Electric RV
Published Sunday January 22, 2017: Updated 3/25/2018
Electric RV
In April 2017 we rented an RV for a week and drove 1188 miles through Southern Utah.
Somewhere in Escalante, UT
Kolob, Canyon in Zion, UT
Zion National Park
Windy and cold but worth it, (at Bryce Canyon, UT)
The beautiful scenery at Bryce Canyon brings tears to my eyes.
Some beautiful, barren beauty.
Stopped for Lunch in the middle of nowhere near some petroglyphs.
At Goblin Valley
Delicate Arch at Arches National Park
While it was an amazing experience that my family will never forget, as an energy conscious individual, I couldn’t help but take note of all the energy we used.
Over 6 days and nearly 1200 miles, we consumed 130 gallons of gasoline and 18 gallons of propane for heat. In total we blew through 5003kWh of fossil fuel energy in under 1 week. It takes our solar array 4 months to produce that much energy. It takes over 2 years driving a Nissan Leaf everywhere I go to use that much energy.
How To Make an RV Electric?
I thought about this question a lot on our trip: How to convert an existing RV to battery electric and still have the same range as an ICE one with a 55 gallon gas tank (500 miles)?
Well, off the cuff, it would take about 500kWh (five 100 kWh Tesla model S batteries). Adding regen and making it self-driving would make it a dream RV.
Charging would be tricky. It would take a week to charge up a 500kWh battery using a 120V, 30Amp circuit as at an RV park. Even on 240V at 40 Amps it would take a good 2.5 days to charge back up. A Tesla super charger on the other hand would take about 3 hours.
After driving that many miles in a big RV, it felt good to turn it back in and get back into a nice, peppy little Nissan Leaf. Nothing beats an EV.
Levels of Electrified RVs:
- A stock RV with some solar panels added.
- A well-insulated RV with solar panels and several kWh of lithium batteries.
- A hybrid RV. The engine starts and stops as needed to keep the lithium battery pack topped off. Also can charge using solar panels.
- A fully electric RV.
While the charging infrastructure through Southern Utah is still in its infancy, a convenient road trip in a Chevy Bolt is only possible with lots of overnight stops along the way. Someday I want to do this journey in the Bolt.
Someday maybe even in an all-electric RV.