The BMW iOX project is for a 13 m full-electric foiling boat using BMW Lithium battery technology and promoting BMW’s electric car range and highlighting the company’s devotion to green mobility and environmental responsible transportation. 

Currently, the only way to increase sailing speeds in electric mode (taking into account the small amount of energy stored in the batteries…) is to reduce drag. At higher speeds, the only solution available is foiling, as clearly shown by America’s Cup sailing boats. Foiling consumes a quarter of the energy compared to planing at the same speed and same displacement. 

Our office embraced the project with full passion and enthusiasm since it lies at the heart of our endeavors: green boating, high-tech composites, the development of new technologies to make boating more fun (like foiling and automatic foil and boat control management), and working with the world’s top experts from different disciplines.

 J&J was responsible for the BMW iOX concept, for engineering tooling, for building the test boat and for testing. Our friend Guillaume Verdier of America’s Cup fame handled the naval architecture with foils design and technology, and BMW Design Works handled the exterior superstructure design. The foils management hardware and software was supplied by Pixel sur Mer, champions of the foiling sailing world from Lorient in France. A lot of computer simulation work was done, testing (and breaking) of many composite and metal parts, and extensive open-water testing… a Mecca for a design and development organisation as our office and our tooling/prototyping department RnD. 

Twin 100 kW electric motors supplied by Torqeedo and in-house developed mechanical propulsion transmission system using Volvo Duoprop pushed the 10 ton boat at over 30 knots, cruising at 22 with a range of over 50 nautical miles at that speed on 6 pieces of BMW i3 / Torqeedo Lithium batteries.

The iOX project was ground-breaking in many areas … it was really pioneering and exciting work (the pioneers are the guys with arrows in their back…). We hope that this work helps to create a solid platform for many future project—and will help to change boating in a positive way, making it both environmentally responsible and more fun at the same time.