Hi John Eichelsheim for Boating New Zealand magazine. Today we're reviewing
Sealegs latest model. It's the E4 Electric. With electric drive.
I'm sitting in this fantastic seating space on the new Sealegs E4 with Peter Small.
Peter there's been an awful lot of thought and attention gone into this boat and a lot
of development. "Where did the sort of genesis of this boat begin?"
In 2001 when the first Sealegs concept ever created was constructed
constructed with electric drive, and our founders Garrett & Morris Brian.
In the last 17 years since then we've gone through several iterations. From E1 to E2
to E3 to... E4. The show craft we're sitting in today.
The Sealegs traditionally have always had another petrol engine haven't they?
That has driven the drive wheels for their on land propulsion.
Traditionally and continuing on today we have an inboard Honda petrol engine and also Briggs and Stratton.
This moves away from that. Without the inboard engine we have
lithium-ion battery and electric drive motors on all the wheels.
Less noise and exhaust and a quieter ride.
How long can you actually run? It depends. We have tested this and
get up to one and a half hours of on land drive time. Depending on
how you're using the craft. Whether you're going through soft sand or up steep incline with a heavy load.
A significant range and definitely further than the existing Sealegs.
You've got a lithium battery in here. How many volts?
It's a 48 volt lithium battery.
You know pretty important from a marine standpoint for safety regulations
throughout Europe and abroad. Similar to an electric car it has
an easy charging station on the side of the King and Queen seat in this craft.
It will also charge off the outboard. As well as regenerative braking... as it drives down a hill.
Customers may also wish to fit solar panels. Which was some
of the feedback we had there at the recent Boat Show. To charge their craft
in more remote locations. You've got an amazing interface through this great big
huge 24 inch Simrad touchscreen. Tell us a little bit about the Sealegs
technology that's sitting in behind that. An AMP track system.
Our amphibious traction and control system. That feeds through to that 24 inch Simrad
display and gives really good contextual information about the craft, both on land
and on water. But also functional control through the onboard digital switching
through that chart-plotter and also through the steering wheel. That's all feed into
a lot of Sealegs hardware and software that we've developed over recent months and years.
So that rather fancy looking Italian wheel... That has a lot of functionality as well does it not?
Yeah absolutely and that's a first for us and we're
really pleased with the way it fits with the overall ergonomics of the craft.
You can raise and lower your wheels through that steering wheel but also
control all manner of lighting, sound through to the Fusion stereo as well.
Now the styling, both inside and outside the boat is something of a
departure for Sealegs. It really is quite sophisticated and it has a
certain Euro styling. What's the thinking behind that?
We've basically looked abroad, looked further afield than New Zealand and
thought about you know what our global export markets would really capture
their imagination. That's the Sealegs design DNA that flowed through to this craft.
Something that's really sleek that could easily be seen as a
super yacht tender through the Mediterranean. Or you know down the
coast of Florida or Central America, Caribbean. That's captured an oval Sealegs design DNA in this craft.
Five millimeter thick aluminum hull made in-house at Sealegs, as majority
of aircraft are. That's a hull that's also a chassis, because of the point
loading it will get on in different points of driving on land so it's really
important for us to have a really sturdy and well-constructed hull. Yeah we're
really impressed with the on water performance, very pleased with the way
that the layout of the internals and the onboard electric system allows us to
configure the internal layout and weight distribution. For a really superior ride on the water.
Thank you very much Peter. Great to talk to us and that's the Sealegs E4.
It was a bit of a showstopper at the recent on the water boat show. It's easy to see why.
So that was the smart, innovative Sealegs E4 electric.
Probably the future of amphibious boats.
John Eichelsheim from Boating New Zealand.
Thanks for watching!
If you'd like to see more of these videos,
Please subscribe to our channel.