METSTRADE presents the first opportunity to see a complete mockup installation of the system, comprising a surface drive unit mounted through the transom to the battery system, AI controller and helm interface. SuyperyachtNews spoke with eD-TEC founder Michael Jost during the Cannes Yachting Festival. The key, Jost explained, is going faster to go further. 

The first eD-QDrive will debut in an 8.6 metre RIB with a range of 70 nautical miles at 30 knots. This system offers 100kW continuous power, which can be boosted to 200kW for a limited time, via a high C-rate battery bank scalable from 80 to 320kWh.

eD-TEC founder Michael Jost

The scalability includes the development of drive units capable of delivering up to 600kW each, which enable 2,400kW combined on a quad drive installation – suitable for powering yachts up to 30m in length. The drives are mounted through the transom and can be removed at this point using a quick mount frame for relatively fast replacement and servicing. The forward end of the unit offers a power-in socket, two 24V sockets for trim tabs and foil actuators and two CAN bus connectors. 

All other components – the motor, cooling seawater inlet and outlet, motor controller, high-torque gearbox, and humidity, vibration and temperature sensors – are integrated into the drive unit, meaning that there are no further through hull fittings.

“The nautical industry cannot stay in the combustion era,” says Jost. “But the problem currently is that range is limited with electric-drive boats unless you cruise quite slowly. We have developed our system in tandem with the truth that unlike cars – where if you double your speed, you quadruple your drag – if your boat has a stepped hull or foils, once you are planing or flying your drag actually drops considerably. Our philosophy is to go faster to go further.”

The plug-and-play methodology also means that even if a marina or a boatyard doesn’t have a high-power specialist engineer, there are a lot of good engineers who can change our units thanks to the easy plug-and-play interface. The time is right in boatbuilding for next-generation, high-end technology, because it means we can start to move from the combustion world into the electrical world.”

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