Martin Perlot started SilverLeaf Electronics in 1998. He had come from being head of sales and marketing at Safari Motorcoach Corporation (SMC), where they had developed the first electronic diesel engine to hit the RV market.
SilverLeaf’s first product was the Vehicle Monitoring System (VMS) 2. The second VMS iteration was interfaced with SMC’s electronic diesel engines, offering readings on pressure, temperature and fuel economy, among other measurements.
“A lot of that instrumentation has become commonplace, but we were the first to do that in heavy vehicles,” said Perlot, SilverLeaf’s founder and general manager. SilverLeaf developed the RV industry’s version of the digital screens on so many passenger cars’ dashboards today. Though, the company’s version back then was a monochrome vacuum-fluorescent display.
“The bulk of our business today is electronics that tie in everything in the RV into one coherent, intelligent system,” Perlot said, mentioning touch screens in addition to utilizing “the cloud.” SilverLeaf overwhelmingly serves the RV industry, but has some presence in marine and heavy vehicle markets.
