Over the weekend, Montreal-based Vision Marine Technologies, in partnership with Hellkat Powerboats, reached a historic milestone by shattering the 100-mph speed barrier for an electric watercraft. They smashed the world record for the fastest electric boat, achieving a top speed of 109 mph at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout 2022 in Missouri.

The Hellkat V32 32-ft catamaran hull was specifically designed to accommodate the battery banks to power a pair of Vision Marine’s flagship E-Motion electric outboards to break the record.

“The results we observed from this weekend’s race are only the tip of the iceberg,” said Xavier Montagne, Vision Marine’s CTO & COO. “This accomplishment is the fruit of many years of close technical collaboration with our European and American partners. We worked hard on optimizing the electric motors, the 700-V batteries, the cooling circuitry, and the hardware and software integration, which are quintessential to our success as a leader in the electric marine propulsion industry.”

Vision Marine’s internal engineering team and Shaun Torrente, President of Shaun Torrente Racing, rigged and tested the V32 in Florida over several months. A unique battery pack was developed by Vision Marine in partnership with race-sponsor Octillion Power Systems. Verso Capital-backed  Nextfour Solutions, a large industrial technology and design agency based in Finland, supplemented the vessel’s monitoring systems. Pat Weissman of Traction Products, Inc.’s Weisman Marine LLC, the maker of racing transaxles and transmissions, engineered the outdrives.

“It has been an amazing experience to push the boundaries of what people thought was impossible,” said Torrente. “In the past two days, we proved that the limits of electric propulsion are only in the minds of those that have not followed Vision Marine and our project.”

“We are at the forefront of revolutionizing the boating industry; we are pushing the limits with our innovative technology,” said Paul Beach, President of Octillion Power Systems. “I praise Octillion’s engineering team, who worked closely with Shaun Torrente and Vision Marine’s in-house R&D team to design a state-of-the-art battery pack to nourish the E-Motion propulsion system rigged on the V32.”

 

Commercial ambitions

While breaking the speed record was exciting, Vision Marine’s management, led by its CEO, Director, and Co-founder Alexandre Mongeon has bigger ambitions for the commercial boating market. The company’s leaders believe there is a dire need for a performance electric outboard that can accommodate a wide range of vessel applications.

The company says its flagship E-Motion outboard powertrain is the first fully electric purpose-built outboard powertrain system that combines an advanced battery pack, inverter, and high-efficiency motor with proprietary union assembly between the transmission and electric motor design using extensive control software. The powertrain systems engineering is said to improve the efficiency of the outboard powertrain, enhancing both range and performance.

Vision Marine also designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance electric recreational power boats to customers. The company says the design and technology applied to its own boats results in enhanced performance, with higher speeds and longer range.

It also shares its technology with others.

In July, Vision Marine announced a partnership with Groupe Beneteau, which will integrate the E-Motion system into models across its brand portfolio. A global market leader thanks to its Boat Division’s 11 brands, Groupe Beneteau offers nearly 180 recreational boat models serving diverse navigational needs and uses from sailing to motorboating, monohulls, and catamarans.

“After the construction and thorough testing of a first, jointly developed prototype in early 2022, the objective is to bring to market a 100% electric boat and propulsion package,” said Erik Stromberg, Power and Motor Yacht Product Director at Groupe Beneteau. “The key to electrification is to have a full analysis of the customer use case. Many of the boats in our portfolio fit perfectly with a 100% electric solution. This solution is complementary and fully compatible with our other propulsion packages.”

The first collaboration between the two companies will be the launch of the fully electric 22-ft Four Winns H2 OB (outboard) runabout. It will be shown at the IBEX 365 boat show, owned and produced by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and RAI Amsterdam, in late September in Tampa, FL, with deliveries expected in Spring 2023. The technology will also be rolled out by other brands within Groupe Beneteau, both in North America and Europe.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to power the Four Winns boat with our E-Motion 180E technology and look forward to a long-standing partnership with them,” said Mongeon. “We continue to showcase our technology and rig the E-Motion powertrain on numerous third-party boats in order to formally move towards scaled production of our E-Motion technology for commercial usage.”

 

E-Motion

That E-Motion technology is adapted from the automotive market. The 180E powertrain system puts out 180 hp (135 kW) and has a battery capacity of 70 kW·h aimed at day boating. Its power and torque output is designed primarily to propel powerboats such as pontoons, center consoles, and catamarans.

As Vision Marine execs see it, traditional electric outboard technology has been low power and low voltage—therefore low performance. They believe that there is currently nothing comparable to Vision Marine’s high-performance and eco-friendly E-Motion electric outboard motor even close to being market-ready. Though many major OEMs have developed their own electric outboards, none close to high-performance technology, they believe that the gate is left open for Vision Marine to step in.

“The E-Motion propulsion system is not only a motor and a high-voltage battery but also a fully optimized powertrain system designed to increase performance and reduce maintenance,” said Montagne. “We have worked hard with McLaren Engineering and its parent company Linamar Corp. to design a very secure and easy-to-use system. This will change the way consumers go boating.”

In addition, the company claims that the system can contribute to a more than 90% reduction in energy cost and has a highly competitive total cost of ownership, compared with ICEs (internal combustion engines), due to the marginal amount of required maintenance. It points to a fully sealed electric outboard motor, which has few moving parts, no oil to check, no spark plugs to replace—and no gasoline to burn, which continues to be extremely expensive.

The E-Motion does not need any special charging infrastructure or equipment—just a 220-V outlet, which is already present in virtually every marina’s infrastructure. Similar to electric passenger cars, since most boats are charged overnight when they are not being used, this allows for ample time to get a full charge for many hours of usage the next day.

The 180E powertrain system can be rigged and custom fit into virtually any 18-29 ft boat. It is designed for a 15-nmi range, which the company says is more than enough to cover the average family’s day on the water—generally around 9 nmi. On average, the cost to charge that 18-29 ft electric boat for a full family outing is about $5-6 per day, as opposed to as much as $200 per day for an ICE-powered boat.

 

Partnering for production

Many of the world-record partners are also onboard with Vision Marine for production.

Perhaps most strategic is the partnership with McLaren Engineering, which will manufacture and assemble Vision Marine’s E-Motion technology supported by testing, parts, tooling development, and designing the union assembly for mass production. Vision Marine says that the large, global presence of Linamar/McLaren enables it to scale production to levels expected from OEMs due to increasing consumer demand.

A high-voltage battery is required for marine vessels to easily reach speed. For this, Vision Marine formed a venture with Octillion Power Systems, the latter’s first-ever marine industry partnership. It is developing a customized high-voltage 35-kW·h high-density battery pack for use within the recreational boating market—and by Vision Marine exclusively. The E-Motion powertrain uses two battery packs.

Vision Marine is partnering with Traction Products/Weismann Marine on the custom lower unit assembly that accommodates the high torque generated by the E-Motion outboard. This higher torque requires creating a lower unit capable of cooling the motor and maintaining a low-noise operation.

A partnership with Nextfour Solutions resulted in the Q Display, the smart center console “infotainment” system included with the E-Motion powertrain package. The plug-and-play multifunctional device integrates an onboard computer for features such as an advanced maritime navigation, mobile connectivity, weather forecasts, real-time speed and fuel economy, an entertainment system, and regular software updates. In addition, an automatic logbook records routes and provides trip history information, and a “guard functionality” alarm system protects it from theft.