ECO-FRIENDLY OUTBOARDS

摘要

EVOY'S ELECTRIC MOTORS ARE SET to become the world's most powerful commercially available electric outboards. The Norwegian company is taking preorders for its 150 hp motor, which it plans to release to European markets this summer and to North American markets in 2022. Its 300 hp and 450 hp engines are expected to be available for preorder in 2023 and 2025, respectively. All Evoy motors will be powered by external lithium-ion batteries. Yachtsmen interested in the 150 hp motor can select a 60-, 120- or 180-kilowatt-hour battery and can spec multiple batteries per motor to increase overall range."Making sure the software takes care of all the logic around the motor's cooling,safety,charging,power and torque has been a challenge," says Leif Stav0strand,Evoy's CEO,adding that getting the software shipshape required years of testing and development.f Critically,future software upgrades will be han­dled by over-the-air updates—a process that will allow Evoy to update its engines efficiently and regularly and employ big data to improve the products,which the company aims to make fully autonomous by the year 2030.Additional research and development time is the reason the bigger outboards won't be available for several years."The higher torque and power than fossil-fuel-powered outboards must be managed in a way so[as]to not compromise the motor's me­chanical setup," Stavostrand says.