Commentary: Amped Up on Cigarette’s Electric Top Gun
 

One perspective, http://speedonthewater.com/commentar...c-top-gun.html.

Thanks Matt, Good read..

Matt,
Great concept yes, but not quite finished in my opinion.
All they need is a turbine powered range extender. (DC GENERATOR) We build them for the military for their EV transporters. We build them up 1000 kw, 600V DC.
With one of these installed, they can boat for hrs, charging the batteries when needed.
Too bad Cigarette is so anti Turbine.
Even county transportation uses this technology.
We are also building a turbine hybrid EV boat that will be out later this year.

RangeRover will have micro turbines in their 2015 line up of their EV SUV's.
Its the only way to go.

Good luck to them. They beat me to it, but I Love what they did.

I was thinking the same thing when I read about this boat the first time. When I take a trackhoe to Caterpillar for service I always see diesel powered generators. I don't know how many kilowatts they put out but some have pretty beefy alternators. I'd think that they might not make enough electricity to maintain a full charge while operating but it would certainly seem that they'd help extend the range of continous boating and would be recharging the batteries while the boat was sitting at a destination waiting for the return trip.

Matt is correct for sure, we'll be seeing all kinds of new electrical/electronic stuff in the not so distant future. These engineers now are the sharpest ever and their ability to think outside the box, then source and fabricate the neccesties to make it possible is awe inspiring.

In spite of the limited range I think she's a WICKED speedboat indeed.
WAY TO GO for both companies involved!!!

See ya,
Kelly

Did they get the batteries from Boeing ?

All we need is fire in a boat starting from the batteries,lol

Is that the best you could come up with ? Really
The funny thing is your behind will be sitting in that Boeing some day, and others like it.

And here we go! :angry-smiley-038:

Nice write up Matt! It's starting to show up in engineering focused magazines!

http://machinedesign.com/article/rac...owertrain-0220

Let's get one thing straight Matt...the color is awesome.

The continuing partnership between AMG and Cigarette is tremendous and should be admired.

The battery systems have a way to go . We tested Lithium Ion batteries for the past couple of years and really struggled with the internal cells. The impacts that an offshore boat takes are sharp and hard and lead to internal Cell damage and shorting. We were not able to overcome the challenge and turned back to Lead acid. Charging was also a difficult issue. I wish them the best of luck and like Arruda believe that some variation of these boats are in the near future.

We are happy to transfer any knowledge we learned during on water testing if Cigarette is interested.

m

Maybe they will come up with some kind of regenerative system attached to the propshafts to generate power when the props are turning. I think they have done an awesome job of bringing this technology to show the public. Keep up the good work all parties involved! Randy