Everyone would be forgiven for thinking that there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to the US Campervan and RV market, but a small Aussie Campervan company believes they’ve struck gold hiding right under our collective noses.
The RV market in the US is huge, really huge, in fact everything about it is HUGE, and that’s exactly where Sydney based Campervan Company, Travellers Autobarn, believes it has found its niche. They are not huge, Travellers Autobarn builds and rents campervans, they don’t like to call their vehicles RVs or Motorhomes, they are adamant about that. RVs and Motorhomes instantly bring to mind massive vehicles, admittedly with all the creature comforts, such as slide-outs, toilets and showers, but these condominiums on wheels also come with parking and maneuvering issues, complexity and large gas bills.
Travellers Autobarn has been renting campervans in Australia and New Zealand for over 25 years and they know what their customers want. They want freedom, flexibility, simplicity, good gas mileage. In other words, their customers want all those things embodied in the currently uber-hip #VANLIFE movement.
Travellers Autobarn’s customer base is International visitors to the U.S. They have a readymade distribution channel and network, a long tail internet presence, and before they have even put their first van on the road they are booked out three months in advance.
What Travellers Autobarn calls the KuGA Campervan is the basis of their success. Yes, it’s small, but importantly it’s not too small. As Peter Burke the founder of Travellers Autobarn says “If you can’t stand up inside your campervan in the morning to put your undies on then is it even a campervan… or is it just a van with a bed in it?”
And here’s where Travellers Autobarn has struck gold! There’s basically no one doing it on any kind of proper scale in the US. A small simple campervan that has everything you need, nothing more, where you can actually stand up inside, cook INSIDE, park virtually anywhere.
Travellers Autobarn puts their first of 100 Campervans on the road on Feb 4 in LA, closely followed by San Francisco and Las Vegas. Inside 3 years they plan to have 300 of the very cool, California inspired campervans on the road.
I could quote recent news articles also describing the trend towards smaller RVs, but I don’t need any further convincing. I’m sold!
Travellers Autobarn USA
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