Patent 7331834 was granted and assigned to Honda on February, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An outboard motor is provided with a bar handle equipped with a throttle grip enabling push-pull operation and rotate operation by the boat operator, and one or the other of the engine and the motor is connected to the propeller in accordance with the push-pull operation of the throttle grip. Owing to this configuration, switching between the power sources can be performed using the throttle grip of the bar handle. In addition, the engine speed and motor speed are regulated in accordance with the rotating operation of the throttle grip, thereby avoiding degradation of operability and increase in outboard motor size.