The Boat

We will be using a 6.5m RIB with a fully electric propulsion system and two people on board. The boat will be coded to CE Category C and will carry two 63kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion batteries with a 6.6 kW onboard AC charger and a fast DC charger.

Charging Accessories

The boat can charge using AC or DC power. It is faster and more efficient to charge with DC and recently the marine industry has seen a growth in availability, especially along the South Coast. Our DC charging capacity is limited to 0.7C, which means for a 63kWh battery the max DC charge it can accept is around 44kW. Even with a 75kW fast charger the charge rate will remain at 44kW.

Our AC charging capacity is controlled by the On Board Charger (OBC) which is 6.6kW. For a 32A 240V single phase supply offering just over 7kW we would be limited to charging at 6.6kW.

For our Challenge to be viable we need to be able to fast charge at as many locations as possible, including unplanned stops!

Where a fast DC charger is available along the South Coast or elsewhere we will hook up to that and get charged in a jiffy!

Where a 63A or 32A 415V 3 phase red commando or CEE socket is available we can charge using an AC-DC inverter giving us a 40kW or 20kW DC charging speed respectively. These connections are widely available but we will be taking with us a Kempower movable charger.

Where an EV Type 2 charger is available we will be charging at 6.6kW AC using a standard Type 2 cable. This could take up to 10 hours to charge from empty so will likely be an overnight stop.

Where a 32A 240V blue commando or CEE socket is available we will be using a JuiceBooster to convert to a Type 2 connector and will be charging at 6.6kW AC as above.

If we need to stop unexpectedly and top up the charge then we will use a 24kVa petrol generator which can output 32A 415V. We'll run through the Kempower movable charger to charge at a DC rate of 20kW.