New Electric Cruiser | Fully Charged

Hello and welcome to Fully Charged coming to you this time from the canals of Amsterdam. Now we're in a beautiful speedboat but as you might be able to tell it's not going... I mean I can do that sound to make it more realistic if you like. It's silent because it's electric. So Johnny I thought it's worth us coming down to the the east end of Amsterdam. East side. We're going to meet the east side master because I've wanted to come here for literally years because of what they're doing here is amazing and this gentleman here is Annie. I'm looking forward to this. Hello nice to meet you. Pleased to meet you. Welcome to Amsterdam and welcome to New Electric. Thank you. So happy to have you. Thank you and it's taken us a long time to get here but I'm so pleased we got here now. But everywhere I'm looking there's just... It's nice old cars. Well I can't tell because that's just that's an old Jeep that's an old Volvo. Absolutely. But are these these are already converted to... Everything is electric here. Wow. We were able to... We've started off on boats and we'll be talking about that but around 2014 our systems went to school and got certified. Right. And then we were able to you know submit cars that we converted to the national authority, the RDA. We got them road legal. The very first car we did was a 1969 Jeep that's sitting there. That's that yellow monster and close after we've done Volvos and since then we've moved on Jaguars and Citroën DS's, more Volvos inside. Yeah. It's great. It's just it's just a Volvo 240 family car. You know I mean a lot of people come to us and say you know I could get a Tesla but it's a tablet on wheels. I'd love to have a car I know, I like, I want to keep. Yeah. But you know the engine can't take it in town or it can't shine so we make it electric. So this is a customer's car that's... Absolutely. This was given to us to convert. We put our you know our first semen system into it. That's been the basis of all we do and actually right under the bonnet you'll see we need all the space, every centimetre, every kilo we can get in there. It's packed with batteries and an electric motor. So this car lives in the city here? Absolutely, yeah. It still has kids and dogs and whatever else? She's a hoot and a holler to drive and this one you're not going to be worried too much about the paint because these chips are ready and it will be again and it's a city car. And you know during a day's driving you can't really empty her on a day in the city. I mean you'd want to go fast but you can't really. She does well on the highway. This is one of our first cars and it was we call it a 150 kilometre car. Right. Let's call it a 100 mile car. Yeah. Which is still you know for driving it's fine. You've got your type 2 charging and in the end if you really want you add your fast charge system and now we have Fast Ned. You know in our early days it wasn't there but now it's there. Yeah. And you can do 50 kilowatt charging. So you could leapfrog your way through town. Yeah. Just the ultimate upcycling. This one is amazing. Because it's you say a 1969 G. Sure. You know I think of this as like the Daisy Duke. Daisy Duke had one of these. She did. So this is the choice she did. It has ridiculous tyres. It's not built for efficiency. We keep the original gearbox and the transfer case. So you can do two wheel drive, four wheel drive. Oh really? Okay. She's really really set up for off-roading. Yeah. Actually you take this one to your 4x4 meet. She goes up the hills like a billy goat. You see your modern cars with the V12s looking at it like and I'm not even touching high low gearing. I'm in second gear chatting to people. And it's just crawling up. Going up the steepest incline. Ridiculously. And it's towing. The fun thing is Tesla now came out with the Model X. That you can get the towing package. You can get the towing package. And I'll be honest with you. I mean it does crap for your range. But these wheels do crap for your range anyway. But if it originally had a towing hook and it's on its certification. Right. It keeps it when you make it electric. And there's no lack of power. Yeah. And then for us because we were into the electric boats. I just wanted to show a car that could actually put the boat to water. And this is an electric boat. So this is again. This is a classic boat that you've put 21st century tech into. Just hang on. Hang on. You can't walk past this. Oh my god. Look at that. An XJS with no V12 in it. Nope. This is totally up my strata. I absolutely love it. It looks right. It sits right. It's very original until you lift the bonnet here. Right. For us we got away with doing this one. It's a dual motor system. So all these cars and boats you see have single systems. Yeah. And