INNOVATION INVASION
X SHORE EELEX 8000
LOA: 26’2”
WOT: 30-plus knots
Power: (1) 225-kW Brusa inboard electric motor
Range: 100 nm at 5 to 7 knots
CANDELA C-7
LOA: 25’3”
Power: (1) 55-kW Torqeedo Deep Blue electric motor
WOT: 30 knots
Range: 50 nm at 22 knots
In 2020, almost 75 percent of new light-vehicle sales in Norway were electric cars, making that country the world’s leader in plug-in car sales. Sweden was third with 32 percent, Finland was fifth with 18 percent and Denmark was sixth with almost 16 percent according to EV-Volumes, which tracks worldwide EV sales.
There’s a reason why the Scandinavians embrace electric cars. Their governments heavily incentivize plug-in car purchases by waving or reducing sales taxes, value-added taxes, tolls and parking fees. But Scandinavia’s burgeoning electric car craze has created an electric and sustainability mindset that is now also being applied to boating—an activity the Scandinavians love.
Until recently, two factors have limited the popularity of electric boating: range and speed. But ongoing improvements to battery and other technologies—many of them courtesy of the electric car industry—have inspired at least five Scandinavian companies to develop electric boats that can go faster and farther, and these builders are bringing their products to America.
X SHORE
Swedish start-up X Shore made a splash at the 2021 Newport International
