Kreisel Electric: new plans and latest on John Deere deal
Markus Kreisel, managing director of Kreisel Electric, chats to Marine Industry News about the electric battery manufacturer’s next steps.
Kreisel Electric was founded in 2014 by three brothers – Philipp, Johann and Markus Kreisel – from Freistadt, Austria. The company has electrified everything from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mercedes G-Class to the Carbon SAY 29, which currently holds the world record for fastest production electric boat.
In 2022, John Deere acquired a majority stake in Kreisel and Swedish boat manufacturer X Shore signed a €50 million battery deal with the company. So, what’s next?
How much is the marine market a focus for the next 3/5/10 years?
The marine sector is a very strong focus in the overall company strategy. In the past we have already successfully completed over 150 projects in the industrial, automotive, charging, and marine sector. Executing numerous prototype projects in the marine sector allowed us to gain major experience and a foothold in this area of expertise. One example of many is the joint project with our partner SAY.
Building on these positive prototype results and the increasing demand of B2B customers allowed us to develop even larger projects for series development. Our technology perfectly meets the requirements of marine applications in terms of performance, safety, and robustness, which is also represented by our DNV certification.
How will the John Deere acquisition benefit your marine portfolio?
The John Deere partnership will show a positive impact in the marine sector. John Deere continually evaluates opportunities within and beyond its current power solutions portfolio.
John Deere will support us and help us grow in terms of industrialisation, sales and after-sales for the marine sector specifically. Establishing a global network, customer base and enabling global interaction with key companies will soon be posssible due to John Deere. Its global supply chain and cost management expertise will ensure an expansion in this area imminently.
Kreisel has previously created brand exposure through influencer endorsement in the EV sector – with projects including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s G Class fitout. Is this strategy something you will employ in the marine sector?
The Racebird for the new E1 Series
An example of a so-called ‘lighthouse project’ in the marine market, which will help elevate our business strategy, is our partnership with the E1 Series – the world’s first electric powerboat championship. Our involvement in this project will help us to increase the international awareness of our technology in the B2C sector as well. The project shows that Kreisel battery technology can perform under extreme conditions while ensuring the highest standards of safety, performance, and lifetime. This is basically the transfer of motorsports to marine motorsports – as we have seen in the past, years of series developments find their application here.
What’s next with your partnership with X Shore?
We see X Shore as the market leader in electric leisure boating with huge growth potential, to foster a greener future. We are proud to supply X Shore with our patented battery technology. As battery technology pioneers we strive to become a major supplier in this area. Our series product, the KBP63 battery, is already integrated in the X Shore boat Eelex 8000. X Shore scales very strongly in production capacities of 400+ boats per year.
We must now take the next steps towards sustainable marine solutions. We are eager to start this new era by supporting an industry leader like X Shore, which shares our vision of a greener future.
Where is your geographical growth focus?
Geographically we focus mainly on the US and EU markets. In North America particularly we have already partnered with some well-known OEM companies. North America shows increasing interest in the electrification of boats. The trend is clearly visible and therefore this area has become one of our focus markets.
What needs to happen within the industry to further the electrification of the boating market?
One of the most important factors is the expansion of the charging infrastructure. A holistic concept must be established to make electric boating even more attractive on the market. Due to higher capacities of boat batteries, DC solutions are more relevant than AC. We need solutions with which boats can also be fast charged at port via DC. This results in high demands on cables, transformers, and further electrical infrastructure. Furthermore, efficient batteries that achieve a large range are a prerequisite to make it even more attractive on the market.
Another crucial topic is the safety aspect. Customers are still insecure about the application of batteries in the water. For boats, special high safety standards are required to guarantee the suitability of the technology for marine applications – this is not simply transferable from the automotive sector. We see a trend that the next generations of automotive batteries will match the required minimum standard of the current marine solutions. With our technology we already provide the next-generation battery technology today.
With the rising costs of the fossil fuels, electric solutions are already proving more cost effective, so electrification is also more attractive on an economic level. Everything aside, though, the ecological aspect of our solution is of extreme importance to consider for further decarbonisation of every aspect of our daily life.
