Postby jimh » Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:15 am
I have doubts about Evinrude being able to develop an electric propulsion engine for boats that were previously powered by gasoline outboard engines. First, BRP does not have any expertise in electric motor design or manufacturing. None of their other power-sports vehicles have electric propulsion motors. Second, BRP does not have any experience in storage battery production. Electrical propulsion would be heavy, expensive, have short endurance, and would require access to recharging facilities to be maintained.
If BRP were going to develop an electric motor for boat propulsion, they would probably have to use some other manufacturer's batteries as a source of power and perhaps some other manufacturer's electric motor. They would become more of a system integrator than a manufacturer.
All-electric cars are just being developed, but they still lack a really useful range for any sort of long-distance driving. And recharging a car is much simpler than recharging a boat. You can drive the car home and plug the car into your home power. I guess you can drive a boat home, too, if it is a trailered boat.
A boat kept on a lift would need to be plugged in for charging. A boat left on a mooring would not have access to charging.
With gasoline engines you can re-fuel at a fuel dock in maybe ten minutes. An all-electric boat motor probably would need several hours of charging at a high rate of charge to restore full charge to its boat battery bank.
Airplanes are usually kept at an airport when not in use, and an airport might have facilities for charging plane batteries.
Not too many outboard boats are kept in marina slips. And I suspect that the marina might want to charge for use of their electricity to recharge big propulsion battery banks.
Also, at this moment, gasoline fuel prices are very low in the USA. You'd have to think that BRP is looking at the USA as their primary market. Right now you can find gasoline fuel at below $2-per-gallon. At that price, gasoline is practically free in terms of the overall cost of owning and operating a boat for the typical boater who only operates the engine about 50-hours per season. My boat averages about 4-GPH fuel consumption, and for 50-hours that is only 200-gallons. I don't think I consumed even half that amount this year. My fuel costs were probably about $200. There is no way I would invest perhaps $20,000 to get an electric outboard and another $10,000 in a battery bank, and then another $500 to install a 240-VAC charging outlet at my house, just to save maybe $200 every hear. And that comparison ignores what the electricity costs would be to recharge the battery bank.
I think BRP forced Evinrude to shut down production of outboard engines because Evinrude was not showing any gains in market share, their sales volume was not growing much, if at all, and the competition was fierce. I think Evinrude was in fifth place in terms of market share, well behind market leaders Mercury and Yamaha, and presumably also behind Suzuki. I would guess Honda was probably in fourth place.
I think the Ghost Project is going to try to move into a new market, and allow BRP to stop competing head-to-head in the traditional outboard market. If you look at BRP's other power-sport products, they are all market share leaders or if not leaders then very close to the top of the market. Their corporate self-image probably was not compatible with being a fifth-place finisher in the outboard engine market.