Lightship, the startup behind the AE.1 all-electric travel trailer, is cranking things up in Broomfield. The company is more than doubling its manufacturing footprint, growing from about 32,000 square feet to roughly 76,000, to speed up production and shrink those long customer waitlists. The expanded floor space is meant to help Lightship move beyond pilot builds into steady assembly as interest in electric towing climbs. Executives say the extra room should also deepen U.S. sourcing and tighten the loop between design and real-world product tweaks.
Bigger factory, faster output
The plan calls for about 44,000 additional square feet at the plant, with operations in the new space expected to kick off by mid-summer. Lightship says that timeline will let the company more than quadruple production capacity by the end of 2026, as detailed by Business Wire. According to the release, the expansion is designed to boost vertical integration while growing R&D and service capabilities under the same roof. “This expansion is a defining moment for Lightship,” CEO Toby Kraus said in the company’s announcement.
Production ramp and jobs
In practical terms, Lightship expects the larger footprint to ultimately support production of roughly 500 AE.1 travel trailers per year. Executives caution that it will take several years to hit that full rate. For now, the company is building at a slower pace and methodically adding stations to speed output over time, according to BusinessDen. Local reporting puts Lightship’s Colorado workforce at about 100 employees today and notes that the factory expansion could bring on dozens more manufacturing roles. Management told BusinessDen that a large share of 2026 production is already sold or reserved.
Funding the push
To pay for the build-out, Lightship tapped private investors. SEC documents show the company offered $35 million and sold roughly $26.6 million of that late last year, more precisely about $26,624,990, a cash infusion company leaders say is going toward the expanded factory, according to the SEC filing. Spokespeople describe the raise as an extension of earlier rounds meant to bridge the gap between prototype work and higher-volume production. The capital, they say, is aimed at cutting lead times while supporting a more vertically integrated, U.S.-focused supply chain.
What’s in the AE.1
The AE.1 centers on a 77 kWh battery, now offered as standard, paired with roughly 1.8 kW of integrated roof-mounted solar and Lightship’s TrekDrive hitch system. The company says TrekDrive keeps towing-related range loss to about 3 percent, based on its product materials. Despite a curb weight in the 7,500-8,200 pound range and a 26.7-foot length, reviewers and company engineers say the trailer’s aerodynamics, regenerative braking, and TrekDrive motor help make EV towing workable for modern electric trucks, as noted in coverage by Electrek.
Why this matters
Lightship’s timing is not accidental. Go RVing’s 2025 RV Owner Demographic Profile, published by the RV Industry Association, reports that about 16.9 million households say they are strongly interested in buying an RV in the next five years and estimates that roughly 8.1 million American households already own one. If Lightship can scale even a fraction of its targeted output, the company says it will stand as a notable example of U.S.-based electric vehicle manufacturing and could add a meaningful number of advanced-manufacturing jobs to the Denver-area economy, Kraus said in the company release, as reported by Business Wire.
