Leg up for electric hydrofoil

0 0 September 01, 2022 Edit this post

Swedish electric car maker Polestar will provide battery and charging systems for Candela’s highly efficient electric hydrofoils. The battery deal will enable Candela to scale up production swiftly, bringing mass-market electric boats one step closer to reality.

To make electric boats mainstream, Candela CEO and founder Gustav Hasselskog says the company needs to build thousands of boats every year. "Working together with Polestar, we’re able to bring the scale of production and world class engineering from the automotive industry to the marine sector," he said.

The deal between the two Swedish companies is an attempt to overcome the two major hurdles for electrifying boating.

The first hurdle is the massive energy consumption of conventional powerboat hulls, which so far has resulted in poor performance of electric boats.

The second hurdle has been the prohibitively high cost of marine batteries for electric boats.

Electric boat builders typically have so far relied on smaller, boutique vendors of marine battery packs. Hasselskog believes hydrofoils are the key to a long, all-electric range at sea.

Candela’s electric hydrofoil system reduces water friction by 80 per cent compared to a conventional boat.

It also delivers a completely different – and better – ride.

The hydrofoils are constantly and automatically adjusted by the onboard Flight controller, to maintain a stable ride in all weather conditions. The retractable C-FOIL system makes Candela's latest C-8 a true no-compromise electric boat. In shallow mode, the foils and Candela C-POD are protected by the hull. In extreme weather conditions that prevent foiling, C-8 can be driven as a conventional boat, albeit with reduced range. Candela C-8 has a range of 50+ nautical miles per charge travelling at 24 knots. The achieved range is about four times longer than the best electric boats currently on the market.

At 20 knots, the energy usage per nautical mile is just 0.8 kWh.

To put that into perspective, that’s the energy content of 0.1 litre of gasoline.

Polestar's Thomas Ingenlath says he is fascinated by way Candela’s boats glide elegantly and efficient through, or better -- over the water. "It's amazing proof of the great aesthetics and experiences modern, sustainable technology can create," he said. "That Polestar will be part of future projects with Candela by supplying an essential part for the innovative propulsion of their boats, is awesome. "As a battery supplier to Candela, we can help drive the transition to cleaner oceans and lakes, and electrify waterborne transport."