When HAVELAI was developing its model2050 pontoon boat, the New York-based manufacturer turned to Hypercraft for the electric vehicle powertrain system. Hypercraft’s high-quality, marine-grade propulsion system was not only a perfect fit for HAVELAI’s needs, but it also empowered the startup to bring its flagship boat to market much sooner—and at considerably less cost—than if the manufacturer had developed the powertrain system on its own.
For Dave Kindig, a recent collaboration with Hypercraft enabled the car restoration specialist and host of Motortrend’s Bitchin’ Rides to create the ECF1—a custom, all-electric roadster inspired by the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette—and debut it at the industry’s SEMA Show last fall. Traditionally, Kindig-it Design’s custom builds have utilized internal combustion engines, but the company was interested in seeing where EV technology could take them, and Hypercraft provided a cost-effective, turnkey EV powertrain solution.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HYPERCRAFT
In late 2022, Canadian company Scalar Performance debuted the world’s first all-electric amateur touring race car, swapping out a typical internal combustion engine for Hypercraft’s EV powertrain system.
Approved by Canada’s National Auto Sports Association, the SCR1 is already garnering attention. Carscoops reported, “The single 800-Volt electric motor sourced by Hypercraft produces 328 hp (245 kW / 333 PS) and 345 lb-ft (468 Nm) of torque making it more powerful than the stock ICE-powered Toyota GR86 / Subaru BRZ duo. Those numbers are good for a 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) acceleration in an estimated 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 165 mph (265 km/h).”
Speed News pointed out that maintenance on the SCR1 is minimal, allowing drivers to spend more time racing rather than tending to their car. The motorsport-grade battery can provide power for 45 minutes of uninterrupted racing and can be fully charged within 20 minutes, minimizing time in the pit.
Hypercraft is doing something that hasn’t been done before, and if the Provo-based startup’s first couple of years indicate anything, the company could accelerate the adoption of EV propulsion throughout the world.
Hypercraft is the first to bring standardized, fully-integrated EV powertrain systems to the market. Typically, EV propulsion development has been driven by Tier 1 companies, as it requires significant investment in in-house engineering, staff and budget. What’s more, each manufacturer has designed EV systems unique to their products, so what works for a Tesla won’t work for a Ford.
As Hypercraft co-founder and CEO Jake Hawksworth explains, smaller manufacturers—from boating to powersports—haven’t been able to compete. They believe in EV technology; they want to give their consumers the elevated EV experience, but they haven’t had the tens of millions of dollars it takes to develop their own EV propulsion systems.
“They would need talent outside of their understanding,” adds Jon Miller, Hypercraft co-founder and chief creative and marketing officer. “You’ve got to spin up all sorts of development, prototyping, testing and manufacturing. It’s cost-prohibitive, resource- and skills-prohibitive.”Until now, small- to mid-size manufacturers have had nowhere to go, left to fend for themselves in sourcing and configuring individual EV components. “But they’re not experts in these technologies—they’re experts in building boats or ATVs,” Hawksworth says. “We step in to provide them a powertrain system, and now they can come to market with an EV solution.”
Beyond selling the powertrain system, Hypercraft collaborates with its customers to integrate the powertrain system according to each manufacturer’s needs. “There’s system integration and integration of the system into the chassis of the vehicle—we provide end-to-end service for all of it,” Hawksworth says.
Hypercraft’s roster of clients includes manufacturers in military defense, on-road and off-road racing, and automotive, marine, and commercial vehicles. Miller explains that the appeal for today’s EV propulsion is manifold. With its zero emissions contributing to improved air quality, most people think of EV technology as simply “good for the environment.” For those in the know, however, they understand there’s even more excitement around EVs’ impact on vehicle performance.
“With internal combustion engines, it’s taken 120 years for the industry to come to this pinnacle point, where they’re squeezing every amount of power and efficiency with turbochargers, superchargers, gearing and fuel injection,” Miller says. “Electric motors started at a higher point with all these technologies.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF HYPERCRAFT
Miller explains that Hypercraft’s customers are often looking first for superior performance. Motorsports manufacturers, for example, aren’t the typical proponents of EV technology, as high-performance vehicles have historically been gas-powered. But with EVs, they’re discovering the ability to improve efficiency, increase symmetry, and optimize new vehicle dynamics by placing weight in different areas.
High-performance EVs are also breaking acceleration records. “You can produce incredibly high horsepower in a small condensed package,” Hawksworth says. “The world’s fastest road-legal all-electric car went zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.40 seconds—almost twice as fast as any internal combustion car.”
Another benefit of EV propulsion is the sound, or the lack thereof. As anyone who has endured the relentless roar of internal combustion engines circling a track knows, the relative quiet of EV race cars would be a welcome reprieve. Hawksworth says many of their motorsports customers are coming to them because the tracks they’re operating on have neighborhood sound restrictions, and EV’s noise mitigation provides a critical solution.
“There are incredible benefits to EV,” Hawksworth says. “Our focus within powertrain systems is to bring those benefits to the market and educate our manufacturing customers—and their customers—on what the EV lifestyle is like.”
It looks as if Hypercraft is in the right place, at the right time. The EV industry is growing, with more than half of US car sales projected to be electric by 2030. Worldwide, leading auto manufacturers are anticipated to spend $1.2 trillion by 2030 in EV development and production.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HYPERCRAFT
Hawksworth, Miller and their fellow co-founder, Dr. Eric Ream, didn’t set out to build a company delivering a standardized EV propulsion system. The three friends met through connections in the powersports industry and wanted to start their own innovative vehicle manufacturing company.
“We landed on electric propulsion as the solution to what we wanted to develop,” Hawksworth says. “It was a technology that would allow us to be unique in the market and integrate high-end performance.”
As they researched powertrain options, they ran into the same challenges as their current customers. There weren’t any turnkey solutions, so they decided to create their own. They were able to get started with an initial friends and family round of funding, and they launched Hypercraft at SEMA in November of 2021. The company recently raised $6.5 million in seed funding, led by RevRoad Capital, with additional investors including David Elkington.
Hypercraft has moved its original vehicle manufacturing concept to the back burner and is focused instead on scaling product development, vehicle integration, engineering, and marketing teams to bring its EV powertrain system to even more manufacturers. For them, it’s all about leveling the playing field and bringing the benefits of EV propulsion to the world. “Many other markets around the world want access to powertrain systems,” Hawksworth says.
Miller adds that Hypercraft is passionate about EV adoption. “We believe that better technology will lead us to a better future,” Miller says. “But it doesn’t have to be in that sense of wagging our finger at people [over the environmental benefits of EV]. It’s more about how exciting, how fun, how cool it is that we get to do all these really awesome things. Racing, for example, reaches a lot of people who might be averse to this technology on the surface, but when we prove these benefits, they see EV is going to outperform in so many categories, and they want to be a part of it. We can share that excitement in a way that grows the cultural demand around electrification.”