Another hybrid "success"

A boat magazine tested a boat model with a hybrid option, here are the key points summarized:
* Steyr 7kW hybrid motor between engine and transmission
* Lion battery bank 4 times 24V 160Ah.
* 400kg more weight over diesel engine only model
* About 40% or 60kEUR additional price
* Hybrid model Steyr 164hp diesel + 7kW electric, regular model Yanmar 180hp
* Top speed, hybrid 14,2kn, regular 22,4kn
* Economy at top speed., hybrid 2,7l/nm, regular 1,64l/nm
* At 3000 rpm, hybrid 8,6kn 2,07l/nm, regular 12,1kn 1,69l/nm
* At 10kn, hybrid about 3300rpm 2,4l/nm, regular about 2700rpm 1,6l/nm.

 

Interesting and not unexpected. What is the name of the magazine?

 

it is "Kippari" and alas only available in Finnish, I think. The articles can be bought as separate digital copies, but payment options available were only Finnish net banks at least some time back.

 

Funny that with cars we had to convince people that the technology works, but with boats we have to do the opposite.

 

would you call that a success. 40% more initial cost and half the speed would make it a hard sell. i will wait for a suitcase size nuclear power plant. thats what we need, just have to pull into a fuel rod exchange center every 5 years , i could live with that.

 

Of course not. The word "success" was written inside quotation marks.

 

Typical hybrid garbage...40% more expensive yet with much poorer fuel economy.

When will people break out a calculator and figure out that a 95% efficient marine transmission is better than:
a ~90% gen set running through a 98% battery charger allthewhile losing ~5% in the battery and then going to a 90% efficient motor/controller comes out at about 75% to the prop?

Perhaps this would be better in the hybrid section...so the next dreamy eyed new poster can read this instead of asking the same questions??

 

Hmm this is turning into a hybrid bashing thread......I like it.

 

It's not about hybrid bashing so much as the realities of these systems. As they come on line, each attempts to address the same set of issues. There have been improvements, particularly in control and motors, but weight, range and cost still are the major concerns and everyone I know tries to talk around these realities.

We have these and they're called C-4 canisters, but unfortunately not available to the public, mostly because you have to be wealthy as a government to afford them.

 

If I remember well, they have been discussed here a couple of years ago and, apart the cost, there were also issues with weight (due to radiation shields) and very poor energy efficiency.
We are doomed to stick to diesels for at least another decade, I'm affraid...

The best and well-proven hybrids we have so far are motorized sailboats and motorsailers.

 

Well, they've discovered that the boat doesn't like an extra 400kg. Seems like a roundabout way of getting there. The test data reported above seems completely dominated by the hull performance, or lack thereof.