What started as a pet project to electrify food trucks in the San Francisco Bay area – an enterprise inspired by the cacophony of generators that greeted Ben Parker every day during his lunch break at Tesla – has evolved into a much larger, complex and potentially more lucrative undertaking.
Parker and partner Toby Kraus have set their sights well beyond food trucks and are aiming instead to build an all-electric RV company that will upend the industry.
“Every time that I would tell people about the food truck project, RVs would come up in conversation because these (vehicles) have similar needs for onboard power,” said Parker, a Tesla veteran who worked on the battery for the Model 3.
He soon discovered that the RV market, and specifically the towable travel trailer sector, was much larger than he realized. It was also badly in need of a switch to electric. A three-month, 6,000-mile RV road trip designed to give Parker firsthand experience as well as an understanding of the customer and market provided the final proof points.
Lightship Energy, the startup the pair co-founded in May 2021, was soon charging forward with a high-flying goal.
Click here to read the full story from Kirsten Korosec at Yahoo Finance.
