New electric boat from Twin Vee: Forza FX1
Forza X1, a subsidiary of US power boat titan Twin Vee PowerCats, has completed the fibreglass molds for their FX1 electric boat and begun construction of the first models.
“The fiberglass molds are the tools required by a boat builder to start building the fiberglass parts of a boat.” said Jim Leffew, CEO and President of Forza X1. “Our engineers have worked for the past year with all of our partners to build this first boat with the same parts that will ultimately be used in the FX1 boats being sold to customers”
Last January Forza signed an agreement with Michigan-based company American Battery Solutions for production-grade, 52 kWh, high-powered lithium-ion batteries for Forza X1. The FX1 will carry two of these packs for a total of 104 kilowatt hours of energy storage.
The motor for the FX1 is Forza’s own 160 kW (215 hp) electric outboard, which has also been in development for over a year.
Garmin, the technology best known for their GPS products, worked with Forza on the boat’s helm components and design. They have centralizing the traditional standard controls so that all the boat’s switches, gauges and control buttons will be programmed into a single custom graphical interface on a Garmin touch screen.
In addition to the mapping, depth, heading, and speed information Garmin is known for, the screen will also incorporate Forza specific control and display items showing range, state of battery charge, battery temperature, diagnostic pressure and temperature readings from cooling water and glycol systems.
Full Osmosis Telematics system
Osmosis Telematics, which is part of the Correct Craft organization that makes the Ingenity 23E electric day-boat and Super Air Nautique GS22E elecric tow boat, is working with Forza X1 on a custom web and mobile app.
The Osmosis system will connect users to their boats over a cellular connection. The platform will display the boat’s location and current battery level, detail the boat’s performance in the water, provide environmental conditions, and link to the owner’s manual and the Forza community. The company also plans to offer a fully digital switching system for users to power up their boat while away from the dock, switch on pumps, control lights, and underwater lights.
Forza will be able to perform remote diagnostics for service, receive quicker feedback for product enhancements, and improve their products over time through over-the-air software updates.
The FX1 began as a model generated using computer animated design (CAD) software says Leffew. “We used the CAD model to tool the plug, which is used to make our FX1 molds, and now we can use them to bring the FX1 to reality.”
The molds will be used to create hulls using an infusion system, which provides very high quality and consistency throughout. “Once we manufacture the hull and deck for our first FX1 prototype with the molds, the Forza X1 team can begin putting the final product together for testing.”
With the hulls and decks complete, testing will begin with the electric outboard and battery system. “Based on our team’s boat building experience and the recent prototype and testing of our motor and control system, we feel confident that our first FX1 will be completed and begin water testing in Q4 2022,” says Leffew.
“Subsequent versions are anticipated to follow soon afterward, allowing us to do sustained full systems testing. The FX1 will be sold and delivered to our customers once Forza X1 is in full production of our FX1.”
Plugboats will have more about the Forza FX1 as things progress.
