All-electric travel trailers are rolling off the manufacturing floor at Lightship’s Broomfield, Colorado, facility.
The company is delivering trailers to customers by the end of summer. Lightship co-founder and CEO Toby Kraus said he is thrilled to begin fulfillment.
“We are about four years into this,” he said. “The first couple of years, we were spending a lot of time building a team and getting to know our customer. That all resolved into a concept vehicle that we call the ‘Alpha.’ That is what we really used to launch the company at South by Southwest two years ago. We collected a ton of pre-orders, which capitalized the business to go out and develop the real product.”
The AE.1 Cosmos Edition, also known as the Founder’s Edition, and two subsequent trim options, the AE.1 Atmos and the AE.1 Panos, are available. The company plans to make 50 Cosmos trailers, all of which have been pre-sold, and deliver them in 2025.
Lightship is taking orders for the Atmos and Panos, with deliveries expected in 2026.
The trailer’s aero-electric design offers a combination of aerodynamics and battery technology. Powered by Lightship’s TrekDrive system, a propulsion technology that can Lightship said can double a tow vehicle’s range, the technology features a drive unit on the rear axle that “pushes itself” as it is being towed.
“That is probably the most important feature our customers are excited about,” Kraus said. “If you are using an electric vehicle, there is near zero-range loss for towing vehicles, delivering up to 300 miles of extended range.”
Kraus said traditional tow vehicles will notice improved fuel efficiency over towing a standard travel trailer.
“We do not care what you tow it with,” Kraus said. “With the Cosmos, it is exactly 50-50 in terms of which type of vehicle the customers plan to use. For the people with electric vehicles, this is sort of key to unlock their vehicles’ full range.”
The trailers stand 10 feet tall but lower to a 7 foot height for towing. The trailers measure just under 27 feet and weigh from 7,700 pounds to 8,200 pounds depending on the model.
The AE.1 Atmos features 1,800 watts of integrated solar roof panels and a 77,000-watt-hour battery system. The AE.1 Panos features 840 watts of integrated solar roof panels with a 44,000-watt-hour battery system. Both have optional motorized awnings and a drop-down third bed.
“The feeling you get when you walk in is that it is just wide open,” he said. “There is lots of glass, lots of windows. The goal was to make it a really delightful place that you would want to spend a lot of time in.”
Lightship has two showrooms. One is at the manufacturing facility in Colorado, while the second is in South San Francisco, California.
