After seven years of research and development, Slovenian shipyard EJET has achieved one of the first goals the company was founded upon – create an electric jet tender that outperforms its combustion-dependent competitors. Today, EJET has brought its 4X high performance electric jet tender to market as it puts the finishing touches on its next electric boat, which is even larger.
EJET was founded in Slovenia in 2016 with the goal of building all-electric tenders that meet the company’s three pillars: driver experience, sustainability, and pushing the boundaries of the industry using state-of-the-art technology.
The culmination of this young company’s work and development rests of the 4X tender – EJET’s flagship vessel it describes as a “world’s first” in high performance electric jet tenders designed to support superyachts.
While we’ve covered our fair share of solar electric yachts on Electrek, the larger ones – especially those worthy of the title “superyacht,” are still mostly reliant on diesel engines – but that doesn’t mean their tenders can’t be electric. Better yet, they can now outperform gas-powered versions without all the noise, vibrations, and nasty emissions out at sea.
From prototype, through testing, and now into the electric boat market, EJET’s 4X is available for sale and is delivering some impressive specs for such a small vessel. Have a look.
EJET’s new electric tender boasts 60 kW of power
Small but mighty, EJET’s 4X electric jet tender is packing some power, hence why the company is calling it a high performance model (I bet yacht owners are gonna eat that up). The 60 kW of continuous electric power from the 4X’s powertrain enables a top speed of 35 knots (40 mph). EJET CEO Žiga Jarc spoke to the challenges the company faced in developing a high performance jet tender that is also electric:
When it comes to electric boating, most often, people turn to the automotive industry for inspiration. But we quickly realized that this approach comes with limitations. A boat, being on the water, presents a completely different challenge. The density of water is 830 times higher than that of air, which means it’s like constantly climbing uphill. This led to a host of problems that demanded a different approach and exploring uncharted options.
Our aim was to engineer a system that delivers exceptional performance, requiring minimum maintenance, safe and always ready for getting in the water.
The electric tender’s custom powertrain is managed by an electronic control unit (ECU), optioning three different efficiency modes selectable on the 7-inch touchscreen seen in the images above: Eco, Normal, and Power. If the tender’s battery ever gets too low, the 4X will automatically switch to Eco mode to help conserve battery while its passengers navigate to the mothership or a nearby shore.
The 4X is equipped with a 46.2 kWh battery pack that offers up to 40 nautical miles (45 miles) of all-electric range on a single charge. The electric tender can replenish itself in eight hours via AC charging, or four hours on a DC fast charger. So what does a 4-meter, high performance electric tender cost? About $113,000 (100,000 euros).
EJET shared that each of its production slots of the 4X are already sold out for 2023, but customers can still place an order to ensure they get their electric jet tender for next summer. With the 4X successfully on the market, EJET says it is honing it focus on bringing its 9X electric tender to market next. It is expected to “launch” on waters in early 2024 and make debuts at boat shows later next year.
Additionally, the company says it is already prepping to expand its production capacity in 2024, making way for not only the 9X, but a 7-meter electric jet tender to complete the range. You can learn a bit more about the company and see the 4X (which looks like the prototype) in the launch video below:
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