Interesting article: Tesla Semi Electric Motorhome.

way2roll,

I agree with you.

Plus, we tend to keep our vehicles for A LONG TIME. Our 2004 chassis motorhome is our NEWEST vehicle, followed by my 2003 Suzuki and our 2001 Honda. I expect another 5-10 years out of all of those vehicles. The average lifespan for vehicles, I believe is somewhere around 17 years. We obviously keep ours much longer. Part of my contribution to help out the planet is by keeping them out of the landfill. (Ditto all of our major appliances.)

These "high-tech" EVs (and even the high-tech ICE vehicles) have so much technology on them, I suspect some of their parts base will be categorized as obsolete in 5-10 years.

So, if the battery pack on an EV needs to be replaced in 10 years, let alone 20, what guarantee does one have that A.) a battery pack will still be available and B.) charging stations will be available a decade or two in the future to charge a "legacy" EV vehicle.

How many more iterations of charging station technology will there be in the next decade? The current stations will be mostly replaced with the newer technology.

I suspect EVERYONE who had anything to do with writing that article about the EV-RV has NEVER owned a motorhome, or possibly ever even gone camping. You'd think the least they could do is make the numbers applicable to a typical RV application. Of course, then things just don't look so attractive!

Maybe, MAYBE, in the years 2030-2040, we might see such vehicles. I'm not even sure they'll be self-driving by then, but I'm certainly NOT going to get excited anytime soon about EVs. In my opinion, I think when all is said and done with EV ownership, most will find they were not such a bargain. Maybe if you're the type that leases a new vehicle every 3 years regardless, it'll be an option, and you'll "feel better" about yourself thinking that "you saved the planet" (cough cough) :) . But for those of us who value our hard-earned money and ALSO care about the planet, you can't beat the savings of long-term ownership. And long-term ownership requires confidence in a parts base being available. I don't think EVs can offer that because the technology is changing too rapidly.

~Rick

I can't get on the electric vehicle bandwagon. In the little research I've done they aren't really as eco friendly as they would have you think. To manufacture - especially the batteries - the waste and materials used to make them are pretty caustic and not eco friendly at all. And electricity still has to be produced to charge the car. You've only shifted where the pollution and emissions comes from.

HadEnough wrote:
All absolutely useless as an RV. Just as every electric only vehicle is.

They are banning internal combustion engines all over Europe and are starting to do the same here.

Where does that leave us?

Might he time to start fighting for our rights. RVs should be exempt.

Tent camping in your back yard.....lol

"The company also argues that with a price of $180,000 for the 500-mile version of the Tesla Semi, it’s actually not expensive for a large luxury motorhome." LARGE LUXURY motorhome? I must have been looking at the wrong article. That thing is uglier than a plumber's crack on a Sunday morning. For a single guy on a weekend trip maybe but not for me and the missus. Imagine the electrical spikes with a few of those plugged into the grid in many of the RV parks??? Someone's gotta pay as we continue to fight for the fake climate change. Buy one of those puppies and the campgrounds will charge you extra for electricity as they should. There goes your $100,000/yr savings. (Who comes up with these numbers? Musk? We already knows he lies through his teeth) I'll keep my fuel guzzling, pollution belching diesel, thank you.....Dennis

Ivylog wrote:
Like most of the article...savings of $100,000/year :S Even at my gas guzzling 7 MPG ($0.50/mile) that’s 200,000 miles a year or 555 miles/day. Appears to be 6.5’ by maybe 20’...130 sq ft. Good luck getting my wife or me into something that small.

In Europe where the distances are much less (doubt the 500 mile range) and they are used to MHs that small...maybe but their CGs do not have the amps needed to recharge very many rigs. Add in their much higher electric rates???? Were do people think the power is coming from to recharge at night... solar???? 3% of the worlds energy comes from solar and wind. :S

There is a plus side to recharging at night as it’s hard to throttle down a power plant and why in many places electricity is cheaper after midnight.

Ya, I think they are using the OTR trucks for their numbers savings. The average RV’er only drives about 5-15k miles a year. So electric will make no practical sense for those of us that travel only for vacations and weekends.

Is this April 1st? Gotta be an April Fools joke.

$100,000/year fuel savings, yeah right. We haven't spent $100,000 in fuel in the last decade, probably a lot longer.

Only thing holding back electric vehicles is battery power. Electric motors certainly have the motive power. After all locomotives use electric motors to tow mile long trains. BUT, they have diesel powered generators for electric power. Whenever battery technology reaches a significant new level electric vehicles will take off.

If we want to cut emissions, save resources and "save the planet" what the heck would any of us be doing in an RV. Why in the world would they build an ev that can go 150 mph and do zero to sixty in four seconds. Stop and think about it.

Ivylog wrote:
Like most of the article...savings of $100,000/year :S Even at my gas guzzling 7 MPG ($0.50/mile) that’s 200,000 miles a year or 555 miles/day. Appears to be 6.5’ by maybe 20’...130 sq ft. Good luck getting my wife or me into something that small.

It does kinda look like a jumbo sized class B Van doesn’t it. A full wall slide would help. Just a concept drawing though. Still kinda cool.