nestawayboats
Active member
Before anyone moans, and just to be clear, yes we are a UK dealer for Epropulsion and Torqeedo electric outboard motors. But we have an interest in the wider market and often when asked offer advice on products that we know about even if we don't sell them. So I thought an update might be of interest to those considering their dinghy propulsion arrangements for 2023... most of this has not been shown in public in the UK yet.
Probably the biggest news at Dusseldorf (in electric outboard motor world) is that Mercury have finally announced pricing on their much-teased - for over a year now! - new Avator 7.5e. That makes them the first of the "mainstream" outboard manufacturers to launch something that rivals the Torqeedo 1103 or Epropulsion Spirit portable electric outboards (by which I mean something suitable for a yacht tender). The Mercury Avator 7.5e has a 900W motor with a slot-in/out 1000Wh battery housed inside a very sleek casing at the top, with a lovely clear screen and lots of smartphone functionality etc. The things we like about it are the looks, that screen (easily visible from where you'd sit), the lack of cables to connect, the adjustability of the tiller, and the relatively conventional tilt mechanism. The motor and clamp bracket are separable, which saves a bit of passing up and down weight, but we're not sure it's much of an advantage when passing up from a dinghy to a pushpit as then you will need the clamp bracket to be on the pushpit to fit it to... The other things we're not sure about are the weight (significantly heavier than main rivals see below), and the physical size because although putting the battery inside the top casing makes it very sleek, it also means the storage size is not reduced by taking out the battery. Oh yes and the price, as announced on 21 January 2023, €3300 Euros, or about £2900 GBP (inc VAT). ("Quite punchy" on price, as one customer said to me!)
Comparing it to the current electric outboard motor market leaders then:
- NEW Mercury Avator 7.5e. 916W motor, 48V 1000Wh battery, total weight (inc batt) 27.1kg, weight ex battery 19.5kg (16.7kg ex clamp bracket), warranty 3 years on motor 2 on battery, price (est from Euro conversion) £2900
- Epropulsion Spirit PLUS. 1000W motor, 48V 1276Wh battery, total weight 19.3kg, weight ex battery 10.6kg, warranty 3 years (2 years plus 1 on registration), price £1875
- Torqeedo 1103CS. 1100W motor, 29V 915Wh battery, total weight 17.3kg, weight ex battery 11.3kg, warranty 2 years, price (recently dropped to) £2049
Elsewhere in the show, Temo also had a reasonably representative pre-production prototype of their new (should be available UK September this year) 1000 model which will be quite comparable to the three motors above, at 1000W with a 35V 740Wh battery at (we were told) a price of around €2800 Euros (~£2450). It has an interesting retractable tiller, slot in battery without cable(s) to connect, and will be the lightest in this class at around 15kg inc battery (but noting that's at least in part because it has quite a bit less battery capacity than the Epropulsion for example). It's a much more conventional outboard than Temo's existing 450, which is a very lightweight "longtail" type.
And lastly for this post, Parsun had the Joy 1.2, another new entrant in this general class, and something that has let's say "a remarkable resemblance to" the Epropulsion Spirit. Maybe a bit like their petrol outboards bear a remarkable resemblance to (indeed have many interchangeable parts with) some petrol outboards from a manufacturer beginning with Y. At least there is a a lot of resemblance at the top end, other than having two cables to connect (not a forward step in our opinion) rather than one... the bottom end looks quite different. Interestingly it was also more expensive than the Epropulsion, offering a 1440Wh battery and priced at about £2400. We don't know if that's coming to the UK.
As always the show is massive and busy, but well worth a visit.
Ian Thomson
Nestaway Boats Ltd
Probably the biggest news at Dusseldorf (in electric outboard motor world) is that Mercury have finally announced pricing on their much-teased - for over a year now! - new Avator 7.5e. That makes them the first of the "mainstream" outboard manufacturers to launch something that rivals the Torqeedo 1103 or Epropulsion Spirit portable electric outboards (by which I mean something suitable for a yacht tender). The Mercury Avator 7.5e has a 900W motor with a slot-in/out 1000Wh battery housed inside a very sleek casing at the top, with a lovely clear screen and lots of smartphone functionality etc. The things we like about it are the looks, that screen (easily visible from where you'd sit), the lack of cables to connect, the adjustability of the tiller, and the relatively conventional tilt mechanism. The motor and clamp bracket are separable, which saves a bit of passing up and down weight, but we're not sure it's much of an advantage when passing up from a dinghy to a pushpit as then you will need the clamp bracket to be on the pushpit to fit it to... The other things we're not sure about are the weight (significantly heavier than main rivals see below), and the physical size because although putting the battery inside the top casing makes it very sleek, it also means the storage size is not reduced by taking out the battery. Oh yes and the price, as announced on 21 January 2023, €3300 Euros, or about £2900 GBP (inc VAT). ("Quite punchy" on price, as one customer said to me!)
Comparing it to the current electric outboard motor market leaders then:
- NEW Mercury Avator 7.5e. 916W motor, 48V 1000Wh battery, total weight (inc batt) 27.1kg, weight ex battery 19.5kg (16.7kg ex clamp bracket), warranty 3 years on motor 2 on battery, price (est from Euro conversion) £2900
- Epropulsion Spirit PLUS. 1000W motor, 48V 1276Wh battery, total weight 19.3kg, weight ex battery 10.6kg, warranty 3 years (2 years plus 1 on registration), price £1875
- Torqeedo 1103CS. 1100W motor, 29V 915Wh battery, total weight 17.3kg, weight ex battery 11.3kg, warranty 2 years, price (recently dropped to) £2049
Elsewhere in the show, Temo also had a reasonably representative pre-production prototype of their new (should be available UK September this year) 1000 model which will be quite comparable to the three motors above, at 1000W with a 35V 740Wh battery at (we were told) a price of around €2800 Euros (~£2450). It has an interesting retractable tiller, slot in battery without cable(s) to connect, and will be the lightest in this class at around 15kg inc battery (but noting that's at least in part because it has quite a bit less battery capacity than the Epropulsion for example). It's a much more conventional outboard than Temo's existing 450, which is a very lightweight "longtail" type.
And lastly for this post, Parsun had the Joy 1.2, another new entrant in this general class, and something that has let's say "a remarkable resemblance to" the Epropulsion Spirit. Maybe a bit like their petrol outboards bear a remarkable resemblance to (indeed have many interchangeable parts with) some petrol outboards from a manufacturer beginning with Y. At least there is a a lot of resemblance at the top end, other than having two cables to connect (not a forward step in our opinion) rather than one... the bottom end looks quite different. Interestingly it was also more expensive than the Epropulsion, offering a 1440Wh battery and priced at about £2400. We don't know if that's coming to the UK.
As always the show is massive and busy, but well worth a visit.
Ian Thomson
Nestaway Boats Ltd