RV Trailer Concept Has Electric Motor: Tow With Small Cars

The Dethleffs e.Home Coco is the first RV trailer with its own electric drive. It propels itself and is a mobile power station. This is the future of electrified RV life!

I’ll bet you’ve heard of concept cars. But have you heard of concept campers? At the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon, the largest camper trade show in the world, the future of RVs is revealed each year.

The German RV company Dethleffs once again stole the show — last year with its solar panel-wrapped e.Home (see photo below), and this year with its electric-powered e.Home Coco RV trailer (above).

Electric-Powered Camper Trailer

Most small daily vehicles just aren’t meant to tow campers. The future is electric vehicles. And while they can tow, they generally aren’t set up to do so and retain any sort of reasonable range. Dethleffs e.Home Coco might just be the answer to this conundrum.

Getting There

With onboard batteries and two electric hub motors, the e.Home Coco trailer is self-powered. A big benefit is that it greatly reduces the strain on the tow vehicle. This increases the fuel or battery range of the tow vehicle, whether it be powered by dinosaur remains or electricity.

The intelligent control system on the hub motors is impressive. Dethleffs calls it the “strain relief module.” The system can reduce the towing load on the tow hitch down to a defined value. This allows for small and underpowered vehicles to tow trailers far above their stated tow rating.

The intelligent control module in the trailer can also greatly improve trailer-towing safety. It uses torque vectoring to control each wheel’s speed. This is a type of electronic stability control, which most road vehicles have these days.

Regenerative braking and solar panels on the roof of the camper recharge the system’s batteries.

Living There

When you want to get away from it all in your RV, you want to be truly self-sufficient. Relying on shore power or gas generators can greatly reduce your camp options.

The e.Home Coco is fully self-reliant, as its 80kmh battery pack is large enough to keep the camper powered for long periods of time. The large solar panels on the camper’s roof help keep things topped off when you’re off the grid.

Park the Trailer With Your Smartphone!

How cool would it be to park your camper trailer perfectly every time, without ever having to deal with the hassle of backing up a trailer from your vehicle? You can control the e.Home Coco through a smartphone app. The app allows you to remotely drive the trailer at camp. Fitting the trailer into those tight camp spots, or that tiny storage parking spot on the side of your house, is crazy easy!

Living at Home

Batteries and solar panels aren’t all that inexpensive — yet. To help justify this futuristic electronic system upcharge on your next RV trailer purchase, you can use this trailer as a remote power station. Plug it into the grid on your e.Home Coco and use its solar panels for electricity production and battery packs as power storage.

This new RV trailer technology helps you get off the grid in more ways than one!