With that outboard at wide-open-throttle, you were emitting ~ 4 gallons of unburned gasoline per hour out the exhaust, not to mention the oil you cited.
A long time I read about some "next generation" 2-stroke thing, where they had fuel injected directly into the cylinders, after the piston had already blocked the exhaust port. The intake port was only used for air. A bit like those behemoth 2-stroke marine diesel engines.
Evidently it didn't really work out well enough, considering most outboards they sell these days are 4-stroke. I've always had a soft spot for 2-stroke engines, seems so wasteful to "waste" half of the strokes on a 4-stroke. Oh well.
The E-Tecs have done exactly what you said - a lot of engineering to meet emissions requirements. Unfortunately, the requirements for outboards include CO, NOx, and HC, but not P2.5 or P10 (particulate) emissions, because they are much simpler and less scrutinized than the regulations on cars (which DO have particulate limits). The E-Tecs put out 30X as much particulate emissions as the 4-strokes.
There are 3 answers to the "higher power" topic:
1) higher power motors are easy, bigger batteries are expensive and heavy.
2) frequency and regularity of usage are the best determinants of whether electric makes economic sense, not size/power, but the bigger power boats tend to go infrequently and highly variable distances.
3) longer-term the low utilization rate high capex problem is solved by shared usage models (as it has been in every other field).
We took a coaching launch like the one in this article, fitted with the Pure Outboard, from Pier 52 in SF to Alameda Island and back. (Granted, it was not the wisest move.)
This outboard motor is 100% compatible with existing hulls, and complies with ABYC standards. That's the beauty of the boat market - a built-in API for the interface between the powertrain and the hull. The rowing club in the article is using the same hulls they've had for years, and mounting the new Pure Outboards on them.
Ha! Thanks. The video (if you're referring to the one on the web site) is an attempt to give the viewer a modicum of the feeling you get with a ride in the boat. The FAQ on the web site, and the specifications listed there, address the questions you're posing.
There are 15.7 million recreational power boats in the US alone (1 for every 10 households), 70% of those in the installed base are powered by outboard motors. This is not the car market, but it is not tiny.
In terms of pollution you also have to consider that these boats are being used a lot less than cars. However, another thing to consider is that some of the diesel, petrol, and oil inevitably ends up in the water.
In terms of maintenance and cost, I think it is interesting that battery electric is becoming competitive here. It wouldn't surprise me if some countries start putting rules in place to ban dirty engines from some sensitive areas. Apparently the EU already has a lot of rules around boat engines already that are complicated and hard to enforce and not that effective yet. But like the car industry, boat engines are subject to emission standards, inspections, certifications, etc. and the rules are getting stricter.
I imagine that once battery electric becomes cheap/common enough, a lot of boat owners will choose to go electric rather than buying a cleaner engine just to ensure they stay on the safe/legal side with their boats and avoid fines. Also, doing the right thing when you are actively enjoying nature is probably going to motivate a few people.
While it's not a small market, it's in the Bay Area's blind spot. Fishing is the 2nd most popular outdoor activity in the US, behind running. In the US, there are 20 million people who fish for freshwater bass alone (1 in 16 Americans). Bass Pro Shops is the Missouri unicorn that grew from nothing to be big enough to buy Cabela's for $5 billion, based largely on their boat sales.
There are all sorts of surveys, but the best source I've found for real data on how much these boats are used is this official report on fuel usage (2013):
Most of the electric outboards have bad reputations for reliability, as you said. And the warranties are even shorter than those of gas outboards. But this one is the first to be designed from the ground up for electric, and while the warranty hasn't been announced, it will be far longer than those of gas outboards. The reason the other electric outboards break down so much is that there are weak links, borrowed from other products (like gas outboards).
