Two people going very fast in a boat with a Mercruiser electric boat motor

Electrified Mercruiser Alpha 1 hits 78 km/h

November 11, 2019November 19, 2019 Jeff Butler 6911 Views 0 Comments AQAForce, Germany, The Gussies

German company AQAForce strapped their F120 Lehmann motor onto a stern drive to create an electrified Mercruiser Alpha 1 that has this 6.4m / 20′ runabout hitting a top speed of 78kmh / 46mph / 40kts. Check out the video:

The boat is a beautiful wooden Palena model from Rivers and Tides Boatbuilding that weighs 1.1 tons all in with the motor and 84kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

AQAForce is an offshoot of Lehmann Yachtservice in Grömitz, Germany, started in 2015 by Klaus Lehmann. Herr Lehmann wanted to spend more time around water and boats, having worked as an engineer, production manager at an aircraft passenger cabin company and director of operations at SeaHelp, which provides at-sea emergency assistance and insurance services to captains.

Along with general marina services, Lehmann sells epropulsion and Torqeedo motors, but Klaus also wanted to put his engineering expertise to work on developing his own motors and e-boat systems.

Three sizes of electric motors and systems

The results are impressive. There are 3 Lehmann motors available, power ranging from 50kW to 225 kW continuous power – approximately 65 to 295 hp, with top end RPMS of 5200. All of the motors are Brushless Direct Current – BLDC.

Unlike other electric engines equipped with small cooling pipes that require impellers, the Lehmann motor uses a high power circulating pump which makes the electric motor even quieter than most. The systems come complete with batteries, controllers, chargers and a display/monitoring console.

While the video you see above was put on the AQAForce YouTube channel only a few days ago, the electrified Palena with Lehmann motor was also shown in a video put up by Rivers and Tides back in June, and Herr Lehmann said in an email to Plugboats that it has been running perfectly since then.

The Lehmann motors can be configured for outboards, jets and direct shaft drive, but obviously a lot of thought has gone into the Mercruiser Alpha arrangement shown in the video. Lehmann has developed a ready-made mounting for the popular sterndrive that should make it easy for owners to make the switch to electric. Scott Masterson of Stealth motors did something similar with a 17.5′ Bayliner boat.