Evotrex raises $30 million to build an RV that doesn’t need a charging station

Evotrex has only been around for two years, but the startup is already planning to build and sell its first hybrid RV travel trailers next year, targeting about 1,000 units annually.

To get there, Evotrex closed a $30 million Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to $46 million. Much of this came from a consortium of Chinese and Hong Kong investment firms, such as GSR United Capital, Forbright Concerto Capital, TTGG Ventures, and Pegasus Capital, among others. Anker, the consumer electronics company, is among its primary investors.

The Los Angeles-based startup will need to finalize the capital to build and test the RV, which it unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show after Coming out of stealth mode last year.

It will also need to maintain its position in a crowded field of startups. Older manufacturers have been slow to move forward. Thor’s first electric car will go to… Rental fleets Instead of dealerships, an eRV2 from Winnebago was used Field test Since 2023 without reaching consumers. This gap has attracted a wave of startups, and Evotrex is racing to fill it first.

Co-founder Alex Xiao told TechCrunch that he’s excited about the competition, and is relying on his experience as a product manager at Anker to help differentiate Evotrex.

“We are not afraid of competition, competition is good. We educate the market together, we grow the market together,” he said. “I think in the long run, the strongest companies are going to have many things — you have to be very good at product definition, R&D, supply chain. You also have to be very good at distribution (and) service. Many things together. It’s a very complex business.”

Some RV startups like Lightship and Pebble are pushing all-electric travel trailers. Evotrex is one of the few companies building a hybrid system. Specifically, it’s an RV powered by a battery pack that can be recharged by an on-board gas engine — an approach commonly referred to as an “extended range electric vehicle” or EREV.

The goal, Xiao said, is to create an RV that can truly allow people to live off the grid for long periods of time — something that’s difficult to achieve with an all-electric power source, or a gas engine that still requires an electrical connection.

This seems to have proven popular. Evotrex said 90% of its current order book is for the “fully loaded premium version” of its PG5 RV, which is priced at about $160,000.

Evotrex has finished validating a functional version of its first RV, but needs the next 10 to 12 months to thoroughly test the durability of PG5, Xiao said. It is a well-known security vulnerability in the industry. RVs have a lot of moving parts, so mechanical safety isn’t always a guarantee, and Xiao said Evotrex takes that seriously. As evidence of this, he pointed to the fact that the company’s first service employee joined the company half a year ago, while its first sales employee joined just last month, suggesting that Evotrex prioritizes its ability to support customers over the ability to sell to them.

Evotrex still plans to manufacture its recreational vehicles in China and complete final assembly in California, and Xiao said he is still securing locations for both. But he believes the Los Angeles base will give Evotrix access to its target market, as well as a range of nearby climates useful for testing.

Xiao said he’s relying on another lesson from Anker, one that helped that company become popular: focusing on the right customers, and getting them to promote the product.

“The first thing is you need to find the real customer demand,” he said. “The second is that you need to offer a really good product, and the third is: The customer is going to tell the story for you.”