[Industry] Please speed up the new energy RV

Since Tesla released its first car product, the Roadster, in 2008, new energy vehicles have quickly entered our lives in just ten years. Nowadays, green license plates on the road are no longer rare, so is the new energy journey of RVs coming soon?

At the Boao Forum for Asia on April 9, 2018, Shen Xiaoming, governor of Hainan Province, stated that Hainan plans to use new energy vehicles on the island by 2030. So far, everyone feels that the era of new energy for all is not far away.

New energy vehicles have unstoppably become the mainstream of future cars, and new energy RVs naturally cannot lag behind. As early as 2017, Dethleffs (Defu RV) launched a new energy concept RV at the Dusseldorf International RV Show in Germany. This car is not only driven by electricity, but also uses electricity as the only energy source for the life on the RV.

Defects of new energy

This new energy RV adopts Iveco NewDaily electric chassis, has a liquid-cooled three-phase AC motor with a power of 80kW, and uses a modern FIAMM sodium chloride battery with a capacity of 3×76Ah and a voltage of 400V. The electric motor mounted on the chassis has a maximum power of 80kW (109 horsepower) and a vehicle speed of 80km/h. The battery pack can be recharged 1,500 times, with a total range of 250,000 kilometers. According to the data provided by Dethleffs, the cruising range of the electric caravan is about 200km, and it can be fully charged to 80% within 2 hours.

Looking at the parameters, it is very exciting. The 91 kWh battery pack and 31 square meters of thin-layer solar panels on the whole body seem to be able to meet all the energy needs of the RV travel life. But in fact, the new energy RV life is not so ideal. Many problems make the new energy RV far away from the real road.

First, energy consumption. RVs consume far more energy than conventional cars. The daily use of the RV involves cooking, heating or cooling, hot water, etc., all of which are large power consumers. The monitoring system and refrigerator in the caravan all use uninterrupted power supply system, while lighting, water pumps, pedals and the like have low power consumption but not low utilization rate. Calculated in this way, the daily electricity consumption is quite a lot. If there is no charging pile, it seems impossible to rely on solar energy alone. Solar power generation is too affected by latitude, season, weather, terrain and other factors, making it difficult to achieve stable power supply.

Second, supporting design. As a travel tool, the 200km battery life of a new energy RV is obviously too short, and it is also limited by the electricity consumption of daily life, making it impossible to drive at the limit distance. So the demand for charging piles for new energy RVs is self-evident. Although all countries, including my country, are now deploying charging equipment in various places, the phenomenon that expressways are hard to find still happens from time to time. And who can guarantee that there will be charging equipment wherever the RV goes?

Again, be safe. This new energy RV uses a huge number of battery packs, solar panels, and the number of lines far exceeds that of RVs of the same level, which is worrying about the safety of use.

Finally, cost. Needless to say, it is an indisputable fact that the manufacturing cost of new energy RVs is high. According to the current experience of new energy vehicles, the subsequent use cost is not cheap, and the cost of maintenance is even more expensive. And the cost of time spent charging and finding charging equipment every day is not low. Although this new energy concept car has many defects, it is undeniable that as a test product of new energy for RVs, it has been successful in both experience accumulation and eye-catching. It is a pity that so many problems cannot be solved by RV manufacturers alone. It seems that it will be difficult to see it in the market this summer.

Urgent need to speed up

Today, countries and regions including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and 18 states in the United States have formed the “Zero Emission Vehicle Alliance”, promising that countries and regions in the alliance will no longer sell fuel vehicles by 2050. In my country, Hainan has become the first region to ban the sale of fuel vehicles. It is foreseeable that it will not be long before restrictions on fuel vehicles across the country, and of course RVs are among them.

Although the Dethleffs new energy concept RV mentioned above is still some distance away from being put into the market, it has already taken the first step of exploration. my country’s new energy RV is still in a blank stage, and there is no data showing that RV manufacturers are conducting research in this area. For the coming new energy era, domestic RVs need to speed up.

Chinese people’s attempt

Although no domestic manufacturer has launched a new energy RV for the time being, many attempts have been made in RV life energy. For example, the “no external power” RV that often appears in RVs now uses a large number of lithium batteries for power storage, solar energy, car generators, etc. for power supply, and finally uses an inverter to convert the stored 12V DC power into 220V AC power supply. RV use, so as to get rid of the RV’s dependence on external electricity. Although there are still many problems in practical application, it can be regarded as a disguised exploration of new energy sources for RVs.

mixed thinking

Compared with the development of new energy vehicles, the new energy of domestic RVs obviously lags behind a lot. Especially in the case that RV life relies heavily on energy, and it is difficult to apply new energy in RVs under the premise of “charging for five minutes and driving 500 kilometers”.

Before there is a major breakthrough in new energy technology, it is advisable to focus on the relatively mature hybrid aspect. A hybrid power system consisting of a battery and an engine is more suitable for the use of modern RVs. The battery and the engine complement each other and are equipped with solar energy and power recovery systems. Not only does the fuel consumption decrease, the battery pack can meet the two needs of low-speed driving and daily electricity consumption, and at the same time avoid the embarrassing situation of looking for charging piles all over the world.

Although new energy vehicles have been popularized on a large scale, there are still many problems based on user feedback, and it is unrealistic to apply them to RVs in a short period of time. The new energy RV is the general trend in the future, which also means that the new energy RV is the inevitable direction of future RV development. In the case that foreign RV companies have already come up with concept cars, we are already far behind. For new energy RVs, we need to speed up.