Electric Boats Are Popping — 3 New Electric Boat Stories

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As battery prices have dropped, more and more types of electric vehicles have been popping onto the scene. That includes boats of various sorts. Let’s look at a few pieces of news about different types of electric boats.

Electric Ferries

Holland Shipyards Group will build 5 fully electric ferries using lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems (ESS) from Corvus Energy, Corvus Energy has reported.

“The ferries will operate on three of the North Sea Canal routes, replacing the current fleet built in the 1930s. The routes in the North Sea Canal are amongst the busiest routes, transporting more than 350,000 cars a year. The replacement of the ferries is in line with the sustainability goals set by GVB and the Municipality of Amsterdam to provide zero-emission public transport in the Municipality of Amsterdam and surroundings. The aim of GVB’s extensive new building and retrofit program aims is that the entire fleet will be hybrid or fully electric by 2025.”

Corvus Energy has supplied such ESS for nearly 100 hybrid and electric ferries around the world to date.

The Holland Shipyards ferries will start arriving in mid-2021. The first one will arrive in the summer of next year, followed by one more every 6 months.

“All five new all-electric ferries are of the Ijveer design and will be built in Holland Shipyard Group in the Netherlands. Each ferry is 41 meters in length, is 13,9 meters wide, holds 20 cars, four trucks, or 400 passengers. The ferries will be equipped with air-cooled Corvus Orca Energy ESS that will supply electrical power to the ferry’s all-electric power and propulsion system.”

Electric Leisure Boats … for Rent!

Electric ferries are cool, but what’s really appealing as a personal consumer (or a person dreaming of being a personal consumer in this market) are electric leisure boats. Well, it looks like this is only for Norwegians at the moment, but it’s exciting nonetheless:

“Kruser AS, the ‌world’s first provider of a pool of electrical boats for hire, is together with us at Evoy, provider of the world’s ‌strongest electrical power system for boats, giving a challenge to the boating industry.

“As a mutual aspiration we would like to make it easier for a larger population to get boating in a sustainable manner. The ‌boat builders are asked to develop fast & efficient boats optimized for Evoy’s electrical outboard engine mounted on Kruser’s ‌share pool of leisure boats doing planning speed.

“The joint approach is targeting to launch a fleet of boats that will supplement Kruser’s current fleet running at slower speeds. The new models need to fit 8-10 people and be outfitted with Evoy’s ‌150 hp outboard engine and Over-The-Air (OTA) system. The challenge is put forward to boat builders in the Nordics to have the boats ready at the breach of the 2021 season.“

There are reportedly more that 1 million leisure boats in Norway, and they result in more than 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Electric Tugboats!

Who doesn’t love a tugboat? Now we’ve got electric ones to cheer on and gawk at too. What is reportedly the world’s 1st fully operational 100% electric tugboat is going to work in the waters near Istanbul.

“The tug, named ‘Gisas Power‘, was built by ZEETUG — Zero Emission Electric Tug boat — with design by Navtek Naval Technologies. It is owned by GISAS Shipbuilding and works in the Port of Tuzla Aydınlı Bay, which has both environmental and navigational restraints that the all electric solution was designed to address.”

We surely have some more electric boat stories coming soon. In the meantime, feel free to share any you’ve seen. Also, you can stroll through our electric boat archives. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Solar Electric Boat Arrives In Florida — On Sale For $53,000
2. World’s 1st Foiling Electric Boat, By 6x Powerboat World Champion Erik Stark & Team
3. Evoy Developing 150 hp Electric Outboard Motor With Hurtigruten & Frydenbø
4. Wärtsilä To Design & Equip Two Electric Ferries For Norway
5. Wärtsilä, Engie, ING Bank Develop Emissions-Free Barge Business With Interchangeable Energy Containers
6. Consortium Created To Promote Zero-Emission Electric Vessels
7. Electric Liferaft Passes Extreme Weather Tests