Foil Drive Tech Talk: High Power Battery and Motor Upgrades

Foil Drive has not one, but two exciting upgrades to announce. If you've been wishing you could get just a little more power and runtime from your Foil Drive sessions, these may scratch that itch.

Foil Drive is releasing a High Power battery for the MAX Gen2 unit, as well as a High Power motor. These can be upgraded together or independently, and will each provide a boost to your sessions.

High Power Battery

The High Power battery is the same size as the current Power battery and uses the same "A" size nose cone, but it holds a roughly 20 percent higher capacity charge. The standard Power battery holds a charge of 498WH, and the High Power battery holds a charge of 594WH.

If you upgrade just the battery and change nothing else, you'll get more runtime out of your system. The High Power battery will also unlock a higher boost level in the app, so you can opt to get more torque out of your existing motor, though this will of course reduce how much extra runtime you'll get.

High Power Motor

While the High Power Motor does deliver more power, it really accomplishes this by being more efficient. The Foil Drive team lengthened the magnets and copper wires by 10mm. If you upgrade just your motor, you'll go from around 27 KG of thrust to 29 while consuming the same amount of power. You'll get more powerful boost and torque without sacrificing your session length.

HP Battery + HP Motor

If you combine both upgrades and turn the boost up to its highest setting in the app, you'll be able to get over 30 KG of thrust. This can be handy for getting up while riding upwind or with a smaller board or foil, but if you don't need it and can limit yourself to about the same amount of power you're used to, you'll get significantly longer sessions. Paul from Foil Drive was getting 40-50 minute sessions depending on how heavily he was using the throttle, but now with the upgraded motor and battery, he's able to stay out for nearly an hour.

Other Benefits

One interesting perk to the new HP system, and especially the motor, is related to something called the RPM delta. If you're an experienced Foil Drive rider, you've probably noticed that when you dip the spinning motor back down into the water, there's a little surge effect. This is because the motor spools up once the load from the water is removed, then returns to its normal RPM after it dips back in. But there's that brief moment where it's spinning faster than usual as it first enters the water and creates a little jerk forward.

The HP motor, being more efficient, reaches a lower max RPM when it leaves the water. The surge effect of re-entering the water is still there, but it's much less, giving the ride a smoother feel as you dip in and out while powered up.

While the 3-blade prop is best suited to the HP motor in most conditions since you'll be able to make full use of its torque, the 2-blade prop will actually allow you to achieve quite high speeds. If you're trying to match the cadence of faster waves, the HP motor and battery with a 2-blade prop will get you there.

The 3-blade prop with the HP motor delivers predictable thrust on demand. If you overdo a turn on a wave and bleed off too much speed, you can punch it and pop back up out of what would have been a stall situation.

The Trade-Off

With a gain, there's always a tradeoff, but fortunately it isn't too harsh for either the HP battery or motor. Together, the battery and motor add about 160 grams or 5.6 ounces of weight, and the motor is 10mm/ .4" longer. This does add a small amount of swing weight, but it isn't much in the grand scheme of your setup.

Paul is 96 kilos/ 211 lbs and likes to ride 720 - 850 foils on a small prone board, so the extra torque and runtime is a no-brainer for him, but maybe you've got plenty of power and are coming off the water with a charge still on your battery, so for you the benefits might not be worth the added weight.

The High Power battery does have a slightly different voltage curve, so you'll notice that you don't get quite as much power as the battery becomes depleted. You can see this happening when you look at the remaining charge readout when you're actively pulling the trigger vs. a few seconds afterwards. It may read 70 percent, then dip down to 50 percent while under load. The more accurate reading is the one while power is not being drawn from the battery. All batteries have these effects to some degree, and you've probably noticed it with the current battery as well, but it's something to keep in mind.

One thing that's important to be vigilant about is to make sure you've got the correct battery selected in the app. If you get the HP battery but use your Power battery as a backup, you must change that in the app so it's using the right power map for the current battery. It just takes a moment and will prevent damaging your system.

What Else Is Coming?

If you like integrated masts, those are coming from a variety of brands, including some sweet carbon masts. There isn't much news to share about those yet, but be patient and know that they're on the way!

Summary

With the HP battery and motor and the added boost that they unlock in the app, your Foil Drive Gen2 MAX is going to feel like a whole new system with a lively feel that's going to let you push your boundaries to new limits. You'll have even more options to extend your session, add thrust, or a combination of both. Happy foiling!

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