Evoy Electric Boats
Florø, a sleepy hamlet on the westernmost shores of Norway, was for the longest time preoccupied with the landing of wild-caught herring. The shiny-scaled havets sølv—Norwegian for “the silver of the sea”—can be abundant closer to shore when migrating into the fjords to spawn, which was welcome news for fishermen living and working among the series of islands, islets and skerries that make up the vast archipelago extending to the west. Herring was still closely tied with the village’s identity when exploratory off-shore platforms were constructed in the North Sea in the mid-1960s and drilling for oil began in earnest five years later.
Today, farmed salmon is far and away the leading catch, if you can even call it that, and Saga Fjordbase, along with the hundreds of oil rigs currently operating in the North Sea, provide job opportunities for the 9,000 people living in Florø. Saga Fjordbase also counts itself, somewhat improbably, as the former employer of Evoy’s founder and CEO, Leif A. Stavøstrand, a well-spoken, ursine-like figure who would not look out of place with a battle-axe in his hand on a gray, windblown set of Game of Thrones.
Evoy is a portmanteau for “electric voyage,” and has been in the business of creating 100-percent green, emission-free experiences on the water since 2018. They do this by focusing their efforts solely on propulsion, building a series of electric motors in both inboard and outboard applications at their plant, a 2.5-mile drive from Fjordbase. (Evoy partners with boatbuilders who provide them with hulls which they optimize for electric propulsion.) Ironically, if it weren’t for his six-year tenure in executive management with Saga Fjordbase—the last two years as CEO—Stavøstrand may never have built up the soft skills and conviction he needed to
