Mercury recently celebrated the debut of two new Avator electric outboards: the 75e and the 110e. Both are made for small-boat applications, with the 75e delivering 10 hp at the prop shaft and the 110e delivering 15 hp at the prop shaft. We had the opportunity to run them at an event in Charleston, South Carolina. I spent the most time running the 110e, Mercury’s biggest electric outboard to date offered in the Avator lineup. For this test, Mercury had the 110e mounted on a Sun Tracker Party Barge 18 pontoon. Here’s how it went.
First off, the name 110e derives from the fact that the motor delivers 11,000 watts of power at the prop shaft, which roughly translates to 15 hp (at 746 watts per hp, that’s 14.75 hp precisely). As you’d expect, a 15 hp engine is not going to send an 18-foot pontoon rocketing around the lake. But you can see this application working for people boating on lakes that have horsepower limits or allow the use of only electric power, or for those who lack a need for speed, those with limited access to fuel, and, finally, those with a desire to avoid ethanol issues and winterization.
The dry weight of the 110e is 124 pounds, and it has a small, sleek profile reminiscent of a Star Wars droid. The 110e can connect to up to four 5,400 Wh lithium-ion batteries that weigh 93 pounds apiece. Our Sun Tracker came equipped with a pair of batteries housed under the transom bench seat, combined with the 5400 Power Center—the unit responsible for integrating the batteries with the outboard and the helm, and also for charging. Mercury says that when both batteries are drained, they take about 10 hours to fully charge using the integrated 1 kW charger on a 120-volt AC shore-power hookup. Opting for the 520 W portable charger saves space on the installation but ups the recharge time to 20 hours.
Taking control at the helm with one other person aboard, the first thing I noticed was how responsive it was in close-quarters handling. There is almost no lag time from the throttle, and the 110e provides ample low-end torque, which really came in handy when fighting a strong current while backing out of the slip and trying to maneuver through traffic at the marina. Once clear, I punched the throttle and noticed instantaneous acceleration. That said, we could not break plane and motored along at displacement speeds, topping out at around 13 mph running down-current. At wide-open throttle, Mercury estimates about an hour of run time; range and run time prove progressively longer the more you ease up on the throttle. I spent most of my test run at around 7 to 8 mph and saw the range hover around 15 to 16 miles, or about two hours.
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Range, speed and battery life are all easily accessible on the simple digital dash display at the helm, so you should never be surprised by a sudden lack of juice to get home. The 110e also proved remarkably quiet, so much so that without looking, I couldn’t tell that it was on while idling. Underway, I recorded 74 decibels at the helm at full throttle, but much of that was due to the wind and other ambient noise on the open pontoon platform.
The 110e is a great power option if you boat on electric-only lakes or ones with strict speed limits. It’s also a no-brainer for tender duty—provided yours can handle, as well as fit, a 93-pound battery and rigging—because it will get you into shore and back to the marina. MSRP is $20,900, and you can learn more at mercurymarine.com.
