Greg Hoffman
If you’ve been towing with an EV truck or seriously eyeing one, you’ve probably already done the math on range and come up with an uncomfortable answer. Towing eats EV range fast, hookup sites are getting harder to book, and the solar-plus-battery trailers already on the market tend to run out of steam after a day or two of real use. That’s the gap a California startup called Evotrex is betting $46 million on closing, and with Q4 2026 production now imminent for their PG5 trailer, this one is worth paying attention to before the first rigs start rolling off the line.
Evotrex isn’t a vaporware promise anymore. The company debuted the PG5 at CES in January 2026, pulled in a $30 million Series A in June 2026 (bringing total funding to $46 million), and has been building toward a production start later this year, with customer shipments expected in early 2027. They’ve got a real order book. They’ve got an automotive-standard testing and validation schedule kicking off in Q4. And roughly 90% of the people who’ve put down deposits are ordering the fully loaded Premium trim at $159,990, which tells you something about who’s buying and how seriously they’re taking it.
Here’s what I tell people when they ask if this is just another startup that’ll fold before delivery: the funding structure matters. A $30 million Series A specifically earmarked for final testing and production, not for more concept development, is a different kind of commitment. That doesn’t mean everything goes smoothly, but it means they’re past the sketch-on-a-napkin stage.
- Evotrex PG5 targets Q4 2026 production start, with U.S. deliveries beginning early 2027.
- Total funding reached $46 million after a $30 million Series A closed June 2026.
- ~43 kWh LFP battery plus onboard generator enables claimed 7+ days off-grid with HVAC.
- Bidirectional RangeBoost (V2V) can recharge a compatible EV tow vehicle while driving.
- Premium trim at $159,990 represents ~90% of current order book.
What’s Actually Inside This Thing
The PG5’s power architecture is the core story. Most solar trailers on the market right now pair a modest battery pack with roof panels and call it “off-grid capable,” which in practice means you’re rationing power by day two if you’re running air conditioning in August. Evotrex built the PG5 around a roughly 43 kWh LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery, about 1.5 kW of roof solar, and an onboard fuel-fed generator they call Horizon.
LFP chemistry is the right call here. It handles deep cycles better than NMC, tolerates heat more gracefully, and doesn’t carry the same thermal runaway risk. For a trailer that’s supposed to sit in the sun and power a family for a week, that matters more than raw energy density.
The Horizon generator is the part that lets Evotrex make the 7-plus-days-off-grid claim without asterisks. Solar alone, even at 1.5 kW, can’t carry you through cloudy stretches or heavy HVAC loads consistently. Having a fuel-fed backup that charges the battery rather than running appliances directly is a smarter architecture than a lot of the generator-tacked-on-as-an-afterthought setups I’ve seen. You’re managing one battery system, not juggling two power sources.
The RangeBoost Feature Is the Headline for EV Towers
You might be wondering whether the PG5 is really an EV product or just a well-powered conventional trailer. The answer is: both, but the RangeBoost feature is specifically designed for EV tow vehicles.
RangeBoost is Evotrex’s name for the bidirectional V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) charging capability. While you’re driving, the PG5 can push power back into a compatible EV tow vehicle’s battery. That’s a direct response to one of the biggest complaints in the EV towing world right now: pulling a trailer can cut your truck’s range by 40 to 50 percent, and fast chargers aren’t always where you need them to be on a road trip route.
I’ll be honest, V2V charging is still a relatively young technology in the RV space and real-world efficiency numbers from actual customers won’t exist until 2027 at the earliest. But the concept is sound, and if Evotrex executes it well, it changes the math on EV towing meaningfully. The trailer becomes part of your range solution instead of the reason you ran out of miles.
Who’s the Market, and Does the Price Make Sense
$159,990 is a lot of money. Let’s not pretend otherwise. But let’s also look at what it’s competing against.
| Trailer Category | Typical Price Range | Battery Capacity | Generator Included | V2V Charging |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard travel trailer (well-equipped) | $40,000–$80,000 | None standard | No | No |
| Solar-focused off-grid trailer (e.g., Airstream, EcoFlow-partnered) | $90,000–$130,000 | 5–10 kWh typical | Rarely | No |
| Evotrex PG5 Premium | $159,990 | ~43 kWh LFP | Yes (Horizon) | Yes (RangeBoost) |
If you’re already operating an EV truck that cost $80,000 to $100,000 and you’re serious about long-term boondocking, the gap between the PG5 and a solar-focused competitor starts to look more manageable. You’re paying for the battery capacity, the generator integration, and the V2V capability in one package instead of retrofitting pieces.
The campsite hookup scarcity angle is real, by the way. Evotrex’s own data says fewer than 25% of U.S. campsites offer electric hookups, and anyone who’s tried to book an electric site at a popular state park in summer 2026 knows those numbers aren’t exaggerated. The boondocking market isn’t a niche anymore.
What to Watch Before You Commit
The Q3 2026 customer configurator and co-creation workshop Evotrex has planned is a good sign. It means they’re engaging buyers before final production decisions are locked, not shipping surprises. But automotive-standard validation testing is also just starting in Q4 2026, concurrent with production ramp-up. That’s a tight timeline.
Here’s what I tell people who are considering a deposit right now: watch the Q4 testing announcements closely. If validation surfaces issues, a startup’s response to that, whether they delay, communicate clearly, and fix things properly, will tell you more about whether to trust them with $160,000 than any press release will. The RV industry has a long history of units shipping with problems that early buyers end up sorting out on behalf of later customers.
The PG5 is genuinely exciting. The funding is real, the architecture makes sense, and the timing matches a real gap in the market. I’ll be watching the first customer deliveries in early 2027 with a lot of interest. If it delivers on even 80% of what’s claimed, it’ll reset expectations for what a self-powered trailer can do.
Sources
- Evotrex Raises $30 Million Series A (June 9, 2026)
- Evotrex Raises $30 Million for Electric RV Trailer , The EV Report (June 10, 2026)
- Evotrex PG5 Preorder Page , Evotrex.com (Ongoing, 2026)
- Evotrex Debuts Power-Generating RV Trailer at CES 2026 , RV PRO (January 7, 2026)
- Top 10 RV News Stories July 2026 , Go RV Rentals (July 6, 2026)
Photo: Yakup Polat via Pexels
