The powerful tide of silence conquers Kiel Week 2024, an event that opened its doors on June 22nd and will continue until June 30th 2024 in Germany. For the uninitiated, this is the largest festival in Northern Europe, attracting over 3 million visitors. This year’s official sponsor of the regattas is Torqeedo, the world leader in electric mobility on water.
During these event days, a series of sailing regattas can be watched, ready to bring together something like 4,000 sailors from 50 nations. But that’s not all: the event will also allow visitors to discover and test Torqeedo’s powerful new Travel XP engine, as well as other products from the brand.
Zero emissions project and cleaner oceans
There are important projects with respect to environmental protection starting in Kiel. The city has set itself an important goal: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 95 per cent by 2025 compared to 1990s levels. In addition, the aim is to halve energy consumption. To do so, the focus must be on alternative driving solutions that can be applied to all areas of mobility and transport. And this obviously includes electric passenger ferries to ensure public transport.
The Senior Vice President of Torqeedo’s Customised Solutions Business Unit explained:
“Together with our partner everwave, we are taking action to make the world’s oceans cleaner. For every nautical mile sailed in the coming days, everwave projects around the globe will be retrieving 2kg of waste from the oceans.”
It is no coincidence that one of Kiel Week’s partners, in addition to everwave, in combating the pollution of the world’s oceans by plastic and other waste, is Hasytec Electronics AG, a leading green technology company.
A look towards an emission-free future
The Torqeedo product catalogue includes a range of electric and hybrid propulsion solutions, as well as energy management systems. In particular, we may find:
- The new Travel family for small pleasure boats
- The highly efficient Cruise systems for sailing and motor boats up to twelve tonnes
- The Deep Blue modular systems for larger boats and yachts up to 120 feet.
“We are pleased to present our latest innovations to the water sports community. You can test our electric motors for yourself on the fjord. As the world’s market leader with more than 250,000 installed systems, we have been promoting electric mobility on the water for 19 years and always strive to create unique experiences on the water – all while respecting our human and natural environment,” continued Vogel.
But how can the products be tested? Kiel Week visitors will have the opportunity to test Torqeedo engines on the Kiel Fjord. There is great curiosity surrounding the Travel XP outboard motor, a catalyst for attention in the Travel Family. The motor has an electrical input power of 1600 W and is ideal for heavier boats up to 2 tonnes and for coping with even the most demanding conditions.
But that’s not all, because the test drive is also conducted for the GELEX G5.2, a 5-metre long fishing boat that has been equipped with different outboards such as the Torqeedo Cruise, Travel XP or Travel 903 engines.
‘Let’s Travel’: heading for Germany
On Saturday June 22nd, Matthias Vogel himself gave a presentation on stage at the Audi Sailing Arena. Here he offered a series of insights into the topic of e-mobility on water. But he also covered crucial topics concerning the opportunities the technology offers for the decarbonization of the marine industry.