Merc 4.5L 250HP

[Biggd]

How long before we see electric boats? Tesla is developing some of the fastest cars on the road. Will we see some of these engines in boats soon or will electrics not mix well with water?

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by Biggd

How long before we see electric boats? Tesla is developing some of the fastest cars on the road. Will we see some of these engines in boats soon or will electrics not mix well with water?

They already exist, but are extremely limited in range due to the huge difference in power density between petroleum and batteries. I think the best batteries have something like 5% of the power density of petroleum. Some day, that will probably change dramatically. I think graphene will make batteries, motors, solar cells, and conductors in general, vastly more efficient and compact in the next few years.

[ITD]

Originally Posted by Dave R

They already exist, but are extremely limited in range due to the huge difference in power density between petroleum and batteries. I think the best batteries have something like 5% of the power density of petroleum. Some day, that will probably change dramatically. I think graphene will make batteries, motors, solar cells, and conductors in general, vastly more efficient and compact in the next few years.

I don't even think it's that good, 5%. Once it gets better, I would say even to 30%, the IC engine for road travel will disappear quickly.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by ITD

I don't even think it's that good, 5%. Once it gets better, I would say even to 30%, the IC engine for road travel will disappear quickly.

Considering how small the fuel tank is on a modern car, having batteries take up 3 times the space to give the same range would be fine, IMO. In lab testing, graphene-based batteries, have proven to be rechargeable pretty much as quickly as you can feed them electrons, so recharging could take mere seconds with them, especially if you used graphene-based conductors in the charge cord.

[robmac]

I just got off the phone with Merc and the engineer I spoke with stated" We are going back to forging and casting our own engines for several reasons which at this time can't speak about at this time" so there you have it