Friday 15th June 2018

Jaguar Electric Powerboat: Time For Tea?

And they say water and electricity don't mix...

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Just in case there was any doubt, Jaguar is extremely serious about its electric ambitions; not only was it a relatively early adopter of Formula E, the I-Pace looks set to take the lessons learnt there into the mainstream.

Now Jaguar is taking its EV knowledge to the water. With a little help from Williams, Jaguar Vector Racing has set its sights on an electric powerboat world record. And, well, they wouldn't have made a video about an unsuccessful record attempt, so here we get to see the record run on video. We'll keep the speed a secret for now though; wouldn't want to spoil the surprise...

The record run took place at Coniston Water, an iconic location in the history of British boat speed runs. While we may be some way off matching Donald Campbell's incredible feats of nautical velocity, how far off can it realistically be? Answers on a postcard please...

 

 

[dvs_dave]

Good result for electric only.

However the overwrought drama/sense of danger was a load of old bks. I could go out now and get in any number of commercially available fossil fueled speed boats and obliterate the speed they achieved here, and be back at the dock in time to pick up the deck fluff and cocktails.

[dvs_dave]

Centurion07 said:

Buggyjam said:

Anyone with speed boat and/ or electric propulsion knowledge explain why it is so pedestrian?

I have absolutely no knowledge of the subject so this is a total guess, but...I reckon it's down to power and torque and the difference between how an electric car goes fast versus how a boat does it.

Electric motors are very good at providing torque which is why electric cars can be made to go so quick. Boats don't require torque as such but just need to spin the prop as quickly as possible.

Someone feel free to explain it properly...

More about power to weight. Boats need a heck of a lot of sustained high power output to overcome the friction of the water. A hydro like this then relies on a cushion of air under it to further reduce friction once it’s going sufficiently quickly. However the batteries required to deliver sufficient sustained power output are very heavy. This of course means the boat needs more power to get up to speed, and a higher speed required for it to get enough aero lift due to its higher weight. It’ll be very much a compromise between maximum sustained battery power output and their consequent weight.

[dvs_dave]

Equus said:

Sure, which is why a Chevy V8 is being cooled through a pipe not much larger than a fuel feed.

None the less, water is over 800 times more dense than air (which means pretty much 800 times the drag), so you still can't afford to make the cooling pick-up any bigger than it really has to be.

You can't afford to over-cool a hydroplane any more than you can afford to over-cool a car, and the pay-off would need to be dramatic for it to be worthwhile as a means of increasing power.

If the demands of an electric motor are so much reduced compared to IC, and for a short-duration record run, it might be worth looking at alternative solutions (dry ice?) in place of water cooling.

All true and obvious.

As the heat rejection from an electric power train is so much less, direct water cooling is probably overkill so you could probably forego the need for in water cooling pickups and the associated drag altogether. In this instance, much lower drag direct air cooling would probably be your best bet.