we knew we were kind of graduating to larger diesels that we were replacing. We had to do a dual system. But we're not going to run a tugboat for ourselves. So we said why not get a Jaguar with a V12. There's enough space. Yeah. There's enough axle weight allowances. We'll put a dual motor in. Have a beautiful car to show. And I was able to come show it at the Silverstone Live. That's where I saw it. Fully charged live. You know fully charged live. And that was fantastic. To bring our Silver Jag, Silverstone. It was the first time we showed. It was a fantastic moment. It was really nice. It was a great show by the way. You ran a great show. And this way we have, software wise, it's the same as the tugboat you'll see later. Right. So we can, you know, if we have a problem with that, we can load the program here. See what's going on. Hang on. Rewind. Yeah, sorry. This is very hard for Johnny. He's looking at a Jag XJ. It's a Jaguar road car. Yeah. That's running a similar system. So the boat you're developing has the same brain and the same setup. Yeah. The reason being is that we're moving on into a power performance level. That for a car becomes high performance sports play. Yeah, yeah. But actually, you know, in town it becomes diesel with a job. You know, a pusher, a puller, a tugger. It's going to be in your 200 to 500 horsepower range. Right. And for us to validate, we can't take a boat that has a job and say, well, we'll be working for a year. And if it doesn't work. Yeah. So we needed to validate. But for us, you know, we wanted to have a show car. Something that puts a smile on your face. And, you know, you saw this one will do a burnout on any day of the week. What a lovely idea. So here there's two engines in line that go into an automatic gearbox. It's not your most efficient, but it's the most fun. And it's geared for both burnouts and top end. So it's still got the Jag Autobots. Yeah, we actually upgraded to the next one that they use, the GM box that they used in the big pickup trucks. They have one that has a gross vehicle rate of 18,000 pounds, but it can take the 650 Newton meters that we're feeding it with. Right, because you're really putting a lot of torque into it. Yeah, it's extraordinary. Yeah, but it's a beautiful car. Yeah, it's a nice setup. We're very happy to do it. So we haven't even gone into the garage yet. We've already seen three cars, two boats. There you go. Now, we, of course, trotted out all the toys. But this is where the magic happens. This is where we've been here since late 2014. Any car thing that we have here is generally something where we're trying to push the envelope. So we'll have a new battery, a new motor, a type of car we haven't seen yet. If there's things, we have them before we try and find partners that either know the type of vehicle and have a setup, have the passion for it. Because in the end, we're about the batteries and the motors. Your drivetrain. It's a drivetrain, an electric drivetrain, a battery and a motor. It's a solution looking for a problem. You can basically make everything better. Take out the engine and make it better. So we don't try and do things often, even though in the end, we should start doing that because maybe we'd make some money. But we try and push the envelope. We have a nice setup that works for commercial applications now. We're going to try and have the thing that we need three years from now, but start building it now. So anybody that's here, they know you're basically tying into a development, not into a full product. And then if you find us in something we've done before, we have a different location outside of town. That's where we'll try and start making some numbers. You've got some very cool boxes on the floor. This is actually a system. It's going for EMC, so electric magnetic conformity testing at the laboratories. Here on the mainland, we're not quite as easygoing as they are in the UK for the MOT of a car. Basically, they will bombard this system with all megahertz radiations known to man and see if you get any effects on your RPM. Interference. Then they'll take an antennae and do it the other way around, see if you can get grandma's pacemaker to go haywire. Once you get a certification, that means you're allowed to put it in a car. And this one is made to do classic Fiat 500s. Wow. So it's a bolt-in kit. This goes into the rear frame. The bolts are already there. You don't need to cut into the car. You can just bolt it right in. This one goes in the front. And you've got your Fiat 500 on a pallet. Ready done. It is a Fiat 500 on a pallet. This is it. Yeah. Why did I sell my Fiat 500 a couple of years ago? Oh, God. We'll have to pick up one again. So the Fiat 500, the Audi Bianchi. There's a few that are made on that same subframe. 