The Future?

I have never really taken a massive interest in EVs until now, but owning a morris and a Freeman this video on you tube raised my interest:
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Basically it is a Morris minor with a 13kw async motor. 
Form what I gather there is 25 lithium 12v batteries wired in series. Chinese made thunder sky 160AH.
The old Morris 1098cc was about 48bHP I think so 13kW equates to 17HP so it's only for round town... but I could see this set up working in a freeman 22 or 23.
My basic maths tells me 13kW needs about 43amps assuming 12x25volt so these batteries will last about 4 hours at top whack... probably less in reality.
Cost £12k!
So money high, performance low...but you can see the direction of travel... and the Chinese seem to be spearheading the battery development...what are all our kids and budding engineers thinking about?

Love to convert my 22 to electric. No engine noise, silent sailing.... lovely.

Tesla are leading it, not only that, they’re giving away their IP to ensure development goes inline with their way of thinking.

Minerva wrote:I have never really taken a massive interest in EVs until now, but owning a morris and a Freeman this video on you tube raised my interest:

I too have a Morris Minor and a Freeman - they do seem to compliment each other although my Morris is a decade older than the boat!

A few years ago we hired an electric day boat with a small cabin and it was brilliant and an electric Freeman would be ideal albeit too expensive. 

One thing is for sure is that having been in and driven a Tesla, an EV will be my next car. Very impressive but too expensive just now. I am sure that prices will drop as more manufacturers compete in a few years time.

I keep looking at them, I could have a Renault Zoe or a Nissan Leaf as a company car with free charging at work. I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I have only tried a Tesla and I thought that was amazing but very expensive. I like the look of the new Leaf but that is too small for a family car for us and too big for a runaround. There is no pleasing some of us!!

We rented some space to a company that‘s in the running for London’s post office vans 

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While they were building their first prototype, they would take in cars to convert. We couldn’t believe the owner wanted this done, the engine was the best bit about this car, or so thought the 500 petrol heads I work with 

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Yes, that is an original GT500 which is now silent 

That is tragic....

Anyway, back to boats....this 25 was converted
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There used to be a tiny aft cabin boat on the Thames (can’t remember the make/model) that had solar panels on the roof and was powered by two small trolling motors

Hi.

We bought Patience, that electric 25 in the ad, last year.  The technology hails from the conversion done in 2000 - wet lead acid batteries, and an Etek 'pancake' style motor. Runs at 48v with two battery banks of eight 6v batteries 225AH which gives a total of 8 -10 hours cruising at just under 4 knots on the Broads (gentle-ish tides) before the dash for a charging socket.  5 knots drops to just over half that duration.

Its a delight to use - not silent but very quiet (there is no soundproofing yet on the 'motor' compartment and it does whine).  And no smell of diesel or petrol.  A newer Lynch motor would be quieter and give better range.

And newer technology for the batteries would give better range.  However very few electric boats are using lithium batteries, largely down to cost and more demanding installation/care.  Wet lead batteries are reliable and robust if looked after.  A new set of eight wet lead acid batteries is £1000 for each of the two banks we have.  A lot of money but should last 6-8 years.

An electric Freeman is perfectly viable for gentle cruising on the Broads, but might be more a challenge on The Thames.   And the 23 would perhaps be a better option - the 25 is that much larger to push through the water.

Cheers
Nick

Interesting...thanks Nick.

Yes thanks Nick and its very interesting to read about your boat. We have a relatively new diesel in our 23 but one day I would very much like to go electric.

There is an interesting development under way at Rolls Royce (see Daily Telegraph today 19 March article) whereby super-efficient batteries using contact lenses materiel shows promise to increase battery efficiency and life.   Basically, seems to be aiming towards using material to provide a super energy storage (capacitor type) 1000 - 10,000 times better than conventional types of battery.
Whatever, there is no doubt that within maybe 5-10 years we are going to see step increases in battery technology that will bring e-boat drive systems into daily use....