Towing a trailer has a way of slashing with any car's range — hauling a multi-ton object as streamlined as a brick will do that — but it's especially tricky for electric vehicles. EVs are more dependent on aerodynamics to maximize their range at highway speeds, but trailers play havoc with those carefully strategized wind-swept lines. Add in the extra mass being hauled about, and EVs that normally claim 200–300 miles of range on a charge can see that slashed in half — or worse. Clearly, the camping trailers of tomorrow will need to adapt to this new world if they want to survive.
The new Pebble Flow camping trailer, however, is already there. It's the brainchild of CEO Bingrui Yang, who spent nearly a decade at Apple spearheading development of the iPhone then went off to tours of duty at autonomous vehicle companies Zoox and Cruise. The Flow — Pebble's first production rig — is a California-designed trailer packing a giant battery of its own that can be hooked up to the camper's own electric motors, enabling it to share in the burden of towing.
Here's what you need to know about this futuristic camping trailer.
The Pebble Flow is roughly the size of an average Airstream, but you won't confuse the two
At 25 feet long, seven and a half feet wide and a little under nine feet tall, the Pebble Flow is about the same size as a mid-range version of the Flying Cloud, Airstream's most popular trailer. That said, the exterior looks exceedingly different: where the Airstream is a traditional, almost timeless aluminum lozenge, the Flow is bold and faceted, with dark trim giving the impression of floor-to-ceiling windows. (The windows are actually fairly conventionally sized.)
The Pebble Flow's electric motors can help make towing easier — and make attaching your trailer a snap
Opt for the optional Magic Pack, and the Flow comes with two electric motors, according to the company, which are used to provide power to its wheels and lighten the load for the towing truck or SUV. (With a gross vehicle weight of 6,200 lbs, most crossovers won't be enough to haul it around; you'll want a proper SUV for towing if you don't have a pickup truck.) While this can be used to ease the burden on any vehicle — Pebble's own website shows the Flow being towed by a BMW X5 — it's particularly helpful for any electric cars and trucks, due to both their greater overall loss of range while towing and their generally reduced range when compared to their ICE equivalents.
But that's not all the motors can do. In addition, the Flow also has the ability to not just putter around at walking speed all on its own using the app, but it can even line up with your trailer hitch and attach itself to your vehicle using a feature Pebble calls "Magic Hitch."
The Pebble Flow's 45 kWh battery pack can recharge your EV or power your home
With more power stored on board than you'll find on a base Nissan Leaf, the Flow's 45-kWh battery offers more than just juice for helping out the tow vehicle. Fully charged — which, admittedly, presumably means not using its electric motors for motivation — there's enough juice for seven days of off-grid power, according to Pebble. Plus, a 1 kW roof-mounted solar panel system feeds electrons back into the battery during the day to help extend your time without a plug.
When the time comes to recharge, the trailer can take on juice from both CCS DC fast chargers and regular AC current, enabling it to recharge anywhere from a campsite to an Electrify American terminal. (Parking it at an EV charger is another story.) And the Flow can even send out 240-volt AC power, effectively turning it into a portable Level 2 charger for an electric car in a pinch — or letting you use it as backup power for your home if need be.
Inside, the Pebble Flow is more conventional, but still stylish
Anyone who's seen a high-end travel trailer of recent provenance will likely find the Pebble Flow's insides to be largely as expected: light and airy but compact, with space-optimized fixtures and appliances to make the most of the limited floor area. The layout divides up roughly into thirds: the front portion serves as the dinette and lounge and can convert to a double bed, the center holds the kitchen and bathroom, and the back third is home of the queen-sized bed, which can flip out of the way to transform into a "home" office. (You can see the complete layout in overhead view here, if you're so inclined.)
The kitchen window opens, enabling the chef to pass food straight to family members exiled from the trailer due to their hangry whining.
The centrally-placed kitchen packs a full-sized refrigerator, a 4-in-1 convection microwave oven and a removable induction stovetop. The wet bath, meanwhile, has glass walls with adjustable transparency, enabling you to leave it clear for a more open feel when the bathroom is unoccupied but switching it to opaque for privacy when ... y'know. (Speaking of which, now seems like a good time to mention the 50-gallon graywater / blackwater tank, as well as the 37-gallon freshwater tank.)
The Flow is, of course, laden with tech, including Starlink internet
The Pebble may not be made by Tesla, but there's still a whiff of Musk about it. In addition to having the usual features you'd expect from a brand founded by someone with deep roots in Silicon Valley — cellular connectivity, an iPad app to control everything, etc. — the Flow comes prepped to work with Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet, enabling owners to hop online and enjoy reasonably quick access to the world wide web from almost anywhere on the planet ... except, perhaps, certain areas of the Ukrainian front lines.
The Pebble Flow starts at $109,000, and should arrive by the end of 2024
If you're planning any camping excursions for next summer, you may want to consider investing in another trailer; Pebble says first deliveries of the flow aren't estimated to start until late next year. The base model will start at $109,000 (although Pebble claims that it may be eligible for a $7,500 tax credit, although whether the federal tax credit applies to a camping trailer seems like a little-explored gray area); if you opt for the Magic Pack and its dual electric motors, you're looking at an outlay of at least $125,000 — roughly equal to Airstream's new Trade Wind, the brand's most power-packed, off-grid-ready trailer yet. Anyone else smell a potential comparison test?
