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Jonathan Bell

The Icon is an all-electric boat shaped by BMW in collaboration with boatbuilder Tyde

The Icon, by BMW and TYDE

BMW brought a new form of transportation to the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The Icon is an all-electric boat developed in collaboration with Tyde, billed as ‘a new kind of flagbearer for sustainable mobility on water’.

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

The 13.15m vessel splices BMW battery tech with Tyde’s foiling technology, creating a craft that raises itself out of the water at speed to avoid drag and increase range.

The Icon all-electric boat

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

Six batteries sourced from BMW’s trailblazing i3 provide 240kWh of power to twin 100kW motors, enough to give the boat a range of 50 nautical miles and a top speed of 30 knots (100km and 55 km/h respectively).

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

BMW isn’t the first company to pair with an electric boat maker. Polestar’s batteries found their way into Candela’s C-8, a sleek hydrofoil designed by the Swedish boat builder. Where The Icon differs in its superstructure.

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

BMW has helped shape a deluxe, luxurious cabin experience, building on the smooth, near-silent propulsion system. Drawing on the sound architecture deployed in its high-end cars, like the BMW i7, shown here, The Icon has its own on-board ‘soundscape’, composed by regular BMW collaborator Hans Zimmer and delivered through a Dolby Atmos powered system. 

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

The prism-shaped cabin combines extensive glazing and folded metal forms, with unrivalled transparency, giving passengers an extraordinary view from above the waves. The interior contains rotating upholstered seats and a big-screen entertainment system. 

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

Cannes was an appropriate waterside venue for The Icon’s debut, with its connotations of starry glamour and BMW’s own long-term relationship with cinema and the big screen – the company’s new short film, The Calm, starring Pom Klementieff and Uma Thurman, is the first in the BMW Film series for eight years.  

(Image credit: BMW and Tyde)

For now, The Icon is a one-off, but it shows a desire to apply the lessons learned in developing electric cars to new sectors of mobility, particularly luxurious ones.

BMW.com

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