Electric Engine

[Franklin]

Has anybody read that article (http://www.cruisingworld.com/article.jsp?ID=36169&typeID=396&catID=0) on Cruising World about the electic motor? The article sounds great until they starting talking batteries and price. Can they really be serious about this. Who would pay $40,000 for an engine to power a $150,000 boat when they can get one for $6,000? Sure, it has some nice benifits but come on. Ok...lets say compotition brings the price of the motor down, you still have to replace the batteries (almost $4,000) every so often. They talk about it being low maintanience, but that is one big price tag for maintanience. I'm starting to think that the area to make a lot of money is in batteries. If I could come up with a battery that could be cheap and produce the electricty for this, then I would be a savior to the sailing world and be rich too

 

[Steve]

Electric Engines

I think STI's market is the $400k boat market, especially cruisers who always complain about having to run engine(s) everyday. Those folks usually get gensets anyway, so the added cost isn't that much, percentage-wiseAnd the thought of silently pulling away from the dock . . .

 

[Debra B]

sti costs seem high

solomon is an expensive choice in electric motors, but they are the only company selling directly to the marine market. An AC motor from solectria would cost about 2 grand, gearbox, 2 grand, controller 3500. (Not sure if you could go direct drive, or pay 1200 or so for adaptor to transmission) All this is about what you would pay for similar diesel. I prefer the variable AC motors from siemens, though they are a bit complicated from the control standpoint. They are selling only to the car market. variable sine inverter yields variable rpm delivering max torque at min rpm. Soltectria are the first AC motor/controller being sold to individuals, so I may have to consider this.Simple DC motors are cheapest, but most would need a 2-to-1 transmission, and they really only like to run at 1 rpm. They also rely on brushes since they have to run at variable RPMs, more maintenance. Controlling them is much cheaper.The problem today remains battery energy density. 10 bats for solomon - fewer for other choices - are heavy, and large.When diesel is 10 bucks a gallon, this option will look better and be cheaper.