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RV review: Lightship L1 promises greater efficiencies, off-grid leadership

Tony Barthel

Today’s RV review is of the prototype Lightship L1 trailer. This prototype was being shown around the South By Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin, Texas and promises a better towing and camping experience by being very aerodynamic and having tremendous battery and solar functionality.

Oh, and it may be able to drive itself. Sort of.

I have often written that the towable RVs are troublesome for fuel economy because RV makers create giant boxes that are about as slippery in the air as your average barn. Compounding the poor aerodynamics inherent in the shape of RVs is all the things RV makers plop up on the roof of the things.

Air conditioners, antennae, vent scoops and other boxes on the roof further make RVs a challenge to tow. There have been a number of prototypes that are beginning to address this including this collaboration between Airstream and Porsche.

In fact the Lightship idea does have some things in common with that RV. Who is Lightship?

Lightship

Lightship is a startup company that is co-founded by Ben Parker and Toby Kraus. Parker is described as a gearhead and EV geek with a passion for sustainable travel.

His co-founder, Toby Kraus, shares the experience of having worked at Tesla and was working on electrifying larger vehicles like trucks and buses.

The two would go outside for lunch and be displeased with the stench and noise of the generators on the food trucks that are so popular in San Francisco so they initially wanted to create an all-electric food truck.

Then people asked them about RVs and, ultimately that’s where they chose to focus.

Lightship L1

Essentially the Lightship is sort of the cross between a TrailManor and the Airstream-Porsche concept with a hint of Lippert Edison mixed in for good measure.

Like the TrailManor this trailer essentially lifts and lowers an upper section for travel. When in travel mode, the upper section is lowered to improve aerodynamics.

In fact the company press materials claim is that this shape is three times more aerodynamic than a traditional travel trailer. In that release, they claim that a 300-mile range electric vehicle (EV) used to tow it remains a 300-mile range EV, and a 25-mpg gas truck remains a 25-mpg gas truck.

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But there’s more.

There are two versions announced of the Lightship including one with an electric powertrain with up to 80 kWh of onboard battery capacity allowing the trailer to propel itself and achieve near-zero range or efficiency loss for the tow vehicle.

“The Lightship L1 Long Range has 80kWh of battery and an electric drive motor, and the L1 Essential has 40kWh of battery and no motor. Full specifications and certification information will be provided as we get closer to starting production,” in a statement  from Toby Kraus, Lightship’s president and co-founder.

Boondocking

Their battery system is said to be able to provide a week of off-grid power without charging. Coupled with up to 3 kW of solar power, the RV can power the living needs of its occupants and eliminates the reliance on propane and other fossil fuels.

Appliances would all be electric and, coming out of the tech industry, also be fully connected.

“Hey, Siri, make the fridge cold.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who Marge Cold is.”

Well that’s not StressLess Camping.

But there is also a monster solar package available with up to 3,000 watts of solar. The way this is accomplished is by having a fully solar roof (remember no AC units, no fan shrouds, none of that on the roof).

My own RV has 1,000 watts of solar on the roof and, even on a cloudy day, we still can often completely fill the 400 amp-hours of battery on board.

With 40kWh of battery on board, which is ten times as much as what’s on my RV, you should be just fine indefinitely with that much solar.

In fact, there is no information provided on holding tanks but, like in my own travel trailer, it’s holding tanks that are the hold up. So to speak.

I did write to Lightship and here’s how they responded, “We're not sharing exact water tank capacities yet but can say that they will be sized to work well with the off-grid potential of our solar + battery power system, which will keep Lightship L1 users off of the plug for up to a week at a time.”

Okay. As mentioned that’s about what I can do with our own rig with a 54 gallon fresh tank and 30 gallons each for gray and black. In fact the gray is the biggest challenge so if Lightspeed wants to take a page from RKS Purpose, they could use the gray water to flush the toilet which I still think is a brilliant move.

We can stay out essentially indefinitely on even moderately sunny days, but we fill our 30 gallon gray water holding tank within about 4-5 days with just two people camping.

Likewise, we’ll blow through the 55 gallon fresh water tank on our RV in about that same amount of time.

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Want one?

I like this innovation in the RV space. You can figure one of these about the same price as an Airstream so they ain’t cheap. But there are some interesting ideas here. We shall see what they’re like as production looms and I would love to stay in the loop on these things.

  • The Lightship L1 has a starting price of $125,000 or $118,400 after an available tax credit and is available now for a $500 reservation at www.lightshiprv.com. Production is expected to begin in late 2024.

Additional specifications include:

  • Length: 27 ft

  • Width: 8 ft 6 in

  • Height: 6 ft 9 in (road mode); 10 ft (camp mode)

  • Gross Vehicle Weight: 7,500 lbs. (fully loaded)

  • Sleeping capacity: 4-6 depending on configuration

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