Not so fast… At a recent meeting, I had dinner with a rep for one of the major diesel engine manufacturers. I asked him why we were are still seeing new models and developments in internal combustion engines when the world seems to be diving headlong into electric propulsion. He made several interesting points. Current battery technology does not provide enough range for many boating applications. Batteries are expensive and very heavy, there is not enough room for sufficient battery capacity to take a boat very far or for very long.
As soon as you increase speed, you draw down the batteries very quickly. Hybrid propulsion still requires a diesel engine to go along with the electric motor. The future for internal combustion may lie in sustainable fuels, which are already being used in aircraft. Airliners can operate on sustainable fuel; the issue is generating sufficient quantities of the stuff. He told me the next business opportunity will be in recycling the batteries used in automobiles, which are hazardous and expensive to dispose of.
