Colorado Teardrops introduced earlier this month that it has accomplished the prototype model of “the world’s first camper trailer designed to increase the towing vary of electrical automobiles.”
What may sound like a wierd product area of interest may reply a dilemma for some People with luxurious budgets: Whereas an electrical car may work completely effective for the overwhelming majority of the yr, the annual weeklong tenting journey will be the deal-breaker.
As some who’ve tried to tow with their EVs—Teslas included—can attest, real-world driving vary whereas towing will be abysmal. Within the vary of 60% to 75% of regular vary is to be anticipated, and a few bigger journey trailers will reduce vary in half.
That’s the place the thought for the Boulder, a 12-foot-long electrified teardrop-style tenting trailer launched simply over a yr in the past, is available in. With about 75 kwh of batteries mounted in its decrease body space—inside just a few kwh of the usable capability of plenty of fashionable electrical crossovers just like the Tesla Mannequin Y or Volkswagen ID.4—it’s successfully carrying an additional battery pack alongside. In accordance with the corporate, it has the potential to supply a complete vary whereas towing that’s larger than the towing EV’s authentic vary.
Colorado Teardrops Boulder EV tenting trailer
With its prototype announcement, Colorado Teardrops introduced that it “has partnered with a significant automotive producer to advance know-how straight related to The Boulder.”
The corporate additionally confirmed that it’s accomplished the preliminary section of the Boulder’s improvement. A stage of improvement permitting Degree 2 charging is full, whereas it’s now engaged on the DC fast-charging between the trailer and tow car that would be the enabler for making the thought work.
For all of it to work, that’s, the vacationers might want to pull over and primarily plug the trailer into the EV, letting it fast-charge the car at as much as 60 kw—or probably the next energy for shorter durations, as the corporate instructed 100 miles of vary returned in 10 minutes.
Colorado Teardrops – The Boulder electrified journey trailer
At its preliminary reveal final yr, the corporate instructed that the Boulder’s dry weight could be simply 1,950 lb, with a tongue weight of 185 lb. It’ll sleep a household of 4, together with a queen-size mattress, bunk beds, a eating space with couches, inside local weather management, and a hot-water bathe—plus a fold-out kitchen galley, probably with an induction cooktop.
The Boulder retains to basic teardrop-camper dimensions, in response to the corporate, however within the meantime it hasn’t shied from trailers which may look extra at house towed by a bigger car like a Ford F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1T. Two future fashions, the 17-foot Golden and the 27-foot Denver, don’t hold to the identical teardrop look, however they’ve hard-shell tops that retract right into a decrease profile when towing. When tenting they lengthen to supply 78-inch head room. It now suggests these fashions, which seem to solely be on the rendering/starting stage, will provide battery packs as much as 200 kwh, which might be sufficient to prime out the upcoming Max pack variations of Rivian’s vehicles.
Colorado Teardrops – The Denver 27-foot electrified journey trailer
Like many journey trailers, you’ll must be in it for the approach to life, as you can probably purchase plenty of fancy lodge nights—and much more EV—for the worth. Colorado Teardrops asks for as little as $1,000 down, however a $10,000 down fee secures a cheaper price beginning at $45,000. The corporate claims that it’s accepting reservations for the Boulder for supply within the first half of 2023, though that already represents a timeline pushed ahead.
This isn’t the one agency pursuing electrified journey trailers, and it’s not the primary to strive the thought. Airstream confirmed an eStream idea earlier this yr, incorporating a system developed with ZF, that may very well be arriving within the subsequent few years. That system, in a distinct trailer, managed to get a 240-mile real-world vary out of an Audi E-Tron Sportback EPA-rated at 218 miles.
Protecting an enormous automotive-grade battery pack unused the remainder of the yr isn’t so nice for the atmosphere or the strained provide chain both, so let’s hope the corporate is pondering huge about how this product may very well be a part of the house vitality ecosystem, serving to households put the battery to make use of the remainder of the yr.