Last fall, when the successful Finnish builder Axopar celebrated is 10th Anniversary at the Cannes boat show, it did so by introducing two new electric-powered runabouts. This is no small statement for a company that made its bones building incredibly fast and muscular outboard boats with an attitude. Now, they’re building boats that purr.
The electronic wave is definitely upon us. Battery technology and thus range improves every year to the point that new brand Sialia boasts their new day-cruiser can run at 25 knots for up to 70 miles. That was unthinkable five years ago.
Advanced batteries in combination with modern foiling technology is producing a new generation of hyper-efficient power craft that can be personal pleasure boats or can be adapted to commercial use in ferry fleets.
The Swedish builder Candela is a leader in electric foiling designs and is steadily picking up clients who want them as efficient and eco-friendly ferries. One will be operating on Lake Tahoe, Nevada this summer and a ferry operator in Auckland, New Zealand is ordering several larger models to update and upgrade their fleet.
As it is with electric cars, being able to recharge the battery bank on an electric boat raises some practical and logistical concerns. Almost every marina has electricity wired into their dock and slips. But, will marina owners be forced to build stand-alone charging stations for itinerant electric boaters who just want electricity and nothing else?
And, how long will electric powerboat owners be willing to wait in line to recharge, and how long will they want to wait while the batteries top up? These are still open questions that designers, innovators, marina owners and the boat builders will have to sort out.
That said, there can be little doubt that the electric boating future is already here and people are rapidly beginning to adapt to it. Here’s an eclectic look at 11 new electric boats, most of them foilers, that will be making waves in 2025 but without leaving a large wake of a whiff of exhaust behind them. Read more here.
