A trailer instead of a generator: Lightship turns its electric RV battery into a mobile power station

American company Lightship unveiled PowerSled — a modular battery trailer built on the AE.1 architecture, with up to 240 kWh and a self-propelling TrekDrive axle.

American company Lightship, known for its electric AE.1 travel trailer, has unveiled a new battery platform called PowerSled. As autoevolution reports, this is not a new vehicle but a modular energy base that can be used in trailers, campers, work platforms and other mobile scenarios.

Lightship’s idea is built around a large battery. In the AE.1, the company already uses a pack of up to 80 kWh, a solar roof and the TrekDrive system, which helps the trailer carry its own weight and reduce the load on the tow vehicle. PowerSled extends the same logic: the trailer becomes not just a load on wheels, but a source of energy for equipment, appliances and off-grid operations.

The platform comes in three battery versions — 80, 160 and 240 kWh — and three body configurations: a stripped chassis for custom upfitters, a flatbed for tools and equipment, and an enclosed cargo module. Payload capacity reaches 3,950 kg, and the onboard TrekDrive electric drive takes part of the load off the tow vehicle on the road. The first customer is Exedy Drones, which is using PowerSled as a mobile charging station for agricultural drones in the field.

The everyday appeal of such a platform is easy to grasp. It can replace a gasoline or diesel generator wherever silence, electricity and autonomy are needed: at a campsite, at a remote cabin, at an off-grid event, on a construction site or with an emergency response crew. For EV owners it is especially interesting, since a heavy trailer normally cuts driving range sharply, and Lightship tries to solve that problem with its own electric drive and battery.

The main catch is price and practicality. Solutions like this are aimed not at the mass buyer but at those who truly need autonomous power on the move — whether it is a business or a die-hard off-grid traveler. That is why PowerSled looks less like a replacement for ordinary trailers and more like an attempt to create a new class of vehicle that sits somewhere between a camper, a home battery and a mobile power plant.