The drivable, self-sufficient AC Future home turns out to be larger than your first apartment

The “AC” in AC Future stands for Amy and Cindy, daughters of founder Arthur Chen. This is just one of the information I got at the company CES The event where we got our first look at AC Future Ai-TH’s new convertible home. This is it yet last A stylishly defined answer to the housing crisis we’ve seen on the showroom for 2025. Comes in three models: Deliverable Case (ai-tho), retractable trailer (Ai-THtAnd the EV RV is road-ready.Ai-THd). Journalists and potential buyers were able to tour the electric vehicle prototype this week (but we had to take our shoes off first).

With retractable partitions in the back and on both sides, the bus-sized RV converts into a 400-square-foot, one-bed, one-bath apartment, complete with a living room and kitchen with a full-size refrigerator and two-burner stove. Range and microwave, plus a non-cramped shower stall and washer/dryer in the bathroom. A complete HVAC system, combined with high-efficiency insulation, keeps the unit at a moderate temperature.

All of this equates to a huge energy draw, which AC Future answers with a roof covered in solar panels. I’m told that all three models of the Ai-TH can generate about 25 kilowatt hours of power per day. For reference, the average American home uses about 30 kilowatt-hours per day. The home can also be connected to electricity if sunlight is insufficient, and there has been talk of wind generation options for customers in cloudy climates.

All Ai-TH models will also be equipped with atmospheric water generation that can suck between 13 and 15 gallons of water per day from thin air. That’s significantly less than the roughly 200 gallons American homes use for non-landscaping needs, so the Ai-TH also recycles gray water and, of course, has a tank. In theory, these units could serve as fully self-sufficient living units, collecting what is needed from the world around them.

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Photos of AC Future Ai-TH

AC Future Ai-TH driver’s seat

Because this is CES 2025, where the unofficial model is “Put some AI in it!” There’s a whole-home AI assistant called Futura to turn on the lights, manage your resources, and handle other management tasks. There was even a demo set up outside the RV to allow people to “meet” it.

At CES last year, AC Future, which was only two years old at the time, showed off the idea of ​​the Ai-TH. The fully-equipped prototype we saw was built in collaboration with Hydra, an automotive design and prototyping studio located in Southern California. Models that enter production will contain components coming from a wide range of suppliers; I’m told there are three partners lined up for electric vehicle motors alone.

AC Future says this “aims to address the crisis of affordable, sustainable and mobile housing around the world”. Any talk about addressing the housing crisis must include some discussions about prices, unless we rely on some economic solutions with a gradual effect. The stationary base model will start at $98,000, the trailered model will go for $138,000 and up, and the drivable version starts at $298,000.

AC Future’s COO told me that production will begin as soon as they leave Vegas (the whole team was at CES) and reservations are open now.