A number of new companies have emerged in recent years offering new takes on RVs, including Lightship, Pebble and Grounded. Now another startup called Evotrex comes out of the secret with its own twist: a hybrid RV travel trailer with a built-in gas engine.
The new RV will have a built-in battery that will power the living quarters, on-board electronics and an electric motor, but the gas engine will recharge that battery pack and extend its range for much longer than a full charge—potentially making the Evotrex trailer attractive for longer camping trips.
The Evotrex RV will debut at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, but the company revealed some of its plans ahead of that reveal in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Using a gas engine to get more out of a large battery pack has become a hot idea in the automotive world as automakers and customers alike are reluctant to switch to all-electric vehicles. In fact, the CEO of automotive startup Scout Motors recently revealed that 80% of customers who pre-ordered its upcoming vehicles have opted “extended range” hybrid powertrain option over fully electric ones.
Evotrex co-founder Alex Xiao, a former product manager for consumer electronics company Anker, believes the concept will appeal to RV customers and dealers alike.
Xiao told TechCrunch that he and co-founder Stella Qin (another Anker alum) spent seven months researching the RV market before they started building anything. What they found was a customer base that was getting much younger and had a desire to take these types of vehicles further into the world, well beyond the typical campgrounds and RV parks.
These customers “want to bring their gadgets and other gear for skiing, hunting, fishing and other activities and stay in nature for four or five days, which is different,” Xiao said. “It’s off-grid – off-grid living wasn’t previously supported in the life of the RV.”
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RV owners are no strangers to gas generators, but Xiao and Qin believe the way they’ve integrated their engine into their Evotrex trailer offers a number of advantages. They claim it’s quieter and more efficient, and say they even use the excess heat generated to keep the cabin warm.
Xiao said Evotrex aims to ship the first of its RV trailers by the end of 2026, and has so far raised $16 million in seed funding from Anker’s former employer, as well as Chinese early-stage venture capital firms Unity Ventures, Kylinhall Partners and Vision Plus Capital.
Evotrex has about 40 employees so far, Xiao said, with some in China and some at Evotrex’s CTO in the U.S. The former head of automotive research and development at Chinese automaker Geely Group and the startup’s COO (and a third co-founder) held supply chain leadership positions at IBM, Lenovo and Anker.
Xiao said the plan is to do most of the production in China with final assembly in California. Coupled with the fact that much of the RV supply chain remains in China, he said he knows there will be challenges due to the Trump administration’s trade policies.
Solving these problems will not be easy, Xiao said. But building a successful RV company isn’t a scratch either, he added.
“The purpose of this company is to bring the customer these kinds of new experiences,” Xiao said.
