gglockner
Member
My guess is the price will be at least $150K; maybe much more than that.
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Airstream/Thor introduce the eStream concept
- Thread starter ohmman
- Start date
Ok well then I might pass but I'm getting a bit too old and stiff with my A frame tent and tree roots.
I'd swing 100k given the value with family camping trips but 150k+ just feels different. I'd really have to think about anything that expensive.
In the spirt of ideal speculation
my guess is at least $95K but less than $125K. Given that a new 19 ft Airstream Bambi with no options is $62K, I would think that an 80kWh battery pack and dual electric motors and associated electronics — like in the Dethleffs e Coco trailer — will add at least $40K to the price given the very low production numbers compared to a Tesla Model 3, for example. Airstream will not get any economies of scale on the cost of the components.My biggest concern is not that Airstream can’t produce a compelling and well engineered eStream but that sales numbers will be so low that it might turn out to be unprofitable and be discontinued. I realize that there is a market for $150K+ enormous Class A rigs, but the eStream appears to be 17-18ft; how many RV buyers will be willing to pay a high price for such a relatively small trailer?
RViewpodcast on TikTok
Electric camper, rv. #airstream #rviewpodcast #followformorevideo #rvsupershow #tamparvsupershow #foryou #rvlife #fyp #electricrv
vm.tiktok.com
Thanks for posting that link. The feature of being able to remotely control and move the trailer at a low speed for easy campsite positioning and backing up is an obvious one to include given its electric drivetrain. My Safari Condo Alto trailer can do that but not in such a sophisticated way.RViewpodcast on TikTok
Electric camper, rv. #airstream #rviewpodcast #followformorevideo #rvsupershow #tamparvsupershow #foryou #rvlife #fyp #electricrv
That video also gave me a better feel for the size of the trailer by showing people standing next to it. My guess is about 19-20ft long, which is a nice size. Not too big, so that it will fit in most campsites and 20 ft storage lot spaces, but big enough so that you have at least a queen size bed (maybe king?), full kitchen, full enclosed bath, and a table that can seat four. Though I can’t figure out what existing floor plan the eStream is based on; it appears to be quite different from any of the Bambi or Caravel models.
The more I learn about the eStream the more I like it. Cost be damned!
There is a way to charge your car from the trailer. However, you cannot do it on the road. It does provide a failsafe, though, and could provide some options at remote camps for getting out and back to trailheads. We've been in situations where we had to limit or restrict the driving we did to get to trailheads so that we had enough range at the end of the trip to haul the camper back to a Supercharger. This could potentially alleviate that problem.
So now I’m wondering… could a Model Y safely tow an eStream? Without a weight distribution hitch?
@ohmman already answered you, but I would just add that to the trailer an EV is just another electrical device that can be plugged into the trailer outlets. I can charge my X from my Alto’s two 300Ah batteries at 120V but obviously there is no point in doing so.
Of course the eStream won’t provide DC output as that is not something that RVers need and integrating that capability into the trailer would add cost and weight. Whether the eStream will include a 240V outlet I can’t say, but I seriously doubt it. The Rivian RT1 does but that’s to address their potential market of contractors and construction workers and their power tools.
If the eStream battery can’t be used to charge an EV at over 120V I don’t see that as adversely impacting sales. The point of the large eStream battery pack is to dramatically reduce tow vehicle energy usage and to power all trailer functions (HVAC and cooking) 100% electric year around when off grid; for short periods at least when in a cold climate and potentially indefinitely in a warm and sunny environment.
I note that the eStream does not have a large AC unit mounted on the roof — a welcome absence — so assume it uses an effective and efficient heat pump for heating/cooling. I hope it’s a quiet unit; the heat pump in my Alto trailer is very loud and I rarely use it.And it’s nice to see a trailer without a propane tank.
Very curious to to know how many kW of solar panels are on the eStream roof. There appears to be 4 panels of the same size and one longer and narrower panel at the front. Could be a bit over 1kW in total which would be great.
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They are a little light on specifics. What is the GVWR? What is the tongue weight? I think it would be too heavy for a model y to tow and close to the payload capacity of the Model X
uujjj2
Member
It's Airstream, so it's gonna be $$$$. But this is a great idea. You can pair this with a Cybertruck or a Rivian with the big battery and you start to get a viable long range RV rig.
Yeah, it's still a concept vehicle.
The thought behind whether or not it would be towable with a Model Y has more to do with the electric assist and ability to torque vector. But you're likely right - you cannot necessarily rely on the battery in the trailer at all times, so the technical assist may not do away with the physical "dead battery" metrics.
I think other innovative RV makers will jump on this concept and do it way better than Airstream which I agree is over priced and over weight. I’m a big small trailer fan and model S owner and would love to be able to tow with it. I’d even trade up to a model X if needed to make it work. Seems to me like the basic technology is already available including motion sensitive controller (Think Curt Echo wireless brake controller).
Don’t forget all the solar panels on the roof plus a hefty amount of regeneration will be pumping a lot of juice back into the batteries on the fly.
Model Y probably doesn’t have enough body strength for it. My guess is that you’d need a model X which is already built for it and proven by lots of owners who have already towed for thousands of collective miles.
I would not use the phrase “a lot”.
Let’s assume the eStream solar panels total about 1kW max output under ideal conditions (my rough estimate based on eyeballing the trailer roof size and the panel coverage). Except conditions will never be anywhere near ideal because the panels are mounted flat so the sun angle will always be far from optimal, plus all the other caveats; clouds, rain, time of year, etc. As for regen, most of the time when towing you are at a steady speed, so zero regen going into the trailer battery.
If the panels produce on average 500W for the 6-9 hours a day when the sun is high enough to be useful, that’s 3-4.5kWh. The trailer battery pack could be 60-80kWh of storage.
The solar panels will be very useful to compensate for trailer battery power draws while camping and using a heat pump for HVAC, induction cooktop operation, lighting, etc. They will not be useful for recharging the trailer battery when it is depleted after a day of towing.
I’ve been towing my Alto for 4 years now with about 1kW of solar panels on the roof and about 1kWh of LiFePO battery storage, so I have some experience with real world situations. Panels rarely produce their rated output for the reasons listed above.
We sold the nice trailer we had last June. We realized that every place ( non boondock ) we wanted to go to was booked until the winter then closed.
I told a friend that we sold it because if we had been lucky enough to get a space..it would be like staying in a Walmart or Costco parking lot.
It was a happy day when we sold it..only $12 less than we paid for it 2 years prior.
I told a friend that we sold it because if we had been lucky enough to get a space..it would be like staying in a Walmart or Costco parking lot.
It was a happy day when we sold it..only $12 less than we paid for it 2 years prior.
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