State of the Electric Boat Market
By Jeff Butler – Editor of Plugboats.com
There is a chart used by marketers and historians that tracks how quickly any new technology – from cars to radios to microwave ovens to smartphones – is taken up by a population.
The Candela C8 achieves high speeds and long range through the use of computer-adjusted hydrofoils that let it fly above the water.
This ‘adoption curve’ shows that people called Innovators are the first to latch on to something new, followed by Early Adopters, then the Early and Late Majority of people who make up about 2/3% of the population, trailed by the last 1/6 of people, the Laggards – the people you know that still have only landlines.
Most people agree that electric cars are now almost at the tipping point from the Early Adopter to Early Majority phase, where all the big money will begin to be made.
That is having a big impact on electric boats because the surge of automakers jumping into the market means more efficient, less expensive batteries are coming along every day.
For electric boats, the expense is not actually the boat itself, nor even the electric motors, which have been around since the late 1800s. It’s the batteries.
The Voltari is a Canadian-made all-electric deep vee performance boat
So, with these lighter, more affordable batteries, electric boats are rapidly moving from the Innovator to Early Adopter phase and you are beginning to see a lot of options on the market. Let’s take a look.
There are dozens of ways to slice up the boat market, but the way to think of it for electric boats is by weight and speed. Lighter, slower boats require smaller batteries, while heavier faster boats require larger batteries.
Smaller boats are largely powered by outboards, and there are more options now than ever for dinghies and RIBS. Torqeedo, the market leader, is a pioneer in electric outboards and is joined by ePropulsion and Elco as being the most widely available choices in Canada. Power ranges go from 1 kW (≈ 3HP) models for dinghies and RIBS up to a 26.4kW model that provides power similar to a 50HP ICE motor.
A 25kW/≈50HP outboard is also available from Pure Watercraft, and Mercury demonstrated a prototype electric motor last January with the announcement that it will be available in 2023. Stay tuned.
This beautiful big Beneteau is now available with an electric motor instead of a diesel auxilliary. Electric is going mainstream.
Electric trolling motors from companies like Minn Kota, Motor Guide, Newport Vessels and Garmin are always an option for fishing boats, and many people are now using them on daysailers and other small craft.
For sailboats with inboard motors, most of the companies mentioned above have the same power ranges available as their outboard lines.
Moving up the weight and length class, companies like Oceanvolt and Electric Yacht have been building electric motors for sailboats for years with rigs that are designed to easily slip into the space and mountings of popular diesel motors. They also have Hydro Generating options to charge the batteries while the boat is under wind power.
Mercury’s Avator prototype has a removable battery pack.
One of the fastest rates of electric adoption is actually coming from the yacht manufacturers themselves. Beneteau, J Boats and others now offer electric propulsion as an option and some European builders like Arcona are now offering it as the standard propulsion.
Another area of growth for electric boats is in pontoon boats, where the owners are looking for a relaxing way to spend a few hours on the water with friends.
The low noise and zero fumes from electric motors help make the most of that experience and the flat deck and construction of a pontoon are ideal for holding sizeable batteries.
Vision Marine Technologies’ new 180E electric outboard will be on the new Four Winns H2E this spring.
Princecraft of Quebec has their Brio line of electric pontoons with Torqeedo motors and Pure Watercraft has built a pontoon around their outboard motor. Established manufacturers like Godfrey, Legend and Craft are now offering e-pontoons and they are being joined by companies like Hercules in Michigan, which grew out of the EV world.
A more difficult challenge for electric boat and battery technology is in high-speed-planing boats, because it simply takes a lot of energy to keep a big boat on plane for a long time.
Candela, of Sweden, estimates that a 25-foot planing boat consumes about 15 times more fuel than a family car over the same distance. That is what is required to keep overcoming the friction and drag of a hull going through water (which is 800 times more dense than air).
That requires a lot of battery. So, they have addressed the task with hydrofoiling technology that lifts the hull of the Candela C-8 out of the water to ‘fly’ and adjusts the foils hundreds of times per second for stability.
This shows the top-viewof the Ingenity battery and motor as installed in an Air Nautique GS22E.
Here in North America, there are now two non-foiling electric boats specifically designed for wakeboarding and other watersports. The Air Nautique GS22E uses the same hull as their popular tow boats, but with all-electric propulsion.
The Arc One has been designed by Space X engineers with a 350kW (400+HP) electric inboard and is backed by top tech funders like Andreesen Horowitz, celebrities like basketball player Kevin Durant and multimedia mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
In the high-power electric outboard arena, Canada’s Vision Marine Technologies is one of the world leaders with their E-Motion 180E. They recently smashed the electric boat world speed record using twin 180Es on a Hellkat powerboat that hit 106 kilometres per hour.
The Vision Marine outboard and battery system can be added to any appropriately sized boat and will be available next year on production boats from Four Winns and Limestone/Aquasport with more partner announcements expected soon.
a practical and serene way to get into electric power is this Princecraft Brio pontoon boat powered by a Torqeedo outboard.
Vision Marine also sells its own line of electric boats that include everything from low-powered (6kW) canopied cruising boats to the Volt 180 and Bruce 22 runabouts.
They are now joined by Voltari, from Merrickville Ontario, who recently launched the 26-foot Voltari 26 inboard with a peak power output of 550 kilowatts – equal to about 740HP.
Other production electric boats available in Canada are Frauscher boats distributed by Pride Marine Group (also a Nautique distributor), the Magonis Wave e-550 distributed by Segway Powersports and Sweden’s X Shore 1 and Eelex 8000 represented by BCI Marine.
The last segment of boats to look at is large displacement and semi-displacement powerboats, which are available as electric (or that can be refitted to electric), but almost always in a hybrid system that incorporates some use of a diesel engine. The diesel is used for higher speed situations and the electric motors for slower, quieter moments on the water.
Sweden’s X Shore 1 and Eelex 8000 electric boats are represented by BCI Marine in Canada.
Greenline Yachts of Poland has been a premier builder of luxury hybrid yachts since the early 2000s with Georgian Harbour Yacht Sales as their official authorized Canadian dealer.
The one thing we haven’t touched on is how these boats are going to be charged as they continue to grow in popularity. For the most part, e-boats can be charged in the same way as EVs, with standard plugs, which offer convenience but slower charge times, as well as with higher speed Level 1 and 2 chargers.
BCI Marine is working with Aqua superPower to bring high-speed DC charging to some marine locations in Canada for the summer of 2023 and the expansion of chargers of all types is sure to keep pace with the growth of electric boats.
On that front, the EV market is helping to drive acceptance of electric boats through battery advances, while also showing how the future of electric propulsion might unfold on the water. Opinions about the speed of adoption vary, but generally, the feeling seems to be that e-Boats are 5 to 10 years behind EVs on the adoption curve.
One thing seems likely though, our Canadian Yachting readers are very interested and are probably ready to buy when an electric-powered boat that suits their interests becomes available.
The Magonis Wave e-550 is distributed by Segway Powersports and sells at a relatively affordable price.
