Mercury Avator electric outboard

I'm excited to see where this goes. I've had a Torqeedo tiller arm for years. The whole thing weighs barely 30lbs - and 10lbs of that is the removable battery. When I'm done, it collapses down into a bag (if I even want to collapse it) and I can toss it in the cabin. For short/medium excursions to the shore it works perfectly for my use. Storing a gas outboard on a smaller cruiser is near impossible to do without it being in the way or dripping gas or oil everywhere or smearing grease somewhere.

It will be interesting to see if Merc comes out with remote steering versions, as well - there are a lot of electric-only lakes throughout the US where this can be used on smaller boats - around us, there are a ton of pontoons using electric outboards.
 
That is way cool. Probably limited to less than 10 HP in the beginning. I like the integrated battery pack. So, you could carry a couple of those small battery packs in the dinghy which solves part of my issue with batteries.
Don't worry @Blueone our hydrocarbon-based fuel will outlive us; this gives us selections.
My guess this little OB will come on the market at around $4K and the battery packs $800.
 
I'm excited to see where this goes. I've had a Torqeedo tiller arm for years. The whole thing weighs barely 30lbs - and 10lbs of that is the removable battery. When I'm done, it collapses down into a bag (if I even want to collapse it) and I can toss it in the cabin. For short/medium excursions to the shore it works perfectly for my use. Storing a gas outboard on a smaller cruiser is near impossible to do without it being in the way or dripping gas or oil everywhere or smearing grease somewhere.

It will be interesting to see if Merc comes out with remote steering versions, as well - there are a lot of electric-only lakes throughout the US where this can be used on smaller boats - around us, there are a ton of pontoons using electric outboards.
six of these on the back of your pontoon?
 
Neat technology, but I'll stick with gas powered and just leave it in the dinghy on the swim platform. These little EFIs just barely sip fuel... and even my '06 carbed didn't leak any fuel or oil...
 
six of these on the back of your pontoon?
Ha! People have done stranger things, for sure!

But, no, the pontoons I'm talking about are 13' to 20' pontoons with a 5HP or 10HP electric. Skiing is a bit difficult... You have to help by only using one ski and using the other one like the "Flintstones" :)
 
There's no way a motor like that should cost anywhere near $4k! What's inside that would rack up that kind of $$?

The battery... now THERE is a place it can run up some $$.
 
This would be perfect for some of these large "no gas" lakes here in the PNW. There is one in particular on the east slopes of the Cascade range down off hwy 58 that has some incredible scenery and fishing.
 
Honestly, I think it's great for it's convenience and weight and I applaud Mercury for competing in that market. But, just like with cars, cut the sustainability crap! As Blueone alluded to above, that woke BS is becoming irritating!
 
But, just like with cars, cut the sustainability crap! As Blueone alluded to above, that woke BS is becoming irritating!
No kidding on that. Their focus is on profit and market share. My focus is how does this enhance my boating experience.
 
I like the idea of not having gasoline on board. That's one of the reasons I haven't pulled the trigger on a jet tender, not to mention the weight and expense. If Brunswick comes up with something lightweight, portable, powerful enough to get an inflatable tender on plane, and high quality, I'll be interested. The Torqeedo seems like a quality product, but their Cruise model is expensive even with a single battery, and I would want a spare battery for any electric outboard. Maybe some competiton will help on pricing.
 
I like the idea of not having gasoline on board. That's one of the reasons I haven't pulled the trigger on a jet tender, not to mention the weight and expense. If Brunswick comes up with something lightweight, portable, powerful enough to get an inflatable tender on plane, and high quality, I'll be interested. The Torqeedo seems like a quality product, but their Cruise model is expensive even with a single battery, and I would want a spare battery for any electric outboard. Maybe some competiton will help on pricing.
That is exactly right....a little competition in that space will certainly help
 
There were mentions about price and the parts can't cost that much. That's probably right on the surface. But, I assume there's a substantial amount of of tooling cost to amortize and because Mercury isn't sure how these will take off the amortization of the tooling is probably spread over a fairly small number of units.
 
Neat technology, but I'll stick with gas powered and just leave it in the dinghy on the swim platform. These little EFIs just barely sip fuel... and even my '06 carbed didn't leak any fuel or oil...
The Torqeedo seems like a quality product, but their Cruise model is expensive even with a single battery, and I would want a spare battery for any electric outboard. Maybe some competiton will help on pricing.[/QUOTE]
It is a solid product, but you're dead-on regarding the price. To date, there really hasn't been any realistic competition to Torqeedo. Hopefully that will change. Currently their 10HP portable version (which they say actually has more grunt than a gasser) is about $1,000-ish more than a gas 9.9. Not terrible, but I don't think it makes much sense for anyone that leaves their engine on a tender that stays on the platform. If you're constantly taking the engine off it starts to make more sense since it's so much lighter (and storage, of course). There are more companies starting to pop up that are making electric outboards, but most of them are really just in the beginning stages. Torqeedo has been around for about 10 years now (something like that, anways).
 
There were mentions about price and the parts can't cost that much. That's probably right on the surface. But, I assume there's a substantial amount of of tooling cost to amortize and because Mercury isn't sure how these will take off the amortization of the tooling is probably spread over a fairly small number of units.
Yep, plus the R&D costs as well. This will have been not insignificant.
 

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