At its annual Investors’ Day conference, Brunswick Corp., the boating industry giant, just announced that it will launch new electric outboard engines starting next year, and that it will produce its first Driver Assistance System, leading to autonomous boats, later this year.
Chris Drees, the president of Mercury Marine, said the company is already developing electric outboards, and will have the first ready by the end of 2022 and four more by the first quarter of 2023. “We intend for Mercury to be the market leader in both conventional and electric marine propulsion by the end of that year,” he said.
Mercury also will install 15,000 advanced battery systems to replace generators powered by internal combustion engines by 2023, Drees said.
David Foulkes, the Brunswick CEO, said Brunswick will produce electric boats in four market segments by 2023, and that the company will use the Freedom Boat Club, which it recently bought, for testing its new electric products.
Brunswick also will use its recent partnership with Carnegie Robotics to launch the first Driver Assistance System later this year. In the past few months, Brunswick has hired 40 specialists in electrification and autonomous driving; the company already has 700 employees working on those issues in one way or another.
Brunswick’s first venture into electrification came at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020, when it displayed a 40-foot Sea Ray (pictured above) with a Fathom 1 power management system that was based on a lithium-ion battery pack that could power all the boat’s accessory system. The company said this represented an industry first.
Brunswick’s brands include Mercury Marine, Boston Whaler, Sea Ray, Bayliner, Lund, Crestliner, Lowe, Harris and many others. The company is headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois. Its stock (BC) has gone from the $53 level a year ago up to the $102 level earlier this week. Read more:
