A behind-the-scenes peak at eD-TEC’s problem-solving during tests of it’s ground-breaking eD-QDrive.
eD-TEC, manufacturer of holistic marine e-drive platforms, is in the testing phase of its eD-QDrive high-performance electric drive unveiled in September 2022. It was Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor, who suggested that genius was one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. For the Believer Team at marine tech start-up eD-TEC, the path to the commercial launch of the all-electric, high-performance eD-QDrive certainly proves the point.
The company’s genius is to be found in an all-new plug-and-play electric sterndrive system and the technology stack that accompanies it. Unveiled during the Cannes Yachting Festival in September 2022, it quickly sent excited shockwaves through the yachting industry with the promise of the first commercial installation on a powercat design called the Silent-Speed 28 in early 2023 set to show just what this high-power system can deliver. The brainchild of former VW Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Jost, who has gathered a team of believers working both within eD-TEC and as partner companies, the eD-QDrive comprises a transom-mounted sterndrive unit with surface-piercing propeller that is linked to a high-power electric motor, in turn fed by a battery bank with a high C-rate, and controlled by an advanced hardware and software backbone.
With the inspiration unveiled, the perspiration began and, as Jost well knows having overseen the transition of a multinational car giant from combustion engines to electric power, being a pioneer of the next big thing often means contending with lots of little issues that arise along the way.
“We meant to start on-water testing in October 2022, so we are six months behind our own timescale,” Jost admits. “But we have found problems and we have learnt a lot – that’s the way it is with prototypes and with new technologies. In the automotive industry, making the same transition, some of our models were delayed by two years or more while the technologies were refined and issues resolved. A friend of mine told me recently that when you have an all-new technology stack, like eD-TEC does, you have to add pi – in other words, multiply the original timescale by 3.14!”
The good news is eD-TEC hasn’t had to “add pi”, because the team hope to be testing fully in the water in the next two to three weeks both using the powercat and also a striking-looking monohull they built specially as a test platform. “We also fully expect to find new problems because there is no one else developing this type of high-performance, full-electric technology,” Jost adds. “There is no one else who can climb the mountain but us.” The boat is ready, the drives are ready and we are finally ready for the sea,” Jost continues.
The tech is much more complex than even we realised, but we challenge ourselves and we have fixed problem after problem, because in the real world, between the idea on a sheet of paper and the final successful product there is a lot of pain.”
For all the drama – and the perspiration – Jost points out that these are the necessary steps you have to make when you set out to change the game. And importantly the trials, tests and problem-solving have proven two things – that the concept behind the system works, and that the eD-QDrive and its supporting technology stack also works. The test boat has already shown that with both motors running simultaneously at up to 800rpm in the test pool. The next step will be a full sea trial on a lake for the monohull and catamaran with the drives opened up to 4,000 rpm, and the ability to do that is thanks to the diligent testing and problem-solving by the entire eD-TEC believer family.
