Delivering the future of urban water transportation with novel electric hydrofoil boats

Projektinformationen

Seabubbles

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 859152

DOI

10.3030/859152

Projekt abgeschlossen

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 24 April 2019

Startdatum 1 März 2019

Enddatum 31 Oktober 2021

Finanziert unter

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Gesamtkosten

€ 2 909 825,00

EU-Beitrag

€ 2 036 877,50

Koordiniert durch

SEABUBBLES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Seabubbles (Delivering the future of urban water transportation with novel electric hydrofoil boats)

Berichtszeitraum: 2020-03-01 bis 2021-10-31

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

Growing urban populations makes urban mobility under pressure. Most of urban transport is road-based, exposing citizen to traffic noise, air pollution and time wasted in traffic jams.
Noise
Noise is mainly generated by the traffic. With the increasing number of vehicles in use, this problem is going to get worse. It will also impact health.
Congestion
Road traffic jams are getting worse and worse everywhere. In most of the large cities, the commuting time exceed one hour per leg. This should double by 2050.
Pollution
Private cars account for 70% of the total pollution. Around 90% of Europeans living in cities are exposed to level of air pollutants deemed damaging to health by the World Health Organization’s guidelines.
Over Population/ time wasted
Population keeps increasing and road congestion issues will keep deteriorating in the future. We are currently facing a change in people’s behaviour where they start privileging free time over money. The less time lost in traffic jam, the more free time they have.

The overall objectives of the project are to implement alternative solution to urban mobility by navigation on waterways.
- Many cities were developed around rivers, lakes or seas and can therefore benefit from efficient water transportation.
- Urban waterways all over the world are largely underutilized today for efficient transportation.
- Certain cities offer public transportation shuttle over the water but they are not efficient speed wise and cost wise.

The project therefore aims to develop and to implement eco-friendly, safe electric taxi-boat for passengers' transportation:
- Zero Noise and Zero Pollution,
- Cost efficient by using electrical propulsion
- Zero Waves by using hydrofoil technology

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

Work performed from March 2019 to October 2021 has allowed to achieve the following results:
- From a prototype to a production boat
o Improvement of the stability and of the range of the Bubble
o Range extension with a hybrid battery x Hydrogen fuel cell
o Integration of key technologies easing the piloting of the boat (and safety)
o Negotiation with key suppliers
o Definition of the industrial strategy

- From a concept to a commercialized boat
o Preparation of the commercial activities (sales network, legal framework, demonstrations)
o Intensive communication campaign
o Business Model review (sales, leasing, services)
o Full ecosystem studied (dock + charging)

- From a start-up to an international company
o Distributed environment: talks initiated with local shipyards and distributors
o Aftermarket / support strategies identified

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

Technological advance has been mastered in the following areas:
- Stability of the boat at low speed
- Autopilot: driver assisted system
- Innovative design for hull and foils
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell hybrid management system

Socio-economic impact beyond state of the art:
- Make ecological transition fun and desirable.
- Perception change of how waterways could be used and increased interest from cities to better use river and lake opportunities for transportation
- Integration of a new transportation mode in the day to day commute. Emergence of an alternative
- Bring innovation in a sector that needed to be boosted / dynamized. Hydrofoils already existed, but the project is the first one to combine hydrofoil and electrical propulsion technologies for a passenger transportation market

SeaBubble’s model at SeaBubble’s stand, Abu Dhabi Boat Show, Octobre 2021

Bubble Taxi cruising on the lake of Annecy, September 2020

SeaBubbles’ team attending the European R&I days in Brussels / September 2019

Bubble Taxi cruising on the Seine River in front of the Eiffel Tower

Passengers embarking in SeaBubbles 3D new Model

SeaBubbles’ team in St.Jorioz, France September 2021

Bubble Taxi cruising on lake Geneva

SeaBubbles 4 passengers water launching in Cassis, Trial Case 1, Decembre 2020

Bubble Taxi cruising in Monaco