Passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs aren’t having all the fun when it comes to electrification. All kinds of other vehicle sectors are racing toward the electric future, including the commercial and recreational vehicle (RV) markets, which are in fact combined in this marriage between Harbinger and Thor Industries to create EV RVs.
In this partnership, Harbinger will provide its electrified chassis and ADAS equipment while Thor will add its body and various floor plans. These Harbinger medium-duty chassis are manufactured in Garden Grove, California, from its frame all the way to its battery packs. Once assembled, Harbinger ships the chassis to Thor Industries in Elkhart, Indiana, where Thor’s Innovation Lab will create a new, all-electric Class A RV.
What really makes Harbinger’s electric chassis unique is that the ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) technologies that come included are also designed by Harbinger. One a body has been mated to a chassis and the ADAS hardware such as cameras and sonar sensors has been installed, Harbinger instructs a customer like Thor to create a grid on the ground around the vehicle so the software can calibrate its systems to the specific vehicle/body.
Harbinger ADAS is limited to SAE Level 2 driver assistance, as the company’s philosophy is to keep the driver in control while also mitigating some of the difficulties a large commercial or RV body can exacerbate, such as lane keeping, collision prevention, and line-of-sight issues. Future medium-duty chassis by Harbinger will be completely drive-by-wire to allow even more customization for driver position in a commercial platform.
