'Aspirational and Desirable' Van Life Pushed to New, Extreme Limits

Newsweek

14-07-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
For generations, adults have taken their kids camping. Those kids turned into adults who camp with friends, and eventually their own children. Along the way, some of them want to take escapism and adventure a bit further. Storyteller Overland is ready for them.
The luxury recreation vehicle (RV) company sells models that build on the roots of overlanding in motorized vehicles, which stretches back to the early 1900s and runs through the much beloved era where vintage Westfalia vans and the Volkswagen Bus became common at campsites and California's coast.
Storyteller reaches a more well-heeled, but no less adventurous audience. Seven years ago, the Storyteller team came together to remove barriers of entry for those who wanted an overlanding vehicle.
"Before we came along, van life was very aspirational and desirable, but it was also pretty complicated, because you had to buy your own van and find a custom manufacturer, or get YouTube certified, or whatever, and figure out how to do it on the weekends," Jeffrey Hunter, Storyteller Overland's CEO, told Newsweek.
Storyteller Overland's vehicle lineup.
Storyteller Overland's vehicle lineup.
Storyteller Overland
"We just wanted to help people, solve for the complexity and [allow them to] start enjoying the life and lifestyle. In our mind, Storyteller was always a way of life, and we figured if we helped people have confidence in the level of rigs we were building for them, and do that at the world's greatest level, then we could help them live that life like sooner rather than like with all the hurdles in the house."
That meant putting together a startup team that could see the vision. "In 2018 we just started with napkin sketches and daydreams, and a really rad team that had done a lot of these kinds of things before. We focused all that energy into being one core team with one vision in mind, and within four months, we had two fully functioning production-intent prototypes. We had multiple provisional patents that were filed and then ultimately granted domestically and internationally. By the end of 2019, we were in full production," Hunter said.
Then, like so many businesses globally, Storyteller felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike other companies, like restaurants and movie theaters, Storyteller wasn't negatively impacted by the shutdowns. In fact, heading out on a self-sufficient expedition with your family was one of the few completely safe ways to experience life outside the house for many.
Hunter explained: "It liberated a lot of people to be able to choose to adopt this way of life. Because, when you're legally forbidden to come into the office and you're federally mandated to social distance and all this kind of stuff, it just got a lot of people thinking: 'If I could truly work remotely, and we can do the distance learning with our kids and all that...' [RVs] became not just a symbol for that level of freedom, but it became like a real tool and a mode of making that happen."
The company worked to quickly scale up to meet demand and build out a dealer network. From the original seven employees, Storyteller grew to close to 250 workers. From one or two vehicles on the road at the start of the pandemic, the company now has over 2,700.
"Now, we've got a lot of these out on the road. We have the infrastructure to support the [ownership] experience. Building that infrastructure during that season, kind of in that Wild West era, it gave us a solid footing to continue to expand on new ways to innovate, new audiences to reach and new products [to develop] that inspire and equip the community to go farther and live free, explore endlessly and tell better stories," the CEO said.
Three Storyteller Overland vehicles at the beach.
Three Storyteller Overland vehicles at the beach.
Storyteller Overland
As it was putting more vehicles on the road, Storyteller began to consider what the full ownership experience would be like. "Our vehicles don't live conveniently in a 50-mile radius of the dealer network," Hunter said, explaining that purchasing from Storyteller means that, "You're not just buying from that dealer, you're buying into the entire Storyteller way of life that is meant to serve you through all phases of ownership and adventure and exploration."
He said that it was "critical" to build out a service network and service infrastructure that expands past the dealer network, utilizing service providers and shops that meet Storyteller standards. "The infrastructure for all of that: the sales, the service, the branding, the community, all of that's grown pretty organically but scaled fairly dramatically," he reminisced.
On offer for 2025 are three vans: Crew Mode 170, Mode XO (Full Bathroom) and Mode OG (Halo Shower). All vans are based on Mercedes-Benz Sprinters. Also available are Storyteller GXV Next and GXV Hilt trucks, based on the Ram 5500, and GXV Epic, built on a Kenworth 4x4 chassis.
Pricing varies greatly by model, starting at over $187,000 and going up north of $799,000 before taxes and dealer fees. Unlike at a traditional car dealership, there is no haggling over price.
Storyteller's prime customer base at the beginning was in the Pacific Northwest, Southern California and Big Sky Country in the U.S. "We've been really impressed by not just how geographically diverse the market has become, but also just in terms of lifestyle and demographics. So many people are adopting this more adventurous way of life," Hunter said.
Storyteller GXV Epic driven through barren land.
Storyteller GXV Epic driven through barren land.
Storyteller Overland
In 2022, the company announced that it acquired Global Expedition Vehicles. The acquisition allowed Storyteller to expand its offerings into larger trucks like its GXV line.
Hunter said that the acquisition gave Storyteller more exposure, beyond North America. He gave an example of the company's expanded audience: "A global audience of people who will ship our vehicles and then spend two years traveling through West or Central or North Africa, or going all the way from Alaska down through the tip of South America."