BMW Going with the EV Tyde at Cannes

Click on yacht to enlarge.

BMW and boat maker TYDE are debuting “THE ICON” at 76th Cannes Film Festival, the luxury transport purveyor BMW said today. The boat claims to be the first battery-powered watercraft of its kind. BMW said it brings together emission-free travel with a top-to-bottom vision of luxury. (AutoInformed.com on: EV Boats – GM Buys Into Pure Watercraft; Glub? Aston Martin Going into Submarine Business!; Lexus LY 650 Luxury Yacht Revealed)

At 43.14 feet in length with a top speed of 30 knots, THE ICON is representative of the latest battery-electric watercraft. The project, err publicity/marketing promo?, is the work of people at BMW, TYDE, and Designworks, a BMW Group subsidiary with studios in Los Angeles, Munich, and Shanghai.

The construction of the concept was by boat maker TYDE. The electric drive system draws from high-voltage batteries supplied by BMW i. The “experience is accompanied by an exclusive soundtrack composed by award-winning film composer and frequent BMW collaborator Hans Zimmer.”

BMW claims that until now, marine electric mobility has been restricted “to smaller, slower craft with comparatively little range, and the segment for faster boats with longer range is dominated by models with combustion engines.”

Well, there is some performance heritage at play via the use of  hydrofoils common in yacht racing. This type of hull form reduces the energy requirement significantly,~80% here per BMW, compared with a conventional design. The foiling technology – whereby the craft rides on wing structures below the water level, while the drag induing hull floats above the surface of the water – also in theory provides a higher level of traveling comfort with higher speeds.

Two  100 kW electric motors convert 240 kWh of energy supplied by six batteries from the BMW into a claimed range of more than 50 nautical miles (~100 km). The craft can deliver an operating speed of 24 knots, with a maximum speed of 30 knots. BMW said THE ICON “makes almost zero noise, without unpleasant vibrations or shocks and minimizing wake.” (AutoInformed.com on: BMW iX Flow Connected Directly to the Brain?)