Eric Perkins is towing his shiny silver Airstream camper on what will ultimately be a nearly 6,000-mile road trip around the United States without ever burning a drop of gas or diesel.
His secret: A battery-powered Rivian R1 pickup, which allows him to haul his 23-foot camper without worrying about the price of fuel. He’s gone from San Diego across to Branson, Missouri, and is now headed home to California from Moab, Utah.
With the national average price of regular gas sitting at around $4.16 a gallon and diesel around $5.31, Perkins, 49, is more than a little pleased about his EV – even if many of his fellow campers consider driving a battery-powered pickup a political choice. Perkins’ recharging tab so far is less than $750 for the journey, dramatically cheaper than if he’d been driving a traditional pickup.
President Donald Trump has moved to eliminate incentives for buying EVs, while encouraging manufacturers to keep building gas and diesel vehicles. But Trump, according to industry experts, might inadvertently push more Americans into EVs because of the war he started with Iran and the resulting spike in gas prices.
“I just get so much negativity from people who think that somehow burning diesel is more American,” said Perkins, a legal consultant and self-described libertarian. “And I think that Trump is going to become the most pro-EV president in history.”
Trump and Teslas
Upon taking office in his second term, Trump and his team began rolling back federal regulations and eliminating tax incentives that had spurred tens of thousands of drivers to buy EVs from startups like Tesla and Rivian, but also more traditional manufacturers like Nissan, Toyota and GMC. Trump said he believed that Americans, not government regulators, should choose what kind of vehicles people drive.
In addition to eliminating subsidies, the White House softened Biden- and Obama-era regulations designed to push traditional automakers into offering more EVs by toughening tailpipe emission standards. While EVs require electricity to run, they generate overall fewer carbon emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Polls show that EV ownership has typically broken along partisan lines, but that conservatives became more willing to consider buying an EV after Tesla CEO Elon Musk aligned with Trump and backed his presidential campaign.
After retaking the presidency, Trump in 2025 showed off a red Tesla sedan at the White House, and encouraged other Americans to buy ones like it. Trump’s Tesla purchase came after a series of attacks on Tesla dealerships and vehicles, particularly Cybertrucks, by Americans angry over Musk’s support of the president.
‘Wow, I Can Get This and Have a Lower Fuel Bill?’
Last March, Elaine Buckberg, the former chief economist of General Motors, predicted that the most aggressive anti-EV steps taken by the Trump administration could drop sales from 48% of the market to 32% by 2030. Now, she expects high gas prices – along with a market being flooded by affordable off-lease Teslas – will make some car buyers recalculate.
Of the 287 million vehicles registered in the United States, about 3.5 million are EVs, federal statistics show.
Like Perkins, Buckberg said she believes Trump’s Iran war may prompt more people to pick EVs over traditional cars, especially if gas prices remain high for more than three months. Gas prices under Trump have not hit the same level as they did under Biden in June 2022, when the national average briefly broke $5 before dropping back.
“Used EVs are just getting price-comparable, and so you say, ‘Wow, I can get this and have a lower fuel bill? Great,’” said Buckberg, a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. “The shift is definitely happening and the high gas prices just accelerate it.”
Previously, EVs were primarily being sold in California and 17 other states that had adopted extra-tough emissions standards, Buckberg said. But as used Teslas flood the market, buyers in other states are discovering that $20,000 gets them effectively a luxury car that also comes with dramatically lower operating costs.
“Used EVs go all over the country, and hit a much wider set of households based on incomes,” she said. “You’re getting a whole different set of people who are experiencing EVs. I think that a lot more people will understand that they aren’t little pokey vehicles with a tiny range.”
White House officials say Trump’s rollbacks of Biden’s regulations and incentives protect consumer choice by letting EVs compete on a level playing field with traditional gas or diesel vehicles. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the president wants to unleash American energy dominance, which would ultimately drive down energy costs for everyone, regardless of what car they drive.
“While President Trump is supportive of consumer choice and has rolled back the left’s unpopular and costly EV mandates, the reality is that fossil fuels are still necessary to generate the electricity that powers electric vehicles,” Rogers said.
‘Getting Their Dollar’s Worth per Mile’
In Wyoming, Casper resident and trucker Levi Dutton said he and his wife are considering buying an EV to shuttle their daughter to summer softball camps in Denver.
Returning from a Memorial Day camping trip, Dutton watched as 21 gallons of diesel flowed into the tank of his Ram 2500 at $5.40 a gallon. He admitted he’d considered telling his extended family that fuel prices were too high to justify driving 350 miles to central Colorado for their annual camping trip.
“It was tempting to say we weren’t going to make it this year, because of the prices,” Dutton said. “But I didn’t want to disappoint the family over some money.”
Dutton said he doesn’t think an EV truck would be powerful enough to safely haul his family’s 26-foot Jayco camper. But he figured an EV for his wife would be a smart move, given the current fuel prices. Households typically save $800–$1,000 on fuel costs by switching to EVs, according to the EPA.
“Three hundred miles (of charge) is enough to get us to Denver, and we’re going to have to do that drive at least six to 10 times this summer,” Dutton said.
Drivers like Dutton are the kinds of customers Colorado-based Lightship RV is targeting. Founded in part by former Tesla engineers and battery experts, the company makes self-powering electric campers designed to be towed behind either a traditional truck or EV, significantly extending their range.
Fitted with solar panels on the roof, the Lightship RVs have big battery packs and electric motors in the wheels, which kick in to assist whatever vehicle they’re being towed behind. The Lightship batteries can also recharge EVs mid-trip.
Company co-founder Ben Parker said camper owners are worrying about high fuel prices, although they are often driving $80,000 pickups towing $100,000 campers.
“They care about getting their dollar’s worth per mile,” Parker said. “People are sick of getting 8-10 miles to the gallon when they’re paying $5 a gallon.”
Scrupulously Keeping Track of Energy Used
The median distance people drive with their campers is just 125 miles from home, according to the RV Industry Association. While most EV pickups can drive hundreds of miles on a single charge, their range drops dramatically while towing: Perkins can get about 180 miles while towing his Airstream, about half his normal range.
Along with using official Rivian or Tesla chargers, he can also sometimes plug into the outlets at campgrounds that regular campers use to run their AC and televisions.
Because this is the longest trip he’s ever taken using an EV to tow a camper, Perkins has scrupulously kept track of how much energy he’s used, how much climbing or descending he has done, and the impacts of headwinds and tailwinds. Perkins said many traditional pickup drivers are curious about his success towing with an EV.
While his range is less than that of a full-size diesel truck, Perkins said, the benefits of his Rivian outweigh the more frequent charging stops.
“A lot of people are kind of shocked how much power and torque electric vehicles have,” said Perkins, who conceded to showing off a little bit on big hills. “I’ll go ahead and let it run up to 70, 75 while everyone else with a camper – they’re all crawling up at 45.”
Reporting by Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
