The use of electric propulsion in water transport usually boils down to discussing the prospects for the electrification of large ships and the submarine fleet, but there are companies on the market that are ready to invest in converting small boats with outboard motors to electricity. This segment will grow to $ 10 billion a year in the future.

Image source: ePropulsion Technology

In any case, this is the opinion of the young Hong Kong company ePropulsion, as noted by the Nikkei Asian Review, citing 36Kr. Since 2014, ePropulsion Technology has been developing low-power outboard motors for boats and small boats, capable of moving in both fresh and seawater. To date, ePropulsion has raised $ 921 million in investment and produced over 6000 outboard motors for boats in the past year alone. In fact, the company is the second largest manufacturer of such equipment in the world.

Outboard electric motors do not pollute water bodies and air, they are much less noisy, they are much more reliable than internal combustion engines. ePropulsion uses direct drive electric motors that do not require customer service. Currently, up to 90% of the outboard electric motors sold by the company are shipped outside of China. Next year, the share of corporate clients in the sales structure will be 40%. An important advantage of these outboard motors is the ability to replace the internal combustion engine without significant intervention in the structure of the vessel.

Power plants of this type have a high efficiency. If a gasoline engine provides an efficiency of no more than 20%, then an electric motor can offer an efficiency of up to 30%, and ePropulsion products increase this indicator to 50%. The company supplies motors with traction LFP batteries of various capacities with 48-volt electrics. According to the estimates of representatives of ePropulsion, the market turnover of outboard electric motors with a capacity of up to 400 horsepower will soon grow to $ 10 billion a year.