Timothy Eppel
OXNARD, Calif. (Reuters) – Most recreational vehicles in the United States are road behemoths, much like boxcars that have accidentally wandered off the tracks, on a gravel-filled road in the gray environment of Elkhart, Indiana. They come out of factories and aim to satisfy people's wanderlust. Mainly middle-income customers.
Then there's the Bowlus, a very expensive travel trailer that doesn't require a pickup truck and can be towed by a Porsche sports car.
Built in the seaside community of Oxnard, Calif., which has 100 more sunny days per year than Elkhart, it defies most RV conventions, with a curved line that stretches back toward a pointy tail. Featuring 1930s design and minimalist interiors, the top-of-the-line model costs $310,000, or 80 percent of the price of a typical single-family home.
Mr. Bowlas shows that the rich are indeed different, at least when it comes to their spending habits. Wealthy Americans have helped keep the U.S. economy afloat by spending big on cars, homes and travel even as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to curb inflation.
Like all RVs, demand for Bowlas has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But even as RV sales slumped (travel trailer shipments fell nearly 40% last year as the health crisis eased, according to the RV Industry Association), Bowlus continued to sell every trailer it could make.
Currently, the company is expanding its business by offering cheaper versions and selling through dealers for the first time.
“way of thinking”
Since early last year, the mood of households in the top 25% of the income distribution has consistently been ahead of lower-income groups, according to a sentiment gauge closely monitored by the University of Michigan. In the most recent fourth quarter, it was 71.3, while the equivalent figure for the bottom 25% was 59.6.
“We didn't overproduce,” Bowlus CEO Geneva Long said when asked why, while many other producers were struggling, “we didn't overproduce either.” One problem for the RV industry was that parking lots were filled with unsold trailers when demand suddenly cooled after most factories ramped up production to unsustainable levels during the pandemic. is.
Indeed, it will be difficult for Bolas to overproduce. The factory is located in the back of a well-maintained industrial park, and the main assembly line can accommodate only 10 trailers.
Long said he would not discuss financials other than to say the company plans to build 100 trailers this year and then “expand every year while maintaining quality.”
And creating them is time-consuming and painstaking work. His 35 employees at Bolas handcraft the cabinets, sew seats made of high-tech Japanese fabrics, and hand-rive and polish the aluminum. As a result, the trailer lacks many of the amenities sought after in other more expensive RVs, such as a spacious bathroom and walls that slide to create a large interior space.
Long said customers appreciate the simplicity and quality of her products. She's also a bit of a purist when it comes to camp culture, and even her $310,000 model doesn't come with a TV. However, we plan to offer it as an option on all trailers in the future. “People who buy Bolas are the same people who buy airplanes, so it's a mindset,” she says.
Other manufacturers are also entering the niche market, including a battery-powered trailer being developed by another California company run by a former technology executive.
'Cola bottle'
The Bowlus was first designed by aerospace engineers in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, applying then-cutting-edge airplane-building techniques to give it a distinctive aluminum shell and aerodynamic flare.
He only built a few units and then shut down. Fast forward to 2014, when Long's family revived the brand and began selling trailers with the same quirky shape as the originals, with a pointed tail and a door at the front end.
The company has registered this shape as a trademark. Long says it's iconic, “like a Coke bottle.”
The Bowlus is one of the few RVs that uses a construction system called a monocoque, which means “single shell” in French. Like the airplane, the Bowlus is made with a complete aluminum skin, including the bottom, which eliminates the need for a heavy frame and makes the trailer extremely light and strong. The Bowlus weighs about half as much as an Airstream of the same length.
Not alone
Bowlus is also part of a growing niche of small manufacturers, as well as legacy manufacturers, developing new battery-powered trailers.
Aero Build of Nashville, Tenn., has begun selling 21-foot trailers with solar panels covering the roof. Like Bolas, it targets wealthy people. “No expense has been spared in fit and finish,” CEO Brian Fuente said. “Everything down to the frame is designed to last for generations.” Price: $129,900.
Another startup called Pebble is developing a battery-powered trailer that can also help with highway propulsion. This increases the range of the towing vehicle. One concern with traditional RVs is that their weight reduces the EV's range as a towing vehicle.
Prices for the Pebble start at about $109,000, while the new, slightly shorter model of the Bowlus costs $165,000.
“The question we're all trying to determine is where is the market for a high-end product like this?” said John North, CEO of Lazydays RV.
“A lot of customers are interested,” he says, but less than two months later, he's still waiting for his first sale.
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel; Editing by Dan Burns and Anna Driver)