126. Yeah, and it'll just bolt right in. And so we'll have the certification. Then the second part being that when we convert a car, we have to do what's called the R100. It's the electrical safety. Basically, we put it in a car and we submit it to the authorities. And they'll start poking with, they call it the electric finger. They'll see, can we get high voltage anywhere on the frame of the car? Did you do your P's and Q's? And if the system's on, but you can't hear it, but you're opening the door, you need a buzzer. If somebody plugs in the thing, but the car is on, you're not allowed to drive. So there's some logic to that test. We've done probably 45 of these motors in all different boats, cars, dual motor systems. Haven't had a single one come back. Wow, OK. We've had battery issues. We've had all kinds of 12 volt gremlins. We've had all these motors. The motors are solid. It's done. It's very simple, isn't it? It gets hot, you let it cool off. The water's just there. I know, there's water here. I didn't realise the water was just behind this door. So if you step out here and take two steps, you're in the drink. Welcome to the harbour. Now, this is good. This is not something we do regularly on Fully Charged. I know. Get on tugs. It's crazy. I don't think I've ever been on a tug before. Look at the towing on this. I know. Absolutely. This boat is certified for 100 tonne combination weight. 100 tonnes? Yes, so the boat itself is 12 tonnes as you sit. Wow. But you can take a barge that's up to 80, 85 tonnes full of stuff. That's the job of this boat is to bring building materials into town. Right. But do it electric autonomously within town at town speeds. Yeah. And then once the building materials have been brought, offsetting a lot of truck movements, one single tug can actually, in a single building yard, they've done a study, 900 truck movements can be done by a single tug bringing barges to and fro all day. Oh my goodness. Wow. And the roads are overtaxed and the water is, at this moment, underutilized. Right. This motor goes through a 2.7 reduction down to the diesel shaft and it has a dual clutch. And then it goes through a marine reverse system that has another three times reduction. Oh my goodness. So 300 newton metres times 2.7 times three, we're well over 2000 newton metres to the prop. Whoa. I see. So our bollard proof, what they call the tug, you know, it's a tug boat. Tugability. Yeah. I'm not nautical enough. I'm not nautical. In this, just to say by this, I've got a partner. I do new electric. We do new electric marine together. He's been a boat builder for 40 years. Right. Everybody that talks to me will know and understand. I know an electric motor. I know a battery. But we had this one in our little yard at the other end of the shop. I was standing next to it. I feel like when iron gets this thick. Yes. And shafts get like that. I know nothing. So I really need partners. Big chunky stuff. I mean, you can see it down there. There's some big chunky bits down there. Great project. We're very proud and happy to do this. For us, this is like the pinnacle of what we're doing. Right. It's saying we've gone through toys. Yeah. We've made old cars that would let you down into daily drivers. Yeah. We've made an XJS that's a dual motor system and it'll burn out all day long. But now we're graduating to diesels that have a job and offsetting actual, you know, CO2 in particular matter in town. We kind of won an award doing this and we're kind of getting a little social push because, you know, now there's some relevance. Right. Yes. Yeah. I can just see beautiful, shiny. Yeah. Look at that. I mean, glinting varnish. Isn't it stunning? We kind of thought we can't have you in Amsterdam and not take you in town. And I wanted to, you know, bring my esteemed guest in the nicest electric style possible. Now that's a working boat. This is luxury, old school. She's a thing of beauty. But at the same time, she holds down a job. She pays her way. This is our launching customer. Originally, I'd done a speedboat. I was one of the first on YouTube to go electric water skiing because it was our original claim. I wanted to prove it was done. It was possible. And we did it. And the guy that sat in that boat, one of the guys said, I want this. And I said, great, because I need to sell it. So I literally took the stuff out of that boat. It survived my first project. And I found this boat for him. He said, I want a limousine boat that I can pick up customers like from the Grand and bring them to the Harbour Club. Find me a boat. This is just the prettiest. Isn't it nice though? Motorboat. It's just, it's pure class. So can we go out in it? Absolutely. Oh my God. Can we? Yeah, let's get in. I've not been in a boat like this maybe ever. So