Plugboats : Electric Roundup – Part 1: TIBS

Electric demonstrations at TIBS Indoor Lake

Mar 13, 2025

With the ‘Boat Show Season’ wrapping up, it’s a good time to look at some of the electric boat and motor options that were on display in various locations and what that might hold for the future.

I was able to visit four shows: Toronto and Vancouver, as well as one in the US (Miami) and Europe (Düsseldorf, the world’s largest boat show.)

Overall, there were a couple of noticeable trends. The first is that the number of electric options continues to grow, both for boats and motor/battery packages. The second is that the type of electric boat ‘leading the charge’ is the RIB – Rigid Inflatable Boat, especially in Europe. A sort of 2A observation is that pontoon options are also growing – but they are a uniquely North American type of craft, almost unheard of in Europe.

In this article I’ll be covering the Toronto Show; next issue off to Vancouver.

Toronto International Boat Show (TIBS)

The indoor lake of the show is one of its most popular attractions, and this year there were electric boat demonstrations on each of the show’s 10 day run.

The companies participating in the ‘Electrification of Boating in Canada’ program included boats from Canada’s Vision Marine Technologies, Navigator Boats and Legend along with Rand Boats of Denmark. The electric motors on the boats came from ePropulsion, Mercury and Tohatsu.

There were also demonstrations from the electric surfboard companies E-Surf and JETSURF. As a bit of an aside, another trend at all the shows was that the number of electric surfboards, foiling boards, underwater scooters and other ‘water toys’ is multiplying quickly, including jetskis/personal watercraft.

On the lake, Vision Marine showcased their new entry in the pontoon market, the Armada 168, while out on the floor of the Enercare Centre they had two ‘picnic style’ cruising boats. One was the Fantail 217, a classic canopied design that harkens back to the first electric boats at the 1896 Chicago World’s Fair. The other was the Volt, which takes that classic form and turns it into an entirely contemporary version.

The third boat in Vision’s booth was the Phantom. This is a rotomolded craft that is virtually indestructible. Rotomolding is the technology used in polypropylene kayaks, so the Phantom is incredibly light, weighing only 350 kg (800 lbs) – pretty incredible for a 16’ 6” boat that holds 10 people.

Last but not least in the Vision booth was a standalone display of their E-Motion 180e (180 hp / 130 kW), along with the battery pack that powers one of the highest power electric outboards available.

The other exhibitor that attracted a lot of attention was Navigator, where their 10 foot high inflatable houseboat almost demanded kids jump on it like a bouncy castle.

They also had a 10-foot RIB on display (made in Ukraine) along with a full range of electric motors ranging from: a half a kiloWatt to 40 kiloWatts (1 hp to 65 hp). These came from Aquamot (Germany), Elco (USA), RIM Drive Technologies (Netherlands), Thruster (Norway) TEMO (France) and ePropulsion, which powers the Electricat.

ePropulsion, from China, is probably the world’s fastest growing electric boat motor manufacturer. They had the booth right beside Navigator and, in a first for the Toronto show,  brought along their full motor lineup. That includes everything from the eLite – a 1 kW motor built into a rudder to their 40 kW outboard to their 100 kW (135 hp) inboard drive system.

Steps away from there, Tohatsu had their first entry in the electric market – the Alaris – spinning away in a water tank (try to do that indoors with an ICE outboard!) and one hooked up in a package with another RIB, the Gala Atlantis A240.

Innovocean Inflatable Boats was another RIB dealer with electric propulsion on one of their models, but with a twit. Rather than having one electric outboard that mounts on the transom in the usual manner, they have made a dual trolling motor set up that provides the same overall power, but divides it between each side of the boat.

One of the highlights for me at the show was speaking with Nikolay Bakunin of Multeps Solar. The Aurora-based company has specialized in residential solar systems since 2011 and we have successfully implemented over 500 projects of various scales and configurations across Ontario.

Nikolay has applied that knowledge to a 24 foot Boston Whaler with two Torqeedo Cruise motors and solar panels on its roof so it can run entirely off solar power on a sunny day. The batteries can also be charged from an outlet, and what’s more, can also feed energy the other way so the boat can help run your cottage.

Another electric refit (that also uses a Torqeedo motor) was the very impressive CedarCraft Vintage Electric Cruiser at the Antique and Classic Boat Society booth. Built by Rob Hill of Hillco e-Marine  in Burlington, this is an impeccably finished cedar runabout that combines vintage boat design with electric technology.

Next time – Vancouver

Jeff Butler is based in Toronto and is the Editor/Publisher of plugboats.com, the international website covering everything electric boats and boating. He is also President of the Electric Boat Association of Canada.