Colorado EV Trailer Maker Quintuples Production Capacity

Lightship is tearing down walls at its Broomfield factory, and what's behind them could change how America road trips.

The electric RV startup is more than doubling its manufacturing space from 32,000 to 76,000 square feet. That expansion will let them jump from building 80 trailers this year to 500 annually by mid-summer.

"You can probably sense the energy in the room right now," said co-founder Ben Parker during a recent factory tour, as workers assembled sleek travel trailers at various stations. The company just raised $26.6 million and plans to grow beyond its current workforce of 100.

What makes Lightship different isn't just that their trailers run on batteries. It's where those batteries come from: roughly 80% of parts are made right here in the U.S.

CEO Toby Kraus and Parker both came from Tesla before launching Lightship in 2020. They deliberately built their supply chain domestically to avoid global trade uncertainties and because their customers care about buying American.

The trailers themselves look like something from the future. The AE.1 model features a sleek design with a canopy that lowers for highway driving and raises at campsites to sleep five people. Panoramic tinted windows come with blackout curtains for privacy.

But the real innovation sits on the rear axle. Lightship's TrekDrive system uses a 77-kilowatt-hour battery and electric motor to propel the trailer forward, making it feel almost weightless to the towing vehicle. Solar panels on top add another 1.8 kilowatt hours of power.

"This is probably the most important piece of technology that we've developed," Kraus said. Traditional trailers slash fuel economy and electric vehicle range, but TrekDrive reduces that impact to just 3%.

The timing might seem tricky with federal EV incentives rolling back. But Lightship is betting on the 16.9 million American households who say they want to buy an RV in the next five years.

Why This Inspires

Lightship shows that American manufacturing can compete in cutting-edge technology without compromising on innovation. By hand-building trailers domestically, they can incorporate customer feedback quickly and improve products faster than global competitors. They're also making electric adventure accessible to the 8.1 million households that already own RVs and want cleaner options.

The trailers start at $157,500, which Kraus admits is expensive. But he's thinking long-term: more production capacity means future generations of the vehicle will cost less.

For now, Lightship is focused on proving that exploring America by RV doesn't have to mean choosing between adventure and sustainability.