Volkswagen eyes the sun and sea, starts solar-electric yacht project

When taming the roads was not enough, the company is now eyeing to conquer the sea with electric spirit

THE SOLAR-POWERED BOAT WILL BE BASED ON VOLKSWAGEN’S MEB ELECTRIC POWER-TRAIN AND WILL HAVE SIX BATTERIES ONBOARD, GENERATING 500 KW OF POWER OUTPUT.

Volkswagen is looking at going beyond roads and into high seas. And solar power may be how it rides the waves in the times to come.

The automaker has started a solarelectric yacht project based on its popular MEB electric power-train that underpins several of its new generation cars including ID.3 and ID.4. The CUPRA team of Volkswagen is working on the design of this yacht in partnership with Silent-Yachts, which is known as the ‘Tesla of the Seas’ as it manufactures solar and battery-powered boats. The two companies plan to launch the first yacht in the water sometime in 2022 and ramp up production to about 50 vessels every year.

The upcoming Volkswagen-SilentYachts solar-powered boat would be sized over 50 feet and will come with six batteries onboard, generating 500 kW of power output. For the solarelectric yacht project, while Volkswagen would provide design and supply the MEB-based power-train, consisting of batteries, pulse-controlled inverters and the engines, Silent-Yachts could further adapt the interfaces of Volkswagen’s software for their needs.

Silent-Yachts is known for producing solar-powered boats that can be of 10-26 kW power capacity. These boats come equipped with 150-532 kWh battery capacity. The latter is equivalent to the energy capacity of more than five Tesla Model S electric sedans. The company has so far delivered 11 electric yachts. “(At Volkswagen), we were impressed by (our partner’s) commitment to CO₂ neutrality as a supplier of solar-electric powered yachts,” said Michael Jost, head of group strategy product and CSO of Volkswagen brand.