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, the vehicle brand of (Bremen, Germany; learn more about the company structure below), first launched its premium flax fiber composite Sherpa camper at an RV exhibition in 2024. Developed with design partner Langefreunde Design Studio (Schwerin, Germany), the Sherpa started as a project to represent the capabilities of the company’s most recent flax fiber composite panel technology. Right away, the vehicle attracted a lot of attention in the market, leading to immediate sales of the first-generation camper.

Following a CW site visit to the company’s facility earlier this year, it’s clear that while Greenlander and co-located Circular Structures and Greenboats are moving forward on a number of commercial and research projects, the Sherpa camper is certainly the top focus at the moment — and the company’s most recent success story.

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In the RV world, sustainability is an attractive touch, but customers are really looking for light weight and quality craftsmanship, says Loris Schimanski, business development manager at Greenlander.

He explains, “The selling point on the light weight is that the entire vehicle can carry higher payloads,” particularly in regions where weight limits are prevalent. In Germany, the weight limit for the truck class of vehicles (in which RVs fall) is 7.5 tons — so the further beneath that the vehicle’s weight is, the more people and equipment can be transported on board. “These panels are kilograms lighter than the next lightest plywood panels in the interiors industry,” Schimanski adds.

For its initial 0-series commercial vehicles, Greenlander is doing the full cab construction, starting from a purchased base vehicle and manufacturing the entire cab interior and exterior in-house.

Assembly of the full Sherpa cab takes place at the company’s site in Bremen, a facility where Greenlander and its sister companies have spaces for layup, resin infusion, machining, finishing, painting and assembly. Around the site, previous and ongoing projects are on display, all in flax fiber composites — from boats to cab components to a variety of demonstrator parts.

Some smaller, more complex components for the Sherpa are produced in Bremen via infusion or hand layup, but the bulk of the cab exterior is constructed from five large sandwich panels as well as several interior panels. The panels are produced off-site on a semi-automated, 40-meter compression press line housed in nearby boatbuilding hub Lemwerder, Germany, where Greenlander occupies space in one of boatbuilder Fassmer’s buildings.

The press is able to process 2.5-meter-wide rolls of biaxial or woven flax fabric sourced from French flax supplier Depestele (Le Bocasse) and made into fabrics by partners such as woven fabric supplier Fiberlane (Greven, Germany). The fabric is combined with one of several liquid bio-based epoxies that Greenlander uses, including GreenPoxy from Sicomin (Châteauneuf les Martigues, France), and a 15-millimeter-thick balsa core for interior panels, or 40-millimeter-thick recycled PET foam for exterior panels. These core materials are able to be reinforced with inserts or higher-density foam where needed.

The resulting sandwich panels, ranging in thickness from 45 millimeters for exterior panels and 18 millimeters for interior panels, can be up to 6 × 2.45 meters in size, and produced in about 20 minutes — compared to 2.5 days or more to infuse the same part, Schimanski says.

The panels and other cab components are assembled into Greenlander’s Smart Frame system. Aiming to replace a typical vehicle system where a complex subframe sits between the chassis and cab, the Smart Frame is described as a “composite-native” structure that bolts directly to the chassis and serves as both the structural base and systems carrier.

The vacuum-infused flax fiber composite Smart Frame, with a design inspired by a boat hull, includes integrated compartments for water and diesel tanks, batteries, electrical systems, heating circuits, cable paths and tool storage.

While mostly focused on work for the Sherpa camper at present, Greenlander’s press is also used for R&D projects. The company sees potential for other types of applications including a more efficient version of wind blade nacelles it has made via infusion previously, railcar interior panels and building façades. Schimanski notes the company has also experimented with hemp, bamboo and cellulose fabrics as well as recycled carbon fiber fabrics. Beyond its direct-to-consumer boats and Sherpas, the company also sells panels to manufacturers looking for sustainability solutions.

“Many companies using flax fiber composites focus on aesthetic parts. But we believe flax can be structural, so we’re focused on large structural components,” Schimanski says. “It has to live up to performance standards, not just be aesthetic. Boats, where we started, are one of the most complex use cases of composites. If we can prove it out there, it’ll work on just about anything.”

The company is working with university researchers and research organizations like Bremen-based Faserinstitut (FIBRE) to validate the performance of its materials, including aging studies.

“We’ve had to work through several pain points,” Schimanski says. “First was closing the technology gap, because figuring out how to work with new materials like flax fiber and bio-epoxy can be a challenge. Second, you have to do the sustainability research and life cycle analyses [LCA] to prove that it’s actually more sustainable than glass fiber.” Most recent LCA data showed these panels are 80% lower carbon footprint than an equivalent glass fiber composite panel, which matching its performance.

The company is also considering the panels’ end-of-life scenario. Greenlander will offer to take back the RVs from customers after their lifespan to refurbish and reuse the panels into new applications — such as shelves for a delivery truck, for example.

“We could also, say, take recycled wind blade nacelle panels and turn them into the exterior panels of a Sherpa,” Schimanski says. “We use similar materials for all of the parts we make, which makes it easier to reuse for multiple purposes.”

He predicts that “in tomorrow’s world, environmental impact will be a performance metric.”

Ultimately, Greenlander aims to position itself as a development partner, rather than an industrial manufacturer. Accordingly, in June 2025 the company announced a strategic manufacturing partnership with Boxmanufaktur (Sottrum, Germany), with the goal of expanding production capacity for the Sherpa. In this arrangement, Greenlander will continue to manufacture the sandwich panels, which will then be sent to Boxmanufaktur for assembly into the cab. The structure returns to Greenlander for final assembly.

As of summer 2025, the launch edition of five gen-0 campers have been sold out. The first delivery is planned for January 2026, and with the help of recent partnerships, capacity for 2026 and 2027 is expected to grow to 20 vehicles. Starting in 2027, the Sherpa will also be available on the Mercedes Benz Sprinter 4×4 platform.

At the same time, the company is currently taking orders for the next-generation Sherpa, which will include more customizable options. “We’re working on building up our team of engineers and sales preparing for scale-up,” Schimanski says.

Greenlander is also working on ways to automate the production process further, and to switch to faster processes for certain components. For example, the company is working with FIBRE researchers on optimizing the pultrusion process for the manufacture of flax fiber composite pultruded profiles — one of the use cases anticipated for this is to manufacture side profiles for the Sherpa at an industrial scale, replacing a current hand layup or infusion process and reducing material use.

In addition to developing and selling its own Sherpa products, Greenlander has also begun partnering with OEMs in the space interested in adapting this technology to their own designs. For example, the company with the Erwin Hymer Group (owned by RV manufacturer Thor Industries) and has supplied natural fiber composite components for