MARINE

EXOCONCEPT takes a distinct position on personal watercraft

September 13, 2011

The EXO is an electric personal watercraft, which riders lie on in a prone position

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Of the various water toys for big boys that were unveiled at last week's Cannes Boat Show, one of the more intriguing was the EXO, from French company EXOCONCEPT. Perhaps the best way of describing it would be to say that it's like an electric Jet Ski, but the rider lies down on top of it in a prone position, instead of sitting on it.

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The EXO is similar in concept to the Silveira Group's Green Samba, a prototype electric watercraft that riders were intended to crouch/kneel on the back of - unfortunately the company now appears to be out of business, or at the very least has no current website.

Unlike the Green Samba, which was clearly aimed at adrenaline junkies with a reported top speed of 65 mph (105 km/h), the EXO is intended more to provide yacht owners or renters at water parks with relatively gentle fun - it maxes out at 31 mph (50 km/h).

The EXO is available in a reinforced ABS model (which comes in a choice of four colors), or a snazzy-looking carbon fiber version. The ABS weighs in at 29 kilograms (64 lbs) without batteries, while the carbon tips the scales at just 19 (42 lbs). The addition of either four or six racks of lithium iron phosphate batteries bumps those weights up by 20 and 30 kilos (44 and 66 lbs) respectively.

Depending on how wealthy buyers are and what they plan on using the watercraft for, they can choose from 3.5, 4.5 or 7 kilowatt-hour motors. The choice of motor will have a marked effect on the batteries' runtime, which sits between one and two-and-a-half hours.

EXOCONCEPT's Erick Sebban told Gizmag that the company has already taken orders for carbon fiber models, which should be delivered by the end of the year. It will begin taking orders for the ABS model at the Paris Boat Show in December, and ought to be delivering those within the first quarter of 2012. Prices for the ABS start at EUR 7,290 (US$9,975), while buyers of the carbon should expect to pay at least EUR 19,580 ($26,792).

Besides the Green Samba, other similar watercraft have included the Kymera jetboard and Miguel Angel's proposed body board/Jet Ski hybrid.

The video below shows the EXO in action.

About the Author

An experienced freelance writer, videographer and television producer, Ben's interest in all forms of innovation is particularly fanatical when it comes to human-powered transportation, film-making gear, environmentally-friendly technologies and anything that's designed to go underwater. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he spends a lot of time going over the handlebars of his mountain bike, hanging out in off-leash parks, and wishing the Pacific Ocean wasn't so far away. All articles by Ben Coxworth

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23 Comments

that looks like a fantastic way to lose half your teeth.

Joshua David
13th September, 2011 @ 07:13 pm PDT

Lightweight, fast enough, innovative: good luck to this new company !

Remi van der Deure
14th September, 2011 @ 12:54 am PDT

Hate to be negative, but... Fail.

Michael Taylor
14th September, 2011 @ 06:20 am PDT

Senseless. You will get really wet, it's slow, you won't see a thing. Everyone who has ever rode a jet ski knows that you will have loosed your teeth not even cracked 20 mph. Watch the video and see how "fast "they are. It's really nice looking. Btw. why don't they make ist submerge able? Would be really nice for divers.

Marc-André Stinson
14th September, 2011 @ 07:52 am PDT

I can see only one use for this... lifeguards for some really expensive hotel. Otherwise I have to agree with M.T. above... Fail.........

Lee Bell
14th September, 2011 @ 10:13 am PDT

1. This position has been tried in experimental aircraft, e.g. the Gloster Meteor, the Northrop XP-79B, etc. and always rejected because it's too tough on the pilot. 2. Jetskiing jolts your neck and back. Even at the Exo's low speeds, the jolts would severely stress a rider's neck. The human neck is not designed to take hard lateral jolts. Worse, the Exo rider can slide forward and hit his or her face on the raised ridge at the rear of the front hood. 3. Peripheral vision is very important for jetskiiers because they must avoid larger, faster boats, but a prone rider is too low to see very far, and can't look to the sides or behind very well. In fact the entire craft is too low to be seen from a distance by other watercraft operators, especially on rough water. 4. It is too low to handle anything but flat water, and would bury its nose in a wake or swell.. 4. In order to absorb shocks, a jet ski rider should stand, sit upright or recline. Go to plan B, mes amis.

