Mercury Marine just announced that is has shipped its first batch of Avator 7.5e electric outboards to customers around the world, setting a milestone in the popularization of sustainable power.
Part of the giant Brunswick Corp., Mercury says the Avator 7.5e is the first of five electric outboards to be announced this year, including an Avator 20e and Avator 35e. (We don’t yet know the size of the other two.)
John Buelow, Mercury’s president, said the current shipments were history-making, and that Mercury is committed “to being the industry leader in both internal combustion products and electric propulsion.”
The Avator 7.5e delivers clean and quiet power with a swappable 1kWh lithium-ion battery that was developed with Mastervolt and engineered exclusively for marine applications. It’s a 48V power source that is water resistant and has a four-color display to track battery level and range.
The battery has no cables; you just slide it in place under the flip-up top cowl; if you want more range, you can buy another battery and swap it out in seconds. The Avator tiller is multi-purpose; adjusting up, down, left and right and it folds to become a handle for carrying.
Mercury says the 7.5e is the industry’s first transverse flux motor and it generates high torque, producing 750W of power at the prop shaft; its speed and acceleration are similar to Mercury’s 3.5-hp four-stroke gas outboard.
The 7.5e has a running time of about an hour, or 5 miles at full throttle, and up to 19 hours or 34 miles at 25 percent throttle. The outboard itself weighs 43 pounds, and the battery weighs 16 pounds. Read more at http://mercurymarine.com and see the video below:
