There are significant restrictions on operating combustion engines on Lake Starnberg. This led Gardena managers Dr Christoph Ballin and Dr Friedrich Böbel to looking into the question of electric boat propulsion. Instead of finding high-tech products and drive systems produced on an industrial scale, they discovered a market opportunity.

When they founded Torqeedo, concepts such as clean tech and electromobility had not yet been coined. But it was already obvious back in 2004 that electric motors would become increasingly important in the future due to global population growth, the growth of the middle classes around the world, limited oil reserves and efforts to limit global warming.

And since a good idea is also an obligation – the lack of competitive products on the one hand and the future significance of electric propulsion systems on the other gave rise to Torqeedo.