Norway’s Evoy is putting the finishing touches on an engine that will be among the most powerful electric outboard motors on the market. The emission-free Evoy Pro is rated at 150 horsepower, calculated as an average between the motor’s peak and continuous running power.

With a mission to eliminate boat emissions, Evoy started in 2018 with an electric inboard, which has a continuous rating of 400 horsepower and a peak rating of 800 horsepower, putting it at the top of the electric inboard class. Evoy CEO Leif Stavøstrand said the engine has been popular with fish farmers on the coast of Norway, but battery longevity is still an issue for wild fisheries. But that is changing.

“If you look at the private market today, there is no other place where they’ve spent more money in R&D than batteries,” he said. Evoy is banking on batteries that are improving in power and run-time by 5 to 10 percent annually.

Right now, the Evoy Pro provides about one to two hours of full-speed run-time, depending on the size and weight of the boat and the battery configuration.

“That’s at 20 to 25 knots, but if you go down to 5 knots, we can typically do around 12 hours. And if you go all the way down to 3 knots you can do 24 hours,” Stavøstrand said.

“There could be some trap fisheries and other applications for people who are closer to the shore,” Stavøstrand said, adding that more applications should open up as batteries improve.

“And of course, the maintenance part of it is a different world. You just get so much more reliability. As an example, on our inboard, your first service check is after 15,000 hours’ run time,” Stavøstrand said.

Pre-orders for the Evoy Pro are expected to start this summer, with the engines rolling out in the first quarter of 2021