One advantage Hinckley—and the nascent electric boat market in general—has over electric cars is that marinas already provide a well-established charging infrastructure thanks to ubiquitous dockside power sources. When connected to a pair of standard 50-amp lines, the Dasher can gain a full charge in four hours—about the time it takes for a leisurely lunch at the marina and a swim at the beach.
More likely, the Dasher will be “all about having a ‘point A to point A’ experience, which is very different from cars, where most people don’t go out just to go driving,” Bryant says. “It’s synonymous to going out for a ride on your motorcycle.”
Pricing will be on a par with Hinckley’s other vessels of its size, such as the 29-foot runabouts—upwards of half a million dollars, according to a company spokesperson. There will not be a price premium. The first test rides aboard the prototype won’t happen until later this month (so speed, handling abilities, and energy consumption ratings are based on Hinckley’s statements), while the first deliveries are anticipated for the summer of 2018.
By then, Bryant expects the Dasher to exceed its current range. “When we started this project [a little more than two years ago], our test boat actually used a totally different battery, similar in weight to the existing i3 batteries that we have in there now. But it had about about 30 percent less power density, which translated to 30 percent less range,” he says. “So, really, we are riding a development wave in ways that’s pretty significant right now in the marketplace.”
Like Tesla’s original Roadster, the Dasher is a market-ready vision of what post-petrol transportation could look like—fully functional, but with one foot still in the world of proof of concept. Already, Hinckley is looking ahead.
“I don’t believe that Dasher will be our only electric-propulsion product,” says Bryant. “I think what we’re looking to do is to incorporate a bunch of the features that we’re introducing on Dasher into our other products. There’s so much going on in the automotive space, and just in the energy-storage space right now, that to not be a part of it is just silly.”
Even in the staid world of classic yacht design—as the man said, the times they are a-changin’.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.