Laika Brand Guidelines: A Tuscan Caravan Maker Named for a Dog in Space

A dog in orbit and a caravan a small Fiat could tow.

Laika was founded in 1964 at Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, in Tuscany, by Giovanbattista Moscardini, according to the magazine L’Automobile of the Italian automobile club ACI, in July 2024, and Italian Wikipedia. The company tells the same story in its press material, and spells the founder’s name that way; the Caravan Club and Auto Zeitung write Giovambattista.

The name came from the space race. L’Automobile says Moscardini called the firm after the first dog launched into space, in 1957, and the company says he was fascinated by the adventure of space and the new horizons it opened. Auto Zeitung says that for him the dog stood for innovation and visions of the future. The dog went into the mark too: the Caravan Club says the greyhound was incorporated into the logo, and Italian Wikipedia describes a red winged greyhound running towards the future.

Auto Zeitung calls the first product futuristic in its drawing. The Laika 500 caravan of 1964 had an upper half that could be lowered while travelling, by what the Caravan Club calls a telescopic mechanism and Italian Wikipedia a hydraulic system. It was named for the car meant to pull it: Italian Wikipedia says its small size let a Fiat Nuova 500 tow it. The same source says the idea was soon dropped for more conventional designs, that the 1970 catalogue ran from 3.3 to 4.15 metres, and that output rose from 123 caravans in 1967 to 286 in 1968.

Motorhomes followed. A UK dealer’s history says the first factory opened in 1974. The first motorhome, the Motorpolo, is dated 1977 by Italian Wikipedia and 1974 by the Caravan Club, and Auto Zeitung describes it as Laika’s first fully integrated model. Exports began with the Laserhome series in 1980, Italian Wikipedia says, and the first maxi-motorhome, in the Mito series, came in 1991.

Curved walls and a new plant.

The two names that still carry the brand arrived in the 1990s. Ecovip made its debut in 1992, as an alcove motorhome with a double front window that Italian Wikipedia calls a distinctive Laika feature, and Auto Zeitung says it has been a permanent part of the range since. Kreos followed in 1999, with a design defined by curved walls. Those walls became part of how the company talks about itself: in a press release published by Tesori d’Italia on 4 December 2020, it said its sinuous lines and curved walls evoke the Chianti hills, and that its building methods are rooted in the Tuscan tradition of carpentry. Italian Wikipedia dates the slogan “Enjoy the Dolce Vita” to 2013.

The Hymer group of Bad Waldsee, Germany, now the Erwin Hymer Group, took over at the turn of the century. Italian Wikipedia and the Caravan Club say Laika joined in 2000; a UK dealer’s 2024 history says 1999. That made it a sister of German brands such as Dethleffs, and Auto Zeitung now calls it Hymer’s Italian premium brand.

The move out of Tavarnelle came more than fifty years after the founding. CamperOnLine reported on 29 June 2015 that Laika, located at Tavarnelle since 1964, would soon move to a new plant at San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where work was due to end within months. Italian Wikipedia dates the move to February 2016 and says the opening was attended by the prime minister of the time, Matteo Renzi. The architecture site Divisare published the building in October 2016, crediting the project to Tomasi Associati Architetti and listing 29,760 square metres of production space and 4,590 of offices and services.

Ownership moved up a level three years later. Thor Industries of Elkhart, Indiana, completed its purchase of the Erwin Hymer Group in February 2019, and the newspaper group QN noted on 28 October 2019 that Laika had passed to the American company, with about 500 employees at San Casciano by that point. The Kosmo range followed in 2018, according to Italian Wikipedia. CamperOnLine reported in September 2020 that about 80 percent of what Laika makes is exported, and that Etrusco, a younger brand, had recently joined the Laika family.

How motorhome makers present themselves.

Motorhome makers tend to sell a picture before they sell a vehicle: a white van on a pitch by the sea, doors open, with the road implied behind it. The colour itself has a history in the category. Chausson says it was the first maker to “dare” white bodywork, on its 1984 overcabs.

The second image is more technical. Layout is what buyers compare, so makers lean on plans, cut-away views and model numbers that stand for a floor plan. Chausson’s 2027 catalogue, for instance, explains a lounge feature by listing the numbered models that have it, and Rapido’s vans run from V55 to V68. Rapido’s website offers a comparison tool and 360-degree views of its models, and Chausson’s invites buyers to compare its ranges by the way they want to travel.

The third setting is the dealer forecourt. Chausson says it reaches more than 15 European countries through specialist distributors, and Trigano, its parent, created the Libertium dealership network in 2023 and says it has 70 sales outlets. Rapido’s history shows how early this mattered: Le Journal des Entreprises counts ten dealers in the brand’s first years of rigid caravans.

The category’s annual stage is the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf. The fair calls itself the world’s leading trade fair for mobile travel, and reports 259,000 visitors in 2026, with 834 exhibitors from 41 countries in 15 halls and on the outdoor grounds. It says those visitors covered more than 250,000 square metres of motorhomes, caravans, roof-top tents and equipment, which puts whole vehicles, not just pictures of them, in front of the public. The next edition runs from 27 August to 5 September 2027.

“Italian Excellence in Motion.”

Laika set out its identity in writing in July 2026. A press release headed “Italian Excellence in Motion” set out a new brand identity for the 2026/27 season, built around that claim and covering the logo, website, configurator and app. The company calls itself a premium performance brand in the motorhome and campervan segment. Its stated method is subtraction: “reduction becomes the fundamental design principle.” The logo, it says, has been refined to reduce visual weight, drawing on “contemporary automotive and luxury design codes.”

The 2026 model releases use the same automotive language. From the 2026/27 season, the company says, the whole Kreos range is built on Mercedes-Benz chassis, in three exterior styles it calls Black Carbon, Rosegold and Grand-Prix, with the Kreos H 5109 MB as the new flagship for the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf. The Ecovip Evoluzione, a campervan the company bills as “designed by Laika,” comes in four identities named Arancio Assen, Azzurro Le Mans, Verde Mugello and Grigio Nardò, which it describes as motorsport-inspired, with OZ Racing alloy wheels. Upholstery options carry names such as Monte Carlo, Imola and Modena.

The making remains Tuscan. The Caravan Club says Laika’s motorhomes are produced at San Casciano in Val di Pesa, in the Chianti region, and CamperOnLine used the phrase “Made in San Casciano” in 2020. The company’s release describes Laika Caravans as part of the Erwin Hymer Group, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Thor Industries. Automoto.it reported on 22 January 2026 that three Laika models, the Ecovip Campervan, Kosmo Motorhome and Ecovip Motorhome, took third places in import categories at the Promobil readers’ Reisemobil des Jahres awards, presented at the CMT show in Stuttgart.

For a design guide, Laika shows how a brand can keep a 1964 story while rewriting its surface, moving from a space-age dog and Chianti curves to a lighter logo and a language of reduction. Compare Hymer, the founding brand of the group it belongs to, and Dethleffs, a sister brand in Germany. For this guide we use cypress, travertine and terracotta with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Laika’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.