EV technology for your next boat ???

superheat6k

superheat6k

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The application of modern battery technology and electric motor drives on boats is becoming more advanced than many might realise.

How many have yet considered an all electric Boat ?

Who fancies 600v DC floating around their salty engine rooms ?

What actual real life range and / or speed would work for most of us ?

This is a conversation mostly avoided on here - someone has to start it.
 
When large electric trucks are a common sight on the road..they will get marinised …the real problem will be electricity supply to the marinas…will anyone make the investment ?
 
rafiki_ said:
Large electric trucks are a dream. For a 44 tonne truck to get 500 mile range, the batteries will weigh 20 tonnes.
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They are here now…the introduction will be slow then pick up matching the electric car experience
 
superheat6k said:
The application of modern battery technology and electric motor drives on boats is becoming more advanced than many might realise.

How many have yet considered an all electric Boat ?

Who fancies 600v DC floating around their salty engine rooms ?

What actual real life range and / or speed would work for most of us ?

This is a conversation mostly avoided on here - someone has to start it.
Click to expand...
It is already happening. For example:-

Super Yacht "Cecilia" Full Electric Propulsion with Battery Storage - EST-Floattech

Those batteries are probably even more expensive than those Trojan golf cart batteries.
 
While some electric cars seem to be very high powered I would expect an electric powered motorboat with accommodation to be a slow displacement boat in order to achieve a useful range.
I don't see marina power as the issue as most boats don't move most of the time so a very slow charge rate would be fine, There could perhaps be a fast charger option at a couple of locations in the marina.
 
westernman said:
It is already happening. For example:-

Super Yacht "Cecilia" Full Electric Propulsion with Battery Storage - EST-Floattech

Those batteries are probably even more expensive than those Trojan golf cart batteries.
Click to expand...
But that is diesel electric with trick stuff to divert surplus diesel output to a large storage bank to extend the electric only running of domestic loads. Propulsion still requires diesel, it is just the drive that is electric and nothing new in that for boats where the domestic power requirements exceed those of propulsion.

Little connection with EV technology.
 
Tranona said:
But that is diesel electric with trick stuff to divert surplus diesel output to a large storage bank to extend the electric only running of domestic loads. Propulsion still requires diesel, it is just the drive that is electric and nothing new in that for boats where the domestic power requirements exceed those of propulsion.

Little connection with EV technology.
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Propulsion does not need diesel. It can move on battery power alone. Not very fast or very far but it can do it.
 
MartynG said:
While some electric cars seem to be very high powered I would expect an electric powered motorboat with accommodation to be a slow displacement boat in order to achieve a useful range.
I don't see marina power as the issue as most boats don't move most of the time so a very slow charge rate would be fine, There could perhaps be a fast charger option at a couple of locations in the marina.
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I think hydrofoils will start to appear on ever larger boats as designers seek to keep speeds up whilst reducing energy requirements.
 
westernman said:
Propulsion does not need diesel. It can move on battery power alone. Not very fast or very far but it can do it.
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But it is not even as sophisticated as the first Toyota Prius hybrid. The original post was suggesting it might be time for an all electric boat.

Hybrid boats like this have been around for a long time. The only difference here is shifting the balance more toward electric rather than diesel by putting in more battery capacity.
 
Tranona said:
But it is not even as sophisticated as the first Toyota Prius hybrid. The original post was suggesting it might be time for an all electric boat.

Hybrid boats like this have been around for a long time. The only difference here is shifting the balance more toward electric rather than diesel by putting in more battery capacity.
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Thank you for confirming that it is already happening which was what I originally said.
 
The OP asked another question - what do people think about 600v DC in their engine rooms?
We aren't talking about high voltages for low power electronics here.
We are talking serious electrical energy.
 
superheat6k said:
The application of modern battery technology and electric motor drives on boats is becoming more advanced than many might realise.

How many have yet considered an all electric Boat ?

Who fancies 600v DC floating around their salty engine rooms ?

What actual real life range and / or speed would work for most of us ?

This is a conversation mostly avoided on here - someone has to start it.
Click to expand...
internal combustion is the future for large and long range vehicles Including coaches lorries and boats.

electric is fine for small stuff. It’s not the answer for a planing motorboat of any size.

I don’t want lithium batteries of any size on board. Low risk of combustion but boat loss inevitable if it happens. They are as good as inextinguishable.

Note I did not say what the ICE would burn.
 
Elessar said:
internal combustion is the future for large and long range vehicles Including coaches lorries and boats.

electric is fine for small stuff. It’s not the answer for a planing motorboat of any size.
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Which begs the question, if ICE is phased out for personal use, where does that leave motorboating as a hobby?
 
MartynG said:
While some electric cars seem to be very high powered I would expect an electric powered motorboat with accommodation to be a slow displacement boat in order to achieve a useful range.
I don't see marina power as the issue as most boats don't move most of the time so a very slow charge rate would be fine, There could perhaps be a fast charger option at a couple of locations in the marina.
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The government says ‘heat pumps”
the government says “electric cars”
The national grid cannot cope already. 2 years wait or more for power provision to new buildings.
Some rapid car chargers now have batteries in then so they can charge themselves slowly and charge cars quickly. That extra cost and complication because of lack of capacity.
All that power for a marina? Dream on I’m afraid.
 
flaming said:
Which begs the question, if ICE is phased out for personal use, where does that leave motorboating as a hobby?
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Who knows. But I can’t see the car phase out happening on time. Hopefully a suitable fuel will arrive in time. The consequence of the rising cost of fuel doesn’t just hit motorboaters, it hits the price of crisps in Tesco, so there is a good incentive to come up with something. (By the way I’ve had electric cars for nearly 9 years now, I’m not an electric car cynic)
 
Elessar said:
Who knows. But I can’t see the car phase out happening on time. Hopefully a suitable fuel will arrive in time. The consequence of the rising cost of fuel doesn’t just hit motorboaters, it hits the price of crisps in Tesco, so there is a good incentive to come up with something. (By the way I’ve had electric cars for nearly 9 years now, I’m not an electric car cynic)
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I think the ICE on boats issue is a lot about optics and politics. I'm actually amazed that no politician has yet said "wait a minute, we're phasing out new petrol fiestas, but not new motorboats that use more fuel in an afternoon than a fiesta uses in a year..." The optics of "1 rule for the stretched single mum who needs a car to get to work, and one for the rich people with big boats" isn't a great one. Especially where you've phased one out because of the CO2 footprint, but not the one with a much higher CO2 footprint....

On the assumption that as EVs become the norm smaller and smaller tows will start putting ULEZs in place, and that picturesque tourist seaside towns will be fairly high on the list of towns where the council decides to go that way, then it's a strange situation where the cars driving into the town must comply to a set of air quality rules, but the leisure boats on the harbour don't....
 
There are a lot more cars than leisure boats so in that sense the emissions from boats isn't a big deal.

Diesel engined boats could use HVO which has much lower emissions than diesel and can be used with no modifications to the diesel engine . Unfortunately HVO is not responsibly sourced at the moment but that may change.
 
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