Digital integration, international sales foundation of Elco growth strategy

Where a number of electric motor manufacturers exhibiting at METSTRADE focus on developing greater power output and improving efficiency to extend battery life, US manufacturer Elco has made digital integration a key point of differentiation in its approach to capturing market share.

“We’re fully integrated with the NMEA 2000 network now,” said Elco general manager, Dean Heinemann. “We can now integrate into any NMEA system and deliver motor data on any multi-function display, for example,” he says. “That is new within the last two weeks, so we’re now working to be able to implement that capability through the product line and introduce it to the market in the first quarter of 2024.”

Heinemann says that full digital integration of propulsion systems has become essential in today’s boatbuilding market, as vessels of all sizes grow increasingly connected. “It really has become table stakes within the industry,” he says. “Boat builders expect it, and the end users expect it. Boaters want an onboard experience that more closely mirrors what they already have in their cars, in terms of everything connecting and working together as a unified system.”

Established in 1893 to manufacture electric-powered launches for the World’s Fair in Chicago, Elco today manufactures a full line of inboard and outboard electric propulsion systems of up to 250hp equivalent. Heinemann says that while about 85% of the company’s current business comes from customers in the US, the firm aims to grow its international business to about 30% of its overall revenues moving forward.

“We’ve established some new relationships to help us achieve that goal,” he says. “That’s principally going to come from Europe, which is obviously a very strong market or electric propulsion, and a market that particularly values innovation.”