventional trailer brakes.