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If you have been following my articles or my social media, you may have seen me trying to find the perfect RV. On the one hand, it would be great to have a large RV that can accommodate the whole family, pets, bicycles and everything, but it comes at a price. Achieving 5-10 MPG over a 1,000-mile trip means that its fuel cost is $600. Of course, you can spend this money on hotels along the way to reduce the impact of carbon and pollution, but there are many places where there are no hotels, or you just want to be closer to nature.
There are some solutions to this "RV=pollution" formula. You can camp in an electric car (this is the plan I am implementing), and you can avoid all the crazy weights. If you need to bring feline friends, this is not a good choice, but our canine family members will accept it. Upcoming electric trucks, such as Rivian, F-150 Lightning or Tesla Cybertruck, will be able to tow RV trailers, but although electricity is not a problem, in rural areas, mileage will be a big issue.
Obviously, in the process of transitioning to clean and sustainable energy, we will have to rethink the idea of RVs.
Solar Team Eindhoven is a team of Dutch university students who decided to use a completely different RVing method when building the solar Stella Vita RV. Unlike most people who make RVs, the team does not have to worry about quarterly sales figures and selling inefficient RVs that fit the existing RV market. In other words, they are not competing with manufacturers of passenger cars powered by gasoline and diesel.
Prior to this latest project, the team focused on winning solar car races and other competitive solar car races. When you are limited by the relatively low power levels that the onboard solar panels can provide, you need to get rid of all the inefficiencies to win the game. This means you need the best aerodynamic styling, low rolling resistance tires and minimal weight. The team does not seem to be aiming for the best overall time, instead focusing more on utility vehicles that can accommodate multiple passengers, but it still won the trophy four times in a row in the Cruiser-level World Solar Challenge.
The team used their past experience and applied it to the construction of RVs. They started with a low-key, highly aerodynamic car, no different from a solar racing car. Generally, this does not provide any space for what RVers want, such as being able to get up in the car, sleep on the bed, or sit at the table. However, when you build a vehicle with such a large internal space, you will not get the aerodynamic efficiency required to drive on solar energy. To solve this problem, they built it with a pop-up roof like many campers.
This leaves enough space for the bed, table and even shower inside. Of course, you won't travel in this car with six people across the entire continent, but for two people, it has everything you need.
They even use this pop-up arrangement to provide more solar energy. When the solar roof pops up to free up more internal space, more solar panels will slide out from the side, increasing solar power generation by nearly three times. Therefore, when someone parks, they can increase the battery's range and support other electricity uses in the campground.
With efficiency and solar cells, the solar-powered Stella Vita RV can travel 450 miles (730 kilometers) a day. This may not seem like much, but it takes 7 hours to travel at 65 miles per hour. At slower speeds (which may need to reach the maximum range), this may be the amount of time anyone wants to drive in a day. When you increase lunch breaks, restroom breaks, etc., you can achieve a greater range by deploying additional solar panels for a few minutes.
In order to prove that it is actually effective, not just theoretically effective, students take it on a trip to Europe.
Students travel from their hometowns to the bottom of Spain, stopping in towns along the way, show off vehicles and inspire students, politicians, and auto industry workers. After all the stops, the journey took more than a month and stretched for 3000 kilometers (1800 miles).
What we haven't learned from this is whether the vehicle can travel long distances consistently as many motorhome owners want. As long as the sun is out, it can obviously cover a long distance, but we don’t know if it’s too much for it to travel long distances every day for several days, and there is no good information about solar system wattage, battery capacity or other specifications.
One thing is certain: the RV industry can learn a lot from it. Buyers don't want a vehicle that can only be driven when the sun is out, so this type of RV needs some kind of charging port, and DC fast charging may be 100% useful. Even in the case of grid power supply, an efficient solar car uses much less electricity than a Cybertruck or F-150 Lightning, and can even pull a small trailer. In addition, if you want to camp off-grid and have good sunlight, you can leave the campsite more than when you leave.
We need to encourage manufacturers to develop more efficient electric RVs for couples and families. There is no reason why an RV must be a big, square, heavy, fuel-consuming or power-consuming machine. With efficient shapes, light weight, and solar energy, they can provide people with everything they need for camping without having to go to the destination or forcing the owner to drive for a short time and charge at every RV parking lot between them and the destination.
The RV industry should learn from Aptera's approach to create an efficient RV for people who like RVs but don’t want to destroy the nature they like to enjoy.
Featured images and other images of Stella Vita by Bart van Overbeeke and Solar Team Eindhoven.
Jennifer Sensiba is a long-term efficient car enthusiast, writer and photographer. She grew up in a transmission shop and has been experimenting with vehicle efficiency and driving Pontiac Fiero since she was 16 years old. She likes to explore the American Southwest with her partner, children and animals. Follow her latest articles and other random content on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferSensiba
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