Airstream, Porsche Team Up To Create Electrified Camper

Concept Camper

These days, camping and overlanding are all the rage, with more and more people eager to get out and enjoy everything the outdoors has to offer. Thus, it makes perfect sense that the iconic brand Airstream may want to develop something a bit more modern and sporty, and thus, it recently teamed up with Porsche to create this - the Airstream Studio F. A. Porsche Concept Travel Trailer.

Photos: Airstream

Getting Smaller

Aside from looking like a camper from the future, this travel trailer was designed to be pulled by a small crossover or electric vehicle, making for an urban-style camper of sorts. In recent years, lighter campers with a small footprint have grown in popularity as they don't require large, heavy-duty trucks to pull, and that's precisely the case here as well.

Photos: Airstream

Nifty Design

Porsche and Airstream worked together to come up with the camper's design, a process that evolved through renderings, a 1/3 scale model, and computer-assisted aerodynamic testing, though it retains Airstream's signature riveted aluminum look. It also features a pop-up roof for additional interior headroom and an adjustable suspension that allows city dwellers to store the trailer in a standard residential garage.

Photos: Airstream

Broader Customer Base

"Innovation is the art of discovering the possible," said Airstream President and CEO Bob Wheeler. "Our collaboration with Studio F. A. Porsche brought talented new eyes and minds to our never-ending process of improving the Airstream experience. It’s a fresh design approach aimed at reaching a broader, more diverse base of potential customers."

Photos: Airstream

Efficient Packaging

The Porsche/Airstream travel trailer concept also focuses on aerodynamics with a new rear shape that improves airflow while it's in motion, a flush underside with reduced drag-creating projections, the first-ever lowering suspension in an Airstream travel trailer design, and the first insulated pop-up roof in the company's history. The ducted air conditioning is located above the concept’s floor, and several systems are tucked inside the 10-inch-deep space below the floor, including the hot water and heating components, spare wheel, holding tanks, and the lithium battery.

Photos: Airstream

Smart Interior Design

Inside, the concept features extensive use of windows and skylights to create a spacious interior feel, with amenities including a rear seating area that transforms from a dining space to work area to a bed, reclining seats,  a wet bath, and stowable counter space.

Photos: Airstream

Dream to Reality

"Our design team has long wanted to partner with Airstream," said Roland Heiler, Managing Director of Studio F. A. Porsche and Chief Design Officer of the Porsche Lifestyle Group. "More than 20 years ago, when my family lived in Southern California, we owned a 1964 Airstream Overlander. That’s when I met Bob Wheeler for the first time at a vintage trailer show in Newport Beach. For me Airstream has always been an iconic brand that has thrived by evolving its products while remaining true to its design DNA – an approach very similar to the philosophy of Studio F. A. Porsche. So, it is not difficult to imagine that we were more than excited when the idea to develop a new iteration of Airstream’s travel trailers finally became reality."

Photos: Airstream

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