Is the future electric?

[captpierre]

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/ca/land/mercury-avator-electric-outboards/

[captpierre]

Equivalent to 3.5hp 4 str  

Can run 1 hr 20 min at full throttle on 1 fully charged lithium battery 

[OhioFisherman]

https://www.boatblurb.com/post/mercury-expands-avator-electric-outboard-lineup

 

small boat motor?    https://www.boatblurb.com/post/mercury-expands-avator-electric-outboard-lineup

 

[Fisherman]

2 hours ago, captpierre said:

Equivalent to 3.5hp 4 str  

Can run 1 hr 20 min at full throttle on 1 fully charged lithium battery 

Don't forget 20 feet of rope for a tow and oars.

 

[dave524]

2 hours ago, captpierre said:

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/ca/land/mercury-avator-electric-outboards/

Looks like an old McCulloch outboard 😜

[Dara]

A bit more voltage and power but basically an electric trolling motor. 

Just keep making better batteries. The rest is easy

[DanD]

You'll still need to haul gasoline with you for the generator, that's to recharge the boat's motor's battery. Not just any old generator either, an inverter type that won't burn out the motor's electronics with unstable charging voltage. 

16 hours ago, Dara said:

Just keep making better batteries. The rest is easy

I agree 100%. When there's a battery that can deliver a minimum  of 4X's the available power or maybe better said longevity then I might be interested? 

Dan... 

[AKRISONER]

Absolutely, everything about electric is higher performance than any ICB.

the battery tech just needs more advancement but that doesn’t seem very concerning when you consider how far the tech has come just within the past 8? Years. 
 

boats especially, how often are you driving your outboard 300+km in a trip?

 

the battery tech to troll all day already exists, heck most of us have an electric motor on our boats already and use it all day. 
 

imagine the hole shot?! 😮

[DanD]

31 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

imagine the hole shot?! 😮

Yeah the bottom end torque that electrics have is very impressive. It's the longevity of the battery that concerns me? It would be like herring your motor running out of gas. It's easy and cost effective to have a second fuel tank. At this point in time you can't say that about an extra battery.

Dan..

[glen]

Battery is expensive.  I do 250km on trips.  
It’s still 20y away for most boats.  

[OhioFisherman]

No other mfgs batteries will fit it by design? Eliminates competition?

[Spiel]

3 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Absolutely, everything about electric is higher performance than any ICB.

the battery tech just needs more advancement but that doesn’t seem very concerning when you consider how far the tech has come just within the past 8? Years. 
 

boats especially, how often are you driving your outboard 300+km in a trip?

 

the battery tech to troll all day already exists, heck most of us have an electric motor on our boats already and use it all day. 
 

imagine the hole shot?! 😮

And when we run out of child mined lithium, then what?

[AKRISONER]

50 minutes ago, Spiel said:

And when we run out of child mined lithium, then what?

I guess the same answer as when we run out of blood stained saudi oil?

[AKRISONER]

3 hours ago, glen said:

Battery is expensive.  I do 250km on trips.  
It’s still 20y away for most boats.  

250km in a single boat ride…you can appreciate that this is just a wild outlier of regular usage when referring to the recreational boating market.

 

 

[Fisherman]

Now suppose someone goes to a derby that lasts a couple days to a week such as the Owen Sound Spectacular.  Where do you charge overnight.  Or you go and rent a cottage for a week somewhere,  will they have charge facilities.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Fisherman

[glen]

Boats take a lot of energy to move.  Imagine the size of the battery it would take to replace 20gal of gas.  It takes two big batteries to run a trolling motor.
 

[Terry]

And carrying to a back lake where you have a boat cached

[woodenboater]

imagine if they could fuel cell outboards ? byproduct is water sooo...

E-outboards are likely going to happen but will not be cheap. With LiFePo batteries, the area under the deck could be waterproof storage. An option to separate the banks in half so you run half the bank going out, and keep the second as backup. guy can dream I guess lol

[Fisherman]

Imagine the weight of the boat, a Tesla car battery weighs about 1500 lbs, I would guess a boat battery would weigh around 400 to get any time/distance.

[OhioFisherman]

25 - 30 years ago? Minnkota was marketing hp electric motors, I believe theirs was 3 1/2 hp. Who's battery is better, merc or yamaha? lol

[Dara]

On 1/7/2023 at 5:43 PM, captpierre said:

Equivalent to 3.5hp 4 str  

Can run 1 hr 20 min at full throttle on 1 fully charged lithium battery 

I'm reading 750 watts at the prop which what I see is 1 hp

What am I missing with 4 stroke

[Dara]

Couple years ago my son staked a claim bearing lithium in NWT.

Lets see how that pans out

 

 

On 1/8/2023 at 6:17 PM, Spiel said:

And when we run out of child mined lithium, then what?

 

23 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

I guess the same answer as when we run out of blood stained saudi oil?

 

[Spiel]

On 1/8/2023 at 7:08 PM, AKRISONER said:

I guess the same answer as when we run out of blood stained saudi oil?

The truth we don't need Saudi oil, we have plenty here we just need to get government out of the way.

[AKRISONER]

17 hours ago, Fisherman said:

Imagine the weight of the boat, a Tesla car battery weighs about 1500 lbs, I would guess a boat battery would weigh around 400 to get any time/distance.

I think some folks might be perceiving me as some kind of activist, I’ll make it abundantly clear, I drive a straight piped diesel truck that tows my boat that has a smoking two stroke on it. Such is the reality of boating in 2023 on a 35 year olds budget. Ya I’d love a new fuel sipping four stroke but it’s just not my financial reality.

 

but, as mentioned “one can dream” and the dream when you read into what’s going on in this space isn’t as far fetched as it seems. What’s perhaps most impressive and truthfully not something people can argue about is that the performance of electric engines is so high that in most ways except cost at the moment they outperform ICB’s.
 

like most new technology the price decreases with time. It’s very very conceivable that in 30 years time you’d look back and laugh at the fact that you used to burn gas to power your boat. Especially with your new ultra performance electric outboard that outperforms your old gas engine in every way possible.
 

remember, icb’s have been around 100+ years, companies have been provided with 100 years to improve and fine tune the things and maximize their efficiency. I don’t think a single person in this thread would willfully trade in their new 2020+ yamaha Honda or merc 4 stroke for a 1970 Chrysler outboard lol.

give electric outboard companies 100 years to fine tune their stuff, holy cow the possibilities.

On the weight issue? Sitting in my garage as we speak I’ve got 4 group 31agm’s in my boat, plus a 200hp outboard (remember you don’t need a heavy motor!), plus a full tank of 100 litres of gasoline, plus a tank of oil in my boat…the weight difference, is nowhere near as far as you think.

Edited January 10, 2023 by AKRISONER

[AKRISONER]

22 minutes ago, Spiel said:

The truth we don't need Saudi oil, we have plenty here we just need to get government out of the way.

I personally wish I could figure out a way to make the extraction of crude from the oil sands even 1% more efficient. Lots of companies working on this stuff. Then I could buy every boat I’d ever want lol.