2015 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 1747-1750
Power consumption is proportional to the cubic of the velocity. The lower the velocity, the smaller the energy consumption can be achieved for propulsion. To minimize the possible range for one charge is one of the most important issues for the electric boat because of the limited battery stored energy. A slow speed cruising boat is one of the best choices for the electrification of boats. The robust performance of a conventional internal combustion engine is also an important factor for the boat. In this paper, the performance of a newly developed plug-in hybrid electric cruising boat, based on such a kind of design concept, is described. A newly designed boat, with a riding capacity of 30 passengers and the length overall of 9.66 m, is driven by two 10 kW electric motors with 2 propeller shafts, and by a diesel outboard engine of 40 hp. These two power sources can be selected manually. A diesel engine of 11 kW (200 V AC) is used to charge the battery of 9.6 kWh. The cruising boat was demonstrated in public for one month in September 2015 travelling on a river near a Japanese old castle in Wakayama prefecture successfully with more than 200 passengers a day as a plug-in hybrid mode. The high power output of the on-board electric generator has also proved the usefulness of electricity in a case of disaster.
