Citing foreign tech media On TechCrunch, a group of like-minded former Tesla colleagues left the company to start their own startup called Lightship Energy. The company’s first product is a travel trailer equipped with an electric system that helps increase range during travel.
At a recent expo in Winnebago, Germany, Tesla showed off a new solar-powered range extender trailer with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system. Only this trailer will not be open for purchase to consumers in the short term. But the demand for them will grow in the foreseeable future.
The company was co-founded by Ben Parker and Toby Kraus, who previously held a mechanical engineering position at Tesla, where he helped develop the Model 3 battery pack and Tesla’s 4680 battery pack. Kraus was previously in charge of program development for the Model S at Tesla, and before that was an executive at electric bus manufacturer Proterra.
After a 6,000-mile RV trip, they got a clearer picture of product needs and the industry as a whole, so they started their own company with the hope of providing a better product for electric vehicles.
We’ve rented the most aerodynamic trailers for the Tesla Model X, and we’ve had to abandon the carts on trips because we couldn’t get to the next Supercharger site,” said Kraus, Lightship’s chief operating officer. It’s really tragic.
