The Lightship EV trailer: The envy of the campground

The Boston Globe · Christopher Muther · 2026-11-05 10:30 UTC

A new generation of EV trailers promises to make going off-grid easier. They also look really cool.

MIDDLEBOROUGH — Children stopped trick-or-treating to watch. Adults ceased their fireside conversations and s’more snacking to see what the excitement was about. A hyper teen with a Canon DSLR camera pulled up on his bike and asked, “Is that the Lightship? Oh man, can I take some pictures?”

It was as if an unidentified alien object had touched down at the KOA Campground in Middleborough. In some ways, it had. Most people had never seen anything like the Lightship AE.1 RV that rolled through on a recent Saturday night. At any moment, it looked as if mysterious lights would start flashing around it and fog would rise. The Lightship is a sleek, shiny shell with 15 tinted windows. After it was parked, the high-end pop-up trailer increased in height from seven to 10 feet.

I was here to spend the night in the $157,000 solar-and-electric camper, which recently went into production. Lightship founders Ben Parker and Toby Kraus, both of whom once worked at Tesla, hope their company can become the Tesla of RVs (minus the political aftertaste, space missions, and 14 children).

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