Quadrofoil, an electric boat startup based in Slovenia, has been teasing its battery-powered hydrofoil boat for a few years now and while it’s about a year behind on production, the company now sold its first 100 limited-edition boats, which it plans to deliver during the first quarter 2017.
We don’t talk enough about electric boats on Electrek, but there are a few cool products in development right now, not only for passenger and cargo but also for recreation–Quadrofoil’s project is one of those.
A hydrofoil design enables a decreasing drag and greater speeds by lifting the hull of a boat over the water. It also gives you the feeling of hovering over the water, which is pretty cool.
The company is working on a 2-seater and a 4-seater version of its hydrofoil concept. They completed their latest production prototype for the 2-seater and released a video of it last week.
They pre-sold a limited run of 100 units that will be delivered within the next few months. In order to ramp production for their regular production models, the Quadrofoil Q2A and Q2S, the company secured a €1.2 million EURO bridge loan with Slovenian investment and development bank while it completes a €60 million financing round.
The company wrote on its website (Electric Vehicles Research):
“Their team of engineers took over a year to thoroughly test, review, upgrade and fine-tune the original Q2 prototype, which is now finished and ready for serial production.”
Over the last month, Quadrofoil has been showing its latest prototype to investors in order to raise the money.
The Q2A version is equipped with 3.7 kW electric motor and a 5.2 kWh battery pack. It’s mainly for low-speed boating on lakes, but the company’s ~$30,000 Q2S is the star of the show.
It’s equipped with a bigger motor powered by 2 of the same 5.2 kWh battery packs. It can achieve a speed of up to 40 km/h (25 mph or 21 knots), which can bring the vehicle airborne within only 5 m (16 ft.).
The company is talking about ~80 km of range (50 miles), which means you can get about 2 hours of fun per charge. And of course, the best part is that the noise pollution is kept to a minimum, and you don’t have to spend on gas.
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