Leading the charge
You have to accept that an electric tender is going to be slower than an internal-combustion engine boat,” says Ernest Menten, co-founder of Dutch builder Tenderworks.
Even state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries supply just 10 percent of the power that fuel amounting to the same weight would, so electric tenders need frequent charging and are more expensive. Yet most manufacturers report they have filled build slots for this year, next year, and even into 2024.
“We have already seen a tenfold increase in the electric boat order books of the current manufacturers compared to this time last year,” says Alex Bamberg, CEO of fast-charging specialist Aqua superPower. He says an unstoppable transition is well underway.
Even in the US, where boaters tend to rely on proven technology and big engines, the wave is coming. Hinckley introduced Dasher in 2017 as “the world’s first fully electric luxury yacht,” partnering with Torqeedo on its Deep Blue electric drive system, but it was a concept that the company did not intend to mass produce. While it
