Power play: Sialia Yachts reveals the tech behind its revolutionary electric drivetrain
by Sialia Yachts 26 Feb 04:05 PST
Electric propulsion © Sialia Yachts
Sialia Yachts, builder of a range of highly advanced performance yachts from 40 to 100 feet (13 to 30 metres), is already making waves throughout the yachting segment thanks to the style, performance, and comfort of its groundbreaking models.
- The advanced systems behind Sialia Yachts' revolutionary all-electric performance cruisers
- The drivetrain, developed by sister company Ampros, includes a proprietary Ship Management System (SMS) that enables groundbreaking functionality, from extended battery operating parameters to remote monitoring and preventative maintenance.
- Upgradeable battery packs, minimal mechanical maintenance and a lifecycle approach to construction mean Sialias hold high resale values
- Sialia Yachts offers up to a 10-year warranty on its Ampros drivetrain and batteries
Offering eco-focused all-electric cruising with scintillating top speeds, fast cruising speeds with highly useable range (and even more with an optional renewable-diesel range extender), simple mechanical maintenance, and a build that incorporates lifecycle-assessed and recycled or recyclable materials, Sialia Yachts is realizing a future of no-compromise luxury electric boating.
At the heart of Sialia's model range is a drivetrain and battery pack integrated by sister company Ampros, which has also developed a proprietary Ship Management System (SMS) that not only adds layers of safety and monitoring to the operational aspects but which also has been fine-tuned to extract that maximum capacity and performance from the battery packs and drivetrain.
Indeed, Sialia Yachts co-founder Stanislav Szadkowski has more than two decades at the forefront of green mobility, including experience in battery manufacturing. Together with Ampros founder and CEO, the outstanding engineer Tomasz Gackowski, they have joined forces to create the most advanced systems and yachts in the industry.
"Ampros was the first company created under Silent Straits, the parent company to Sialia Yachts, and it serves as a system integrator - indeed, Ampros developed perhaps the first really practical and functional all-electric drivetrain in the marine market," says Milvio Ricci, Chief Operating Officer at Sialia Yachts. "Most systems just pick up tech and batteries from the automotive industry and put them into boats. At Ampros and Sialia we do things differently, working to four key pillars which fundamentally enhance the efficacy and longevity of our yacht and boat systems - that's important, because Ampros also sells electric and hybrid systems to various boatbuilders across the leisure and commercial sectors."
The first of those pillars is the proprietary Ship Management System (SMS), which functions as the brain of the drivetrain. "Our SMS allows us to do a number of things," Ricci states. "The first is ensuring that nothing happens to the drivetrain, and that means monitoring and in particular predictive and preventative maintenance - that's why we are able to offer a five-year warranty on our systems, including batteries, which can be extended to 10 years."
The second aspect is that the SMS allows Ampros to maximise battery output - similar to developing a performance map for a car engine's ECU or overclocking a computer chip to safely extract more performance. "Typically, depending on how the battery is constructed, you can't use the top or bottom 10% of capacity, which means you're only really using 80% of the battery," Ricci explains. "The batteries we use - which are made to our specifications - have been constructed from the start such that we can use our proprietary SMS to safely access part of those extra bands of capacity." The power of the SMS has already been ably demonstrated by Sialia Yachts' first model on the water, the 17.6-metre Sialia 57 yacht Deep Silence which, since its launch in 2023, has lost only 2% of total battery capacity over three years of extensive operation.
The third aspect is predictive and preventative maintenance, which is further enhanced by the mechanical simplicity of a drivetrain that uses electric motors up to 400kW, depending on model. "The SMS monitors and tells you exactly what is going on with our system through a straightforward graphical user interface (GUI), which makes it ultra easy to use the boat," Ricci enthuses. "It's like a car in the sense that you press a button to start everything up, push down the throttle and away you go, with the SMS taking care of everything under the hood."
The GUI also lets you do other things, such as seeing your range at current speed, switching on the optional renewable-diesel range extender, monitoring what pumps are on and the status of cooling systems, checking battery and systems status and a host of other functionalities.
There's also peace of mind built into the battery packs. "Our own batteries are designed in such a way that they don't catch fire," Ricci emphasises. "The cases themselves are IP67-rated, but should water ever get in the batteries are designed to discharge in seconds, meaning nothing will happen. They are also installed in banks, so in the unlikely event that one battery should experience some problem or failure you can keep going, just with a little less range. Compare that to a conventional combustion engine - if any number of parts break or fail, or if there's an issue with the fuel tank, you're stopped floating in the water! All these points are why we offer up to a 10-year warranty, because we're confident in our drivetrains and our SMS and we're quite happy to guarantee them. This really makes a huge difference."
Finally, the Ampros system at the heart of all Sialia Yachts models is fully upgradeable, which means Sialias are future-proofed as battery tech evolves. So if new battery tech comes along in five years that offers 10 times the capacity, all a Sialia owner needs to do is take the old pack out and plug the new pack in and they will instantly get 10 times the range - something that also distinguishes Sialias from the automotive industry, as simple battery swapping is not possible in cars. The SMS also allows for over-the-air (OTA) updates, meaning systems or drivetrain enhancements and efficiency improvements can be pushed to the yacht on the fly, instantly improving performance and/or efficiency. Combined, these facets mean a Sialia Yacht will hold high resale value for far longer than an endothermic yacht.
Sialia yachts hold a unique position in today's leisure market, leading the literal charge for quiet performance cruising with minimal environmental impact on fragile cruising grounds and coastlines. The Sialia 57 Deep Silence has already proven that electric boating need not be a pedestrian affair full of compromises, and with several Sialia models now available - and with the new Sialia 45s already under construction - the time to make the switch to the future of boating is here.