actually, the boat was built in 2006. But along the lines of a Hackercraft, a 1920s Palm Bay runabout. You feel, as soon as you sit down in it, you feel, I feel slightly overprivileged. Right. Yeah. This is great. It's the lap of luxury. But at the same time, the big difference being, it was built as a diesel. So it was a diesel. It wasn't even a petrol engine. It was a diesel engine. And it was made, they wanted to start a new brand called Medcraft. And then the 2008 recession came along. And there was just no market for it. And it sat in a warehouse. And we found it. And we were able to convert it to electric. The big difference being, while we sat here, I've turned it on. It's running right now. It's on now. And it doesn't need warming up. No, it's all ready to go. We need to just stop talking and start. We need to get going. Do you drive a boat? Absolutely. Do you drive a boat? I think you can drive a boat. I think one of these you drive. This is the coolest boat. This is such a, this is the coolest boat I've ever been on. I mean, it's just that bonnet. It's amazing. I know, I'm pretty sure you don't call it a bonnet on a boat, but. Sure, that's what it looks like. The deck. Front engine, nice, you know, boutique bonnet. Yeah. It's just beautiful. So where is the actual, is the motor in front of us? The electric motor is right in front of us here. So that's running and driving, there's a drive shaft underneath. And there's a marine reverse so we can go forward, reverse. The series DC motor likes to turn one way. Otherwise you're running into the brush. Yes, yes. And then just proper shaft down to the back. So yeah, there's a slight reduction. So the motor, because electric motors like to run a little faster. Otherwise they have to make their power. The kilowatts have to come either from amps or volts. The faster you're running, the more you can get your power from the volts. Yes, right. At the lower speed, you have to get it all from the amps. That will make the heat. Yes. And the inefficiency. So we want to generally, for water application, you want some kind of reduction. Yeah. Now we already had reductions with the motors that we're replacing. So often we just work onto the marine reverse that's there. I see, right, you don't have to replace that. Or we've done, you know, custom belt systems like in the tugboat, where we're saying, hey, we want to bring things down to a specific gearing. Yeah. And then we develop that that way. I'm just watching your little readout. It's such a tiny amount of energy. It's just four amps. So it's four amps at 288 volts. So we're under a kilowatt. I mean, a little over a kilowatt, sorry. Four amp draw right now. And we're going, this is walking pace. This is fast walk. Yeah, yeah. This is a fast walk. Yeah, this is a fast walk. Yeah. And so this boat has a little bit over 30 kilowatt hours. And we're using around about a kilowatt, a little over one now. We could run for 20, 24 hours at this speed. She does. On a river where you have restrictions anyway. Anyway, exactly. I mean, at least, you know, I mean, at 12 or 16 hour days, already more than you're going to do. So that leaves a little bit of time for the, you know, for the power moment, if you want it. I have to say, I feel pretty special on it. Do you? Oh, yeah, no. Because it's a beautiful, classic looking thing anyway. So here's the thing. You go under a, you're in a boat on a canal, then you go under a bridge. Yeah. And then you suddenly hear the engine, don't you? Oh, the echo. You would hear, if this was a diesel boat, you'd suddenly be, you'd hear it echoing. Nothing on this at all. The engine that was originally in this, it would be reverberating back at you. Yeah. Because the thing is, at stationary RPMs, it's already going a little bit faster than you want it to. Yeah. And it's upsetting your balance moment. It does, it does. So you can't have this conversation. No, it's like leaning on a washing machine a little bit. Very much so. Very much. And look, we're getting some of it because here, instead of a belt, we're using a marine reverse, so there's a bit of a flywheel. There's sort of, there's gears going, but it doesn't feel the same, yeah. And I like it that when you do something, it feels like something's happening. You know, there's actually, there's, you know. This would probably be the moment to slightly. That is, isn't that just extraordinary? Yeah, this is slick. It's just so nice. Just. Wow. Just amazing. So who's Tubbs and who's Crockett? I mean, we need to, we need to establish that, all right? And it's not Miami, it's Amsterdam. Amsterdam. Nice. Slightly illegal speed. Yeah. That is amazing, that is just incredible to feel that. And look, I want this boat to last forever, probably that motor will outlast the