Ben Crumpacker
14th September, 2011 @ 10:29 am PDT

Looks like a displacement hull?

McDesign
14th September, 2011 @ 10:37 am PDT

looks as if its hard to handle, but if not and you are really really drunk it would be hard to fall off of .. wee

Jay Finke
14th September, 2011 @ 11:00 am PDT

Boorrrring!

Show it in some waves!

Druid
14th September, 2011 @ 12:08 pm PDT

hitting some choppy water would hurt the nuts... just saying...

Gabriel Grove
14th September, 2011 @ 12:39 pm PDT

Ben Crumpacker summed it up perfectly. Ergonomic disaster. Although, as a kid I used to sled in prone position, but then again, I wasn't jumping waves, slamming through choppy water and, well, I was a kid, far more impervious than an adult.

Burnerjack
14th September, 2011 @ 02:44 pm PDT

On top of the other comments, you can see in the video that the legs below the knees are just dragging in the the water, creating significant--d-r-a-g.

yrag
14th September, 2011 @ 03:48 pm PDT

It looks like a conventional stand-up before the rider stands up. Pointless design from some software modeling program that doesn't even look that great. If it submerged that would be cool, it is electric and doesn't need air so it technically could.

TheDuke
14th September, 2011 @ 08:34 pm PDT

Slight problem there folks...

Where and how is a (potential) second passenger supposed to "sit" in this thing?

We can all imagine of course, but not every male driver would be comfortable with it in all situations...

(I understand it most likely is designed as a single-passenger vehicle, but who would shell out $$$$ just to ride this thing on their own? )

Τριαντάφυλλος Καραγιάννης
15th September, 2011 @ 06:39 am PDT

This would be ineresting if they made it optional to sit, lie or even stand.

Paul Anthony
15th September, 2011 @ 08:43 am PDT

If you are going to look like a seal from underneath, then you better buy the one with lots of power so you can outrun the sharks! (;-)

Timeswimmer
15th September, 2011 @ 10:41 am PDT

Why doesn't somebody produce a Sea-luge?

Gadgeteer
15th September, 2011 @ 05:35 pm PDT

The concept has an interesting direction, but a very similar vehicle was panned, on this website.

http://www.gizmag.com/personal-watercraft-prototype-bodyboard-jetski-hybrid/12865/

The Green Samba was never a 'real' concept. Originally, the 'real' Samba was designed by Craig Nowakowski, of Samba PWC LLC. One of the partners decided to direct his efforts toward an electric version, of the same. He had NO PROTOTYPE, nor did one ever exist....it was the magic of computer graphics. It can't believe how many times I have had to chase this type of article down, which boosts of 65mph/ 3 hr run time...really? Does anyone check their sources anymore? (because this was SCI FI )

http://www.gizmag.com/the-samba-defines-a-new-class-of-65-mph-200-pound-pwc/11548/

now look @

http://www.gizmag.com/green-samba-first-viable-electric-pwc/15141/

Funny how history can be rewritten, on the same webpage , on year later.

Drifter
15th September, 2011 @ 07:52 pm PDT

Couldn't even get up on the plane... sorry, but this is gonna fail...

Jason Catterall
17th September, 2011 @ 05:54 pm PDT

One person is corect in saying the postion is to tough on the pilot.Of cosure then there is the fact we still dont have a ski that does a sea bob and goes underwater as well as ride the top.It seems anything elctrical these days is doubel the price of a regular ride ie the car is half the price of an elctric car.New tecnolgy is always at the begining of its inception an elitest sport or collection.And then the charging times on these devices are just patetic as well in temrs of charging and the actual feed back you get.By the time were all old men only then will electric porducts such as these be the way we want them to be cheap fast and muilt purpose.On seconds thoughts like bransons aqua car lets make a ski and a motor bike.

Richardf
19th September, 2011 @ 02:24 pm PDT

what a useless driving position

Halit Özbaşlı
28th September, 2011 @ 11:02 am PDT

I was thinking, this looks so fun!

But then I saw it was electric. If I'm going to go headfirst through the water, I want to hear an actual engine, not some wimpy electric motor whir.

Lame.

Ethan Brush
12th December, 2011 @ 04:36 pm PST

Looks pretty slow. They should have gotten a 90lb girl to ride it like the Kymera video. That looked fast!

Michaelc
26th September, 2012 @ 09:58 am PDT