If you’ve ever tried to charge a phone with a portable power bank, you probably know the name Anker. They built an empire on the simple promise of keeping your gadgets alive when you’re away from a wall socket.

Now, a handful of the key people who built that empire are taking the concept to its logical, massive conclusion. What if, instead of charging your phone, you could charge your entire house—and that house was on wheels?

A new California-based startup called Evotrex, founded by a team of former Anker executives, just emerged from stealth mode with a bold plan: to build a hybrid RV trailer designed to let you live comfortably far off the grid, potentially for days on end.

And they’ve got $16 million in fresh Pre-A funding to make it happen.

The new company is helmed by CEO Alex Xiao, who, according to a press release, spent over a decade helping to build Anker into the global charging brand it is today. He’s not alone. His co-founding team includes veterans from automotive giant Geely and other tech mainstays like Lenovo and IBM.

But in a telling vote of confidence, the investor list for this new $16 million round includes the founders of Anker themselves (though not Anker the company). They are joined by other firms like Unity Ventures, Kylinhall Partners, Vision Plus Capital, and Xstar Capital.

It seems the people who know batteries best are betting that this team knows how to scale them up.

In a statement, Evotrex CEO Alex Xiao laid out the mission simply. The company “exists to transform how people experience the outdoors,” he said. The goal is to let adventurers “focus on the adventure ahead instead of where to find the next charger.“

So, what is this thing? a generator with a view?

The product at the center of all this buzz is a “power-generating RV trailer.” In simple terms, it’s a high-tech hybrid.

The trailer is designed around a large battery bank that powers the cabin, all the electronics, and even an electric motor. But the team at Evotrex is pragmatic. They know that if you’re truly deep in the wilderness, there’s no charging station. Solar is great, but it’s not always sunny.

Their solution? A built-in gas engine.

Before you roll your eyes, Evotrex’s founders told TechCrunch that this isn’t your granddad’s noisy, sputtering RV generator. The gas motor’s only job is to recharge the battery and extend its range. The company claims this system is quieter, more efficient, and more eco-friendly than traditional setups. As a bonus, it’s designed to capture the engine’s excess heat and use it to warm the cabin—a clever bit of engineering for cold-weather camping.

The company’s website is all in on this idea of “rangeless” living. “Relax off-grid without ever needing to leave your base camp,” one line reads. The picture they’re painting is one of total energy independence, where the gas motor is just a quiet insurance policy that lets you venture farther from civilization for longer.

A hybrid solution for a hybrid market

Evotrex isn’t just building this in a vacuum. They’re tapping directly into a major, and perhaps surprising, shift in the automotive world.

For the last few years, the narrative has been “all-electric, all the time.” But EV sales growth has hit a speed bump. Consumers are worried about range, the charging infrastructure is still being built out, and prices remain high.

This “range anxiety” that Evotrex aims to solve in the wilderness is the same anxiety holding back mainstream EV adoption on the road.

The result? Hybrids are suddenly cool again.

Recent data from the Pew Research Center highlights this perfectly: 45 percent of Americans say they are likely to consider a hybrid vehicle for their next purchase. For fully electric vehicles (EVs), that number drops to just 33 percent.

The industry is responding. Major automakers are delaying ambitious EV-only plans, cutting production, and pivoting back to the hybrids they were trying to phase out. Just this week, Honda’s CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, made headlines by stating that the Trump administration’s policies and slowing consumer demand have pushed US EV growth back by “five years or so.” For now, Honda is focusing on—you guessed it—hybrids.

This is the complicated reality Evotrex is launching into. On one hand, the UN’s Environment Programme just issued another dire warning this week, stating in its 2025 Emissions Gap Report that the world is falling perilously short of its crucial climate targets. On the other hand, consumers and automakers are pumping the brakes on a full-EV transition, looking for a practical middle ground.

Evotrex is betting that its hybrid trailer is that perfect, pragmatic solution—a way to “go green” without the risk of getting stranded.

The company plans to officially unveil the RV trailer at the tech world’s biggest stage, CES, in January 2026. Reservations are set to open on January 6, with the first models hopefully shipping to customers by the end of that year.

You can learn more at the company’s website.