Taiga Electric PWC Wins Design Award

For more information on the Taiga PWC, click here.  

Canadian manufacturer of electric vehicles Taiga Motors won a Red Dot Design Award for its Orca personal watercraft. The Montreal-based company introduced the Orca last summer. She has a top speed of about 64 mph and range can be anywhere between 2 and 5 hours depending on use. Taiga plans to build a total of 500 Orcas and the first 100 are badged as Foundation Edition models.

Similar Numbers

Taiga CEO Sam Bruneau started on the Orca concept four years ago. The company also makes electrically powered snowmobiles and the powerplants for both vehicles were developed in-house. The Orca’s 134kW motor is equal to approximately 180 hp and the 580-lb. (263.08 kg) watercraft has the same power-to-weight ratio as a 300-hp Sea-Doo RXP-X. “It remains really agile because of the light weight,” Bruneau said of the Orca.

The majority of the Orca is built in-house and the hull bottom is an original design. The jet pump and impellers are provided by existing suppliers. The average range is listed on the Taiga website, but Bruneau said there have been times when a rider stretched that number to five hours.

Recognizing Concepts

The Red Dot awards were started by Dr. Peter Zec to recognize the efforts made in the design process. “It’s always a risk to launch a new product and every design process is full of risks,” he said in a statement. “That’s why designers and companies should check their ideas before they invest into these ideas. I think a design concept award is the best situation and the best background to evaluate the concept.”

Battery Challenges

Like any manufacturer of an electrically propelled boat, most of Taiga’s engineering focus has been on the battery. Taiga purchases cells from a supplier and packs them into its own battery pack that is integrated into the hull to improve the Orca’s center of gravity. It has closed-loop cooling and the anti-freeze system is the same one the company uses in its snowmobile.

Among the features on the Orca are GPS, LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. All system updates are performed wirelessly in a single data center. Because the Orca doesn’t need combustible fuel like gasoline, Bruneau said it’s ideal for use on a superyacht. He also said he’s getting interest from waterfront property owners who like the quiet operation compared to conventional pwc.

The Orca’s price of $28,000 falls in line with a higher-end market like superyachts. By comparison, the Sea-Doo RXP-X has a list price of $15,399.

For more information on the Taiga PWC, click here.