A New Zealand-based company wants to be to electric boats what Tesla is to electric cars.
ZeroJet is leading the way in the growing industry, now having 27 employees with high ambitions of scaling up and fulfilling its role in eliminating the need for combustion engines on the water.
The company has created the first turn-key electric jet propulsion system for boats.
ZeroJet Boat Photo: supplied
Co-founder Bex Rempel tells Afternoons there are a number of major engineering issues that make electric boats a harder challenge than producing electric cars. But the market is there and the need for environmentally-responsible engines on the water is just as compelling as the need for non-combustion cars on the road.
Rempel's journey into the market began when she set-up a business hiring out motorised surf boards at the beach. Problems with the hire products and the firm she was dealing with however motivated her to establish a company to design and produce better products.
“We moved back to New Zealand to build electric jet boards," she says. "My co-founder is an engineer and I’ve got a finance background. So, we put our heads together and started to build an electric jet board and worked on that until 2019 and then that is what we pivoted to and are doing now with the jet systems for boats.”
The result of the company's endeavours was impressive, with competitors left in the wake of its first series of products.
“We built the world’s fastest jet board. Our board went 70km/h,” she says.
People were blown away with how they could pack so much power into a tiny space that they suggested they build boats too, she adds.
The idea was a no-brainer and the company quickly cornered a niche market.
“There was a clear need in the market for it, and obviously much bigger commercial opportunities but also a much to make a bigger impact on the world,” she says.
Having electric motors on the water is clearly something governments and consumers will champion.
“A lot of people see electric as the way of the future," she says.
"It’s the environmental thing - doing our part for the environment and obviously especially on water. The reason that they’re on boats in the first place is that they love the ocean and they love being in nature, and combustion takes away from that a bit.
“We believe that people should have to make compromises to go to electric, they should get a top experience like Tesla has done with electric cars.”
Building the products was no easy feat. The 48v batteries give the boats 1-9 hours running time and can allow the craft to reach 20 knots.
“The electric boating industry is probably at least a decade behind cars and other land vehicles," she says.
"There are a couple of reasons. One is that the boating industry in general is slower to move. But, also there are a lot of added challenges making a boat electric versus a car. Obviously, you’ve got water proofing – electronics in water don’t always go together. Then you have corrosion because it gets used in saltwater.
“But the biggest challenge is the energy requirement… As soon as you take your hand off the throttle the boat comes to a stop really quickly, so you need continuous power to push the boat across the water and it generates a lot of heat, so it’s quite an engineering challenge to get a high-performing electric boat that work.”
The company has been raising capital and is over-subscribed. She says they’ve hit a sweet spot with the products and the team. They went out initially asking what customers wanted and collecting deposits to pay for the product, which gave investors confidence to buy into the company, she says.
Jet system differs greatly from the standard HP combustion outboard attached to a transom on the back of most boats in New Zealand.
“Jet propulsion is similar to what you would see in a jet ski, which sucks up the water and squirts it out the back through a nozzle," she says. "Our jet system, because it’s paired with an electric motor it’s much smaller and more compact than traditionally how large jets have to be. It’s opening up a new market and we’ve started in a very small tender space, with boats between 3 and 4m. Tenders are the little boats that you find on the back of bigger boats used to go to shore and back.”
She says the last two years have been business pick up significantly.
The company launched it Generation One product this year and is working on the launch of Generation Two, which is meant to go into production at the start of next year. They are now scaling up to work with boat builders internationally.
Sound is big point of difference for potential customers who go out for a test drive, she says.
“They’re blown away by the sound. They’re not expecting it when they jump in the boat, you can hear the water, and the birds and you can have a conversation that you’re in the boat with.”
The goal of the company is to eliminate the need for combustion engines on boats, Rempel says.
“We’ve started in the small space, but we have a road map for scaling up in size and going up to larger craft as well.”
