A 3D render of the Icon racing through the water
In May 2023, car manufacturer BMW unveiled its new, all-electric foiling watercraft called the Icon, a 13.5-metre-long vessel that relies entirely on battery power. Like other hydrofoil vessels in the ocean, the Icon uses a set of hydrofoil wings and propellers for motion. However, instead of fossil-fuelled motors, propellers are spun by two 100-kilowatt electric motors that are supplied by six batteries beneath the watercraft. Much like the wings of an aircraft, hydrofoils such as the Icon use underwater wings that reduce the amount of drag a vessel experiences, increasing speed and fuel efficiency. They achieve this by utilising Newton’s third law of motion, which states that when one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. For hydrofoils, this equates to the force pushed down on the water and the water’s equal returning force, which keeps it stable while it sails.
Did you know?
The first hydrofoil was patented in 1869