What option would you add?

DrewE wrote:
I would love to see a motorhome with the electrical systems integrated into a hybrid drivetrain. This would mean a large battery bank (probably Li-ion), and power to the wheels at least partially via an electric traction motor of some sort, and a generator/alternator hooked up to the main engine to charge the batteries, etc. It would seem to me that a series hybrid setup might be the simplest, at least in concept, where the wheels are only powered by the electric motors and the engine only drives the generator.

The advantages seem pretty obvious and numerous: braking would be, in large part, regenerative, and this would lead to improved milage in city or mountainous driving. The battery bank could be charged by shore power and/or solar power, as well, providing for the possibility of all-electric travel for short distances if needed—nice even if it's only sufficient to leave the campground quietly in the early morning. You could eliminate the separate generator altogether, and presumably have a large enough battery bank to boondock for a long period of time. With a sufficient battery bank and inverter system, you'd be much less limited in what appliances you could use when connected to a lower capacity shore power source, provided of course your long-term average usage isn't too high.

I am pretty sure I would not be able to afford such a machine, however.

I agree with everything that you say except that we may be closer than you think. The upcoming Tesla battery packs for household energy storage should work great in a RV. I question why my RV has two inverters(one in the Quiet Diesel and one to power the coach when the Quiet Diesel is not running) from the factory instead of one integrated one. I also question why my RV has a smaller alternator than my half-ton pickup. Another good question is why are there two completely different types of AC units running off of two completely different power sources. I think that it would nice to have shore power, engine alternator, solar power and generator power all feeding into one large battery that supplies one inverter to run the coach.

I guess that the answer is that integrated systems are often much more difficult and expensive to install and service than separate modular systems. Probably the only way to make it work is for the chassis builders to build more into what they do.