E.Home Coco Concept Makes One-Charge Trip Through Alps – Could a Powered Airstream Be Next?
By Edward A. Sanchez – Aug. 12, 2021
If you’ve followed The Watt Car for any length of time, you might have read previous blog posts where I’ve hypothesized about the possibility of powered trailers in the context of towing with an EV. Towing with any type of vehicle reduces range, but it’s an especially critical factor when your time to refuel is 30-60 minutes rather than 5-10.
Recently, German motorhome and travel trailer company Dethleffs hitched a proof-of-concept of its E.Home Coco powered trailer to an Audi e-tron Sportback for a trip through the Alps. The e-tron Sportback has a rated range of 244 miles (393 km). The length of the journey was 240 miles (386 km). In normal circumstances, with a conventional (non-powered) trailer, there would be a 0% chance the vehicle and trailer would be able to make that drive without having to recharge.
However, the e-tron Sportback completed the journey without having to stop to charge. Post-trip analysis determined the tow vehicle used 82 kWh of energy, and the trailer used 74 kWh. The Audi regenerated 11 kWh, and the trailer regenerated 6 kWh on the journey. The vehicle and trailer maintained an average speed of 38.7 mph (62.3 km/h) and drove at speeds between 50-52 mph (80-84 km/h) on highways.
Other development partners involved in the project include ZF (of 8-speed automatic transmission fame) and Erwin Hymer Group, the parent company of Dethleffs and a division of Thor Industries, which owns the Airstream, Jayco, Starcraft, Keystone, and Dutchmen brands, among many others.
Thor Industries not only owns of brands like Airstream and Jayco, it also has close ties to Dethleffs. Could we see this powered-trailer technology come to North America?
With this association, the possibility of some of this technology making its way across the Atlantic is an intriguing possibility. As the press release noted, powered trailer technology is still in the concept stage, and there would likely be certification, safety testing, and regulatory hurdles that would need to be cleared on both sides of the Atlantic before these could be offered for sale.
The developers of the technology also claim that a powered trailer would also have benefits for internal-combustion tow vehicles, by decreasing the net load and drag on the tow vehicle, resulting in lower fuel consumption and longer range. Presumably, the battery pack of the trailer could be recharged on-site at an RV park to provide the same benefit on the return trip.
Although lately, the Europeans seem to be adopting EVs much more enthusiastically than Americans at large, if vehicles like the Ford F-150 Lightning kick-start Americans’ interest in EV trucks, there could be a primed and eager market for powered trailers.
The E-Home Coco utilizes two 40 kWh battery packs and a pair if electric motors.
I sincerely hope Thor management sees the potential and opportunity in this technology, and doesn’t view it as just a weird “science project” by a bunch of quirky German engineers. Being the 800-pound gorilla of the leisure and recreation vehicle market, Thor could make a major splash with this technology in the North American market.
(Images courtesy Dethleffs)
- Podcast - Facebook - Google News - Twitter -
