More to come from Alphavan after promising debut year

After more than 10 years working for a premium, high-quality brand such as Mercedes-Benz, you tend to think about things a little differently to the average person. Phillip Wex is a man with such experience, and after he decided to leave the German automotive giant just over a year ago and start his own premium quality campervan company, he had some pretty specific ideas about what he wanted to achieve with it. After a chance meeting at Caravan Salon Düsseldorf with technical design wizard Stefan Krause and CEO of GETA Tobias Buhmann who would both eventually become his business partners, Phillip launched his company Alphavan, with a focus on creating something special. 

“What we have created with Alphavan, I believe no one else is really doing in the market right now,” Phillip told Camping Trade World.

“Alphavan is a premium product where we have paid very close attention to quality, technology, innovation and sustainability throughout the entire process – from the idea through to the finished van.”

So, what kind of innovations are we talking about? Well, for starters the van is designed to be as lightweight as possible. It remains under the 3,500kg weight limit, which immediately makes it more accessible to more people, and to more roads. The vans have also been put together with some incredibly sleek, modern and stylish design language, that not only looks good but also performs in a premium way. 

“The novel production process and material “Vunder Tech” does also enable a new interior design language: rounded edges in large single-cast furniture pieces, flush mount integration of caravan system and surfaces with natural haptics are just some of the benefits of this new technology,” adds Phillip.

Much of Phillip’s background at Mercedes was working in the electronics and technology side of the business, so his aim with Alphavan was to set new standards of digitisation in the caravan industry. Examples of that can be seen all over the campervan – it uses Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX), Mercedes-Benz Advanced Control (MBAC), and Mercedes ME Connect, all of which can be used to monitor and control all systems on board including heating, water tank levels, electric awning, air conditioning and battery levels. The digitisation also extends to the living functions of the Alphavan – it has no gas, everything is run on electricity thanks to a 110Wp solar panel, 210 Ah Lithium ion battery and 2,300 Watts power inverter. This, Phillip says, also makes the van more sustainable. There’s also a Truma Combi 6D E Diesel heater for when camping in very cold conditions. 

A plethora of other smart innovations such as premium insulation technology and intelligent adapter frames all point towards a campervan that is offering an experience like nothing else.  And after just one year of being in business, the surge of interest in camping in general has meant a very promising and successful start to life for Alphavan, with much more on the horizon…

Some of the solutions Alphavan came up with during its development have led to new avenues being explored by Phillip and his team. He explained: “For 2021, we are planning to launch a new arm of our business that could have some very interesting applications for the campervan, caravan and motorhome market segments – watch this space.”

 

To find out more about the new expansion of Alphavan’s business and for more about this up-and-coming company and its plans for the future, subscribe to Camping Trade World, and check it out in our first issue, launching Spring 2021.

 

X