The Winnebago EVR2 camper van has a range of 108 miles but carries 900 watts (at peak, optimal sun) of solar PV charging. The manufacturer estimates up to 4 hours of charging, sufficient to run cooking, lights and refrigeration, with no use of heating or air conditioning, nor charging the EV battery. (Fixed roof panels tend to work best only around the noon hours – earlier and later, the angle of incidence to the sun reduces charge capacity.)
The ERV2, based on the Ford E-Transit van, will be priced at a premium to comparable gas vehicles, they say. The E-Transit van, before conversion to a camper, is priced at $45k to $60k. While a DIY simple camper conversion can be done for a few thousand $s, a high end, full featured, professionally done conversion with added solar PV and battery storage can cost tens of thousands of dollars additional.
The media writes: #VanLife gets electrified: Six places to rent electric camper vans around the globe | CNN
Let’s match this to a real life scenario.
It is 53 miles almost all uphill (3,300 feet higher elevation than my house and with up and down hills, well over 4,000 feet of elevation climb) to a local USFS campground we’ve been to many times. Drive time is just over 1 hour to get there. Going up this steep climb will reduce expected range.
The point here is this is a local campground – the only kind for which this EV would perhaps makes sense.
There is no electricity available at this campground nor other campgrounds in the area.
There and back is 106 miles of that 108 mile range – not including the steep uphill which reduces the overall range below 108 miles.
About 15 miles from the campground, there are three Level 2 chargers open to the public (says PlugShare) – but PlugShare says to expect a maximum charge rate of 3.3 KW. A nearby private RV park has six Level 2 (7 KW) chargers but you have to pay a $50 per day parking fee, says PlugShare.
May be electric RV camper vans will make sense someday but I do not get this vehicle, nor the point of it at this time.
Does spending perhaps $80k or more on an ERV2 with about a 100 mile range make sense to you? What am I missing?
