It might be a 90-pound weakling next to the biggest and baddest of the combustion world, but Evoy's new zero-emissions electric outboard motor and powertrain solution will put it at the pointy end of the all-electric market.
This Norwegian company popped up in 2018, creating electric drive system for new boat builds as well as retrofits for existing machines. Its 800-horsepower inboard powertrain is already the most powerful you can buy (in the small boat sector, anyway), and now the company has released its first outboard, plus a roadmap for the next few years.
The outboard in question, the Evoy Pro is specced at 90 kW nominal, 150 kW peak (120/200 hp), but Evoy says it'll be the rough equivalent of a 150-horsepower combustion motor thanks to its meaty magnetic torque – 170 Nm nominal, 350 Nm peak (125/258 lb-ft). It's currently in the prototype stage, and testing over this summer and fall will put the final performance figures on it. It should weigh around the 150 kg (330 lb) mark.
Likewise, the range can't currently be promised. It'll be highly dependent on the boat design and will be sussed out during testing, but Evoy will be selling modular battery bricks, probably in 25 kWh blocks, that can be installed in series or parallel to give you 50 or 100 kWh of storage. Charging will likely max out at 11 kW AC and 50 kW DC.
The system will ship with its own controllers, battery management, and electronic dash, with 10- or 16-inch screens. Weather, radio, marine navigation, Bluetooth, WiFi, 4G, system monitoring, trip logging and charge management as standard. You'll be able to option up with radar, echo-sounding and automatic identification systems (AIS), and Evoy is looking into an autopilot feature to take you from port to port if necessary.
This may be the most powerful electric outboard on the market right now, but Evoy's roadmap out to 2023 features two motors that will roughly double and triple this thing's output. The biggest, set to launch in about three years, will offer 450 horsepower continuous, peaking considerably higher when you need it to.
The biggest production outboard in the combustion world, as we understand, is currently the 627SV from Seven Marine, a giant, supercharged V8 peaking at 627 horsepower and weighing in at a monster 497 kg (1094 lb). So Evoy's got a way to go before it knocks the outright horsepower champ off its perch.
As for price? Again, TBC. The Evoy Pro will be more expensive than a combustion powertrain, for sure. But Evoy is willing to project that commercial operators will break even at about 350 hours of runtime a year – at least in Norway – using current fuel, electricity and maintenance costs.
Source: Evoy
Putzin around some lake seems about it.
The only downside I can see is when the batteries are done, you are done. Charging the batteries at a marina isn't as easy as buying a couple of gallons of gas and filling a tank. But with the addition of a good-sized solar panel (or two), this really isn't a hardship.
I have a 21' Sylvan pontoon with an Elco 20HP electric Outboard. Elco also has 30HP and a 50HP models. I choose the 20HP because it uses 4 12VT batteries (48Vt System) vs the 30HP using a 96VT system. It goes about 8 Kts and I calculated the 30HP on the pontoon would not go much faster. Feel free to E-mail me if you have any other questions. Rick@Jetmailbox.com
Here is Elco's Link
https://www.elcomotoryachts.com/product-category/electric-outboards/