Pebble Flow EV Travel Trailer: Glamping Goes Electric
One of great joys of camping is the silence. There’s nothing worse than going out into the wilderness, far from society, and then hearing someone at a campsite turn on a loud, smelly gas generator.
Pebble, a California-based company that’s building a new travel trailer, hopes that an electric RV is just the thing to bring some quiet to the glamping life.
The Pebble Flow is a travel trailer with a big old battery in the floor. It can include lighting, showers, heating and air conditioning, and anything else you might want to use energy for in the forest. The battery also powers the tow assist function, so the Flow can give itself an extra boost when you’re towing it down the road, easing the burden on the vehicle you’re using to tow the camper.
Pebble first announced the Flow in 2023, but until today hasn’t revealed the full range of features it plans to pack into the camper. In an announcement scheduled for CES week, Pebble says it will assemble and ship its first campers in the first half of 2025. They’re available for pre-order now, starting at $109,000 but going up to $135,500 if you want to be able to control its features with an accompanying mobile app.
In the stream
The Flow has the same aesthetic as many current models electric carswith large windows and soft, curved elements that aim to make it more aerodynamic. It looks like a futuristic luxury spaceship or a really big fancy toaster, depending on how romantic you want to be with it. CEO Bingrui Yang is very romantic about it: He chose the name Pebble for the company because naturally occurring smooth stones tend to bring people joy, and he wants the electrified camper to promote the same sense of calm.
I had the chance to wander into the cramped space of a Pebble Flow demo unit at Pebble headquarters in Fremont, California. Holds pretty much anything you’d want if you’re caravanning outside. Inside there is a kitchen with induction stove, convection oven, sink, microwave and refrigerator. The wardrobes have plenty of storage and there are hidden hatches in the floor for more storage. Most of the windows open if you need to let in the breeze. In the back there is a double Murphy bed that retracts into the wall to free up space. The dining table can be disassembled into a second bed at the other end of the trailer. A bath and shower are located right in the middle of the floor plan. A glass wall separates it from the rest of the interior, but the person in the bathroom can press a button to freeze the glass electronically if they need a private poo.
To the seasoned RV enthusiast, this probably all seems like standard fare for a trailer that costs over a hundred grand. Well, you’re right, but what Pebble is hoping is that its EV-like additions make the Flow special.
The Flow is powered by a 45-kWh lithium-ion battery built into the camper’s floor. That’s slightly smaller than the batteries built into compact electric cars currently on the market, and about half the size of the largest electric car batteries in the automotive industry. Pebble says the battery can power internal systems for up to seven days on a full charge. A set of 1kW solar panels built into the roof can power the battery part of the way while you’re on the road, and regenerative charging kicks in when towing. There’s also vehicle charging technology, so you can connect to the Flow to use it as a backup power source or EV charger.
The Pebble Flow is not really an E-RV in the sense that it can function independently as a vehicle. You’ll need another platform to haul it anywhere. Pebble says that while towing a hybrid or gas vehicle will likely get you farther, you can tow it with another EV. The 25-foot trailer weighs 6,200 pounds loaded with all the options, so it will take some muscle to move it. Pebble’s website does show the Flow powered by a Cybertruck. (While I was at the company’s headquarters, I spotted a matte black Cybertruck in the parking lot. It belongs to Pebble’s CTO, who talked about it a lot while I was there.)
The electric tow assist feature can be engaged when the Flow is in motion. While the motors provide decent thrust behind a real vehicle, they’re powerful enough to spin the Flow around a bit using a smartphone app, even though it’s only going about 1 mph. That’s enough to spin it in a very slow circle, but not enough to take you down the block. What this allows you to do is maneuver the trailer into a campsite without having to push and drag it with your car. Just undock the Flow, grab your iPad, and steer it like a giant, slow-motion RC car to the perfect spot. Turning on the tow assist mode or driving it around the campsite will definitely reduce the battery life of the trailer for actual camping activities as you can imagine.
Pebble has a feature it calls Magic Hitch (not really magic) that lets you use the app to hook the Flow to your tow vehicle’s trailer hitch. Just point it with the on-screen controls, and when the Flow is close enough, hold down a button and the tow truck will use its attached camera to find the right spot to hook. Another feature called InstaCamp allows you to park the trailer on an uneven surface and then press a button to automatically level the camper.
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