Hybrid RV with a solar roof can power your home in an emergency

Electrification is moving through different parts of the automotive industry at different speeds. And soon, it will be time for the recreational vehicle segment to start adding batteries and electric motors. Today, Thor Industries revealed a new hybrid class A motorhome that demos a new hybrid electric powertrain from Harbinger.

“Electrification will play a central role in the future of mobility, including RVing,” said Thor Industries President and CEO Bob Martin. “This first-of-its-kind hybrid platform and our ongoing collaboration with Harbinger are reinforcing Thor’s leadership in this segment and creating major points of product differentiation for our family of companies.”

Thor and Harbinger have been working together for a while now—in March Thor took delivery of a medium-duty EV chassis from Harbinger. But the battery EV RV will only have a range of about 250 miles on a single charge. By comparison, the two companies say that the hybrid RV should have a range of twice that—500 miles—courtesy of a 140 kWh lithium-ion traction battery and a gasoline-powered range extender.

Like Harbinger’s other EV powertrains, this one runs at 800 V, which means, among other things, it should benefit from relatively rapid DC fast charging. The powertrain also features a vehicle-to-load function, so it can power your house as a battery, and there are even solar panels on the roof that can top up the pack during the hours of daylight. (Unlike a passenger car, a Class A motorhome has enough roof area to make the idea worthwhile.)

The electric motors provide as much as double the amount of torque of a comparable diesel RV powertrain, and the RV also features Harbinger’s suite of advanced driver assistance systems.

The Class A RV you see in the images is a test vehicle, but Thor is about to start gathering feedback from dealers, with a plan to bring the first hybrid RVs to market in 2025.