boat. You know what I mean? We can replace a brush with the bearings in this basic system. It's copper and kinetic energy being, you know. Yeah. Induced into its core, so there's nothing going to happen there. And then you're going to build another one for yourself. Very much so, because now I've found out, like I'm building great stuff for other people, but my kids are finally old enough to go water skiing. Right, right. And I didn't have a boat anymore, because I'd sold it off because I'd put the boat in another. Daddy's got to make some money somehow. Yeah, so now, you know, and now we're coming into the second phase of electrics, where we can start not only reusing boats and cars by making them electric, but we can take electric boats and cars that have crashed, or done their first thing, or gone out of lease. Yeah. And so I'll be building the boat with reused electric components. Yeah, exactly. So that's the other side of cradle to cradle that we can now get into. So we're using Tesla batteries, we're using Nissan batteries. Yeah, there's a lot of that going on. We're repurposing the motors. There's racing happening with Tesla motors. The first generation Nissan LEAFs, they're the most built EV, most sold EV. Norway is a slippery country. You know, I didn't want anybody to get hurt, but I'm very nasty. I just walked out, sorry, I was going... Sorry, I need to, yeah, but in my world, does that matter? There's a few... Winter in Norway means bonanza of parts. It does, it does. And the car that's out there mostly is the Nissan LEAF. Yeah. So, you know, together with all the nerds and stuff, there's aftermarket, you know, vehicle control units now. We can get those stuff, we can start putting them in. And for us, there's always going to be this side where we're trying to learn from the OEMs and repurpose their stuff, retro-engineer their stuff. And then there will be a commercial side. Look, for the tugboat, for the towing cars we're doing, we're doing some trucks now, full 10 ton trucks. I need to do stuff that's factory needs. So we're importing our batteries from China. We're a Siemens solution partner. So we're, you know, we're getting Siemens motors. Yeah. And those things I can give warranties on and even, you know, transcribe my serial number warranties. Yeah, I'm a small company and they got a big trucking company. They want to know that, you know, me and my big mouth go south. Yeah. They still have, you know, something to claim against. So there, for the commercial side, we'll always use, you know, factory new stuff and then repurpose their vehicles. But, you know, we're builder nerds at heart. So we want to be part of, you know, sticking Nissan Leafs in speedboats and see what happens. You know, it's just too much fun not to do that. I love this notion. Yeah. I wonder if you can fit it in a coracle. What's a coracle? A coracle is a round... A cylindrical boat with no rudder. With no rudder. It would be quite a challenge. Was it for just like basic fishing? Just for going out fishing. It was, you couldn't really control it. No, you paddle it and you go around in a circle. It's very hard. Can I please have a Nissan Leaf 30 kilowatt coracle? No one's done an Atlantic crossing in a coracle. No, because it would be the most awkward route in the world. Very busy on the phone. That's my advice. And that's the other nice thing about electric, because you have so much power at low torque, you can just kind of slowly sideways yourself. Otherwise you're... He's going to say that was diesel, diesel, diesel. Of course, yeah. I'm not even a good skipper, but it makes you look good. It makes you look good. It's true. I don't know what to tie off to at the back. No, I'm coming to the front. Okay. New regular thing, fully charged floaters. Fully floaters? Yeah. There you go, Tom. Thank you very much. I'll just move my captain's chair for you. There we go. Who doesn't like a captain's chair? Could I just say, look, business at the front, party at the rear. It's basically the chair form of mullets. It's the mullet chair. It's great. See you guys. Okay. Bravo. Anyway, well, I think that's fair to say that's... That's all we got time for. Oh, that is... Oh, it's pungent. That is the pungent smell of burning rubber. We've had an amazing time here. Annie had to go and make tea for his kids. He's late. We've kept him much too long. We want to thank all the guys at New Electric here in Amsterdam. We've had an amazing day. Amazing cars. Amazing boats. Tugs. Oh, it's just incredible. What they're doing here is incredible. So that's been really good. So anyway, please do subscribe to Fully Charged. Please press the dingy bell. Dingy bell. Which is up there. It's over there. If you liked it, press like. Once again, if you have, thank you for... Watching.