In recent years, a number of companies have emerged with new perspectives on RVs, including Lightship, Pebble, and Grounded. Now, another startup called Evotrex is coming out of stealth with a unique twist. It is a hybrid RV travel trailer with an integrated gas engine.
New RVs will have on-board battery packs that power living quarters, on-board electronics, and electric motors, but the gas engine can recharge that battery pack and extend the range far beyond a full charge, potentially making Evotrex trailers attractive for long camping trips.
Evotrex RV is set to debut at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, but the company detailed some of its plans ahead of its announcement in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch.
Using gas engines to get the most out of big battery packs has become a trending idea in the auto industry as automakers and customers hesitate to move to fully electric vehicles. In fact, the CEO of startup automaker Scout Motors recently revealed that 80% of customers who pre-ordered the company’s upcoming vehicles chose the hybrid “extended range” powertrain option instead of all-electric.
Alex Xiao, co-founder of Evotrex and former product manager at consumer electronics company Anker, believes the idea will appeal to both RV customers and dealers.
Xiao told TechCrunch that he and co-founder Stella Qin (also an Anker alumnus) spent seven months researching the RV market before starting to build anything. What they discovered was that their customer base was much younger and had a desire to take these types of vehicles further into the world, far beyond the typical plug-and-stay campground or RV park.
These customers “want to bring their gadgets and other equipment and stay in nature for four or five days for skiing, hunting, fishing, and other activities, and that’s different,” Hsiao said. “They’re off-grid. RV living has never supported off-grid living.”
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Although RV owners aren’t all that familiar with gas generators, Xiao and Qin believe that integrating an engine into an Evotrex trailer brings many benefits. They claim it’s quieter and more efficient, and also say the excess heat generated is used to keep the cabin warm.
Evotrex plans to ship its first RV trailer by the end of 2026, Xiao said, and has raised $16 million in seed funding so far from Xiao’s former employer Anchor, as well as early-stage Chinese venture firms Unity Ventures, Kirinhall Partners and Vision Plus Capital.
Evotrex currently has about 40 employees, some in China and some in the United States, Xiao said. Evotrex’s CTO previously led automotive research and development at Chinese automaker Geely Group, and the startup’s COO (and third co-founder) has held supply chain leadership positions at IBM, Lenovo, and Anchor.
Xiao said he plans to do most of the production in China, with final assembly in California. He said he understands the Trump administration’s trade policies pose challenges, along with the fact that much of the recreational vehicle supply chain remains in China.
Solving these problems is not easy, Xiao said. But neither can build a successful RV company from scratch, he added.
“The purpose of this company is to provide those new experiences to our customers,” Xiao said.
