Check out one of our recent videos testing out the new Torqeedo Travel XP electric outboard. We've also included a transcript below.
This is Luke from EMO electric we're here today to try out the Torqeedo Travel XP. We're super excited about this motor as it's the first 5hp electric outboard on the market that has an integrated battery that sits right on top of the cowling. All the other electric outboards in this size range that have separate batteries, but with the Travel XP, you have the same convenience that you have with the 3hp electric outboard that we're used to. In addition to being 5 horsepower, Torqeedo has totally revamped their travel line. They have a new 1kW/3hp Travel S as well, they've redone their kayak motor, and they've added a lot of great features.
We're going to make another video that runs through all of those features in a little bit more depth, but just to give you a brief overview, one of the things we really like is that Torqeedo has eliminated the power cable for the battery. The connection is made from the battery there into the motor here—just slip it on, slide it forward, and it clips in. Your power is connected, your data is connected, and you're good to go. Torqeedo has also eliminated the cable for the tiller, so the tiller is now built-in, has a backlit color display, and can connect to your phone via Bluetooth for updates, past trip GPS range data, and all that. The Travel tiller also moves way up and way down, which it did not use to do. That can be really nice if you're standing up or if the transom of your boat needs the tiller to be angled.
Torqeedo has also made it a lot easier to lock and unlock your motor, which is great for sailors. In order to lock the motor straight, you used to have to take the battery off and put a pin inside. Now, there's just a little lever on the back of the Torqeedo Travel. One of my favorite updates—which is something that I can't believe took this long for Torqeedo to throw in there—is adjustable trim and tilt angles. In the past, you either had to be all the way up or all the way down, but now there are a few places in between where you can lock the motor at an angle. So if you're in shallow water, you have a few different options. All the way up can now actually be 90° up, so if you have a low transom or an angled transom, you can definitely get the pylon of the Torqeedo Travel XP out of the water, or you can leave it at one of these positions like the older motors.
Let's put our electric outboard on board. We're going to try this out on our 19ft Flying Scot. We're really curious to see how this will compare in terms of speed and range to the 3hp electric outboards that we're used to. So let's hop on board and give it a try!
When you go to put your Torqeedo Travel XP onto the boat, your tiller is likely stowed down like so, and you can hold the shaft from this handle. This is a new feature—they’ve really beefed it up. It's a great place to grab your motor and hold it, and it also is a great place to lock your Travel XP to your boat. We're going to flip our Travel tiller up so it's out of the way and ready to go, then take the cap off our power data port, lift our motor up, step on board, drop it onto our bracket, and get it tightened up.
Once we've secured the Travel XP to the boat, we'll grab our Travel XP battery. This is going to pop in like this—once it goes down, we slide it forward, and that makes the connection. That's it—no wires to plug in. All we need is our kill switch, and we're ready to go.
So we're out on the water now with the Torqeedo Travel XP. It's very similar to the older Torqeedo motors in terms of sound. We just opened the throttle up all the way and did about 4.9 knots—that’s pretty similar to the speed that this boat does with the Torito Travel 1103, which is Torqeedo’s older 3hp model. Not a huge difference in speed, but what I suspect is that in rough conditions—when you're fighting a lot of wind, waves, and tide—the speed on the older Travel goes down a lot. It just doesn't have quite enough power to really push through the wind and the waves. Whereas with the 5hp Torqeedo Travel XP, I think we'll be able to keep our speed up when the conditions get worse.
Here we can see Torqeedo’s new color display. It's a lot brighter and richer than the old display and gives us a bunch of data. We can see right now that our range is 10 nautical miles. It gives your range not only in miles but also in hours and minutes, which to me is a lot more useful. In the bottom left corner, we can see our power output in watts—right now that's at 390W. It's a 1600W motor, so we're at about a quarter throttle right now and moving at 3 knots. Our RPMs are down here at 820, and in the upper right-hand corner, we can see our state of charge, which is still at 94%.
As we increase our speed, we’ll see those numbers start to change. It doesn’t happen instantaneously—there’s a built-in GPS, so it takes a couple of seconds for the motor to make these calculations. But you can see now that our power output in watts has increased, our RPMs have increased, and our speed has increased to 3.8 knots. However, our range has gone down a little bit, which always happens with these electric outboards—the faster you go, the shorter the range. The solution, if you need to go further, is often just to slow down a little.
One of the things that I really like about the Torqeedo Travel motors is that you can adjust the steering friction. When you're sailing, especially in a boat like this, it's not always convenient to have your hand all the way back on the tiller. On my old Travel 1103, I tightened up the steering friction so that I could do what I'm doing now—steer with the boat's rudder and not have to keep my hand on the tiller of the motor. I haven't adjusted it on the Torqeedo Travel XP, so it’s great that right out of the box the steering friction is tight enough that we don’t have to keep our hand on the tiller, but it's loose enough that it's still easy to move.
Now, one thing to keep in mind is that the Torqeedo Travel XP does come in a remote steering option, so you can hook it up to a regular steering system or lock it in place if you’re always going to be using your boat’s tiller to steer.
Another great feature of the Torqeedo Travel XP—and really all electric outboards—is that you can operate them at really low power outputs. When I was just coming to the dock here, I was at 50 watts, coming in nice and slowly, which makes docking a breeze. With gas outboards, idle forward is often pretty fast, so you're in and out of forward and neutral. With electric, getting down to that really slow speed just makes it easier to dock.
So, we're back at the dock, and we finished our sea trial. We’re going to take the Travel XP off the boat, and one of the other features that I kind of breezed over—honestly, forgot about—is that it's easier to take the XP battery off. You can spin the motor all the way around, pull the lever up, pull the battery back, and lift it up without having to hang over the stern.
We just finished our first test run with the Torqeedo Travel XP, and I’m really impressed with this motor. It’s noticeably more powerful than the 3hp electric outboards on the market. If you need more power in conditions with a lot of wind and current, the Travel XP is a great choice. The range was excellent, especially when we reduced the power. All of the new features, like the backlit display, cable-free battery, adjustable trim angles, and steering lock lever, didn’t just sound great—they worked as advertised. Torqeedo really stepped up their game with this motor, and we’re really happy with it. If you're interested in buying one, we'll link our online store below. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or visit our website, give us a call, or send us an email—we’d be happy to help!