How 2 Tesla alums are rethinking the way you camp with an electric RV

The journey to build an all-electric RV began with two Tesla engineers waiting for a food truck outside Palo Alto headquarters. Backed by a $34M Series B from TechNexus and THOR Industries, Lightship is now betting on an electric future for the $28B recreational vehicle industry.

Backed by a recent $34 million Series B fundraise that included investment from TechNexus in partnership with RV manufacturer THOR Industries, Lightship is betting on an electric future for the RV industry. Credit: Lightship The journey to build an all-electric RV began with waiting for a food truck. Outside of Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, a rotating collection of food trucks would line up at lunch time, each one loudly spewing exhaust into the next. For Tesla employee Ben Parker, he knew a solution to this problem sat just a few feet away inside Tesla’s offices, and he set out on a mission to electrify food trucks in the Bay Area. As that business plan evolved, Parker discovered the RV industry suffered from many of the same issues faced by food trucks. And after spending the Covid summer of 2020 traveling on an RV through the American west, Parker turned his attention to electrifying the RV industry. He was introduced to his co-founder Toby Kraus, another Tesla vet, and the two began the process of building the first American-made, all-electric RV. That audacious goal spawned their startup Lightship , which is designing and producing aerodynamic, battery-powered trailers. The company’s flagship RV, called L1, will begin production at its new facility in Broomfield, Colorado later this year. The L1 aims to reimagine the look and function of an RV to change the camping experience. Featuring an aerodynamic design and an electric powertrain that allows the RV to propel itself while you drive, the L1 allows for near-zero range or efficiency loss for the towing vehicle, the company says. Credit: Lightship Backed by a $34 million Series B fundraise earlier this year that included investment from TechNexus in partnership with leading RV manufacturer THOR Industries, Lightship is betting on an electric future for the RV industry. “If we do this right … we will set the standard for many trailers to be built like this in the future,” Parker said. “You can’t

By Jim Dallke at TechNexus Venture Collaborative