Israeli co "reinvents internal combustion engine"

Aquarius Photo: company website
Aquarius Photo: company website

Aquarius Engines, which wants to raise $25 million, says its engine will double the best energy utilization figure for a standard engine.

Israeli company Aquarius Engines, which is developing a revolutionary car engine, is seeking to raise $25 million in two financing rounds it hopes to complete this year: $10 million in one and $15 million in the other. The company has raised $7.5 million to date, including $5 million in January 2016. The investors in the company are Leon Recanati's Glenrock investment company, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) cofounder Marius Nacht, Shlomo Elia, and other angels.

Aquarius Engines asserts that it has developed an engine that is more economical and efficient that the existing one. Its engine will allegedly double the best energy utilization figure for a standard engine (40% versus 20%). How does it do that? While conventional engines produce circular motion that is transferred to the wheels, Aquarius's engine is based on lengthwise motion. The engine contains a single 500cc widthwise cylinder, and its piston, which moves from side to side, generates 86 horsepower. In contrast to the conventional engine, Aquarius's engine does not move the wheels directly. It serves as a generator that charges a battery on the floor of the vehicle under the rear seat. The battery powers two small electric motors located on the side of the front wheels, and these motors propel the car.

Aquarius cofounder and CMO Gal Fridman told "Globes," "The company has reinvented the internal combustion engine. There are a lot of companies that have said they reinvented something, but we've operated this engine in front of television cameras, and that's something that has never been done. If what I'm saying is true, it's as if we had discovered a gas field the size of the entire Mediterranean Sea. There aren't many companies that will have such a great impact if they deliver on what they're promising."

Aquarius still has a long way to go to prove itself - a very long way. Operating an engine in front of television cameras is not the same as selling it to the entire market, or at least to some of it. It is not easy to revolutionize the auto market, which changes quite slowly. A Mediterranean Sea-sized gas field? We will wait and see.

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 15, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Aquarius Photo: company website
Aquarius Photo: company website
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