The World’s First Mass-produced Luxury Electric Leisure Boat

Electric leisure boats have been around in one form or another for more than one hundred years, but they’ve always faced the same issue: they had speed without range – or they had range without speed. Sweden’s award-winning innovator Candela changed all of that when they launched the world’s first hydrofoiling electric boat in serial production, the C-7, in 2019. That boat has gone on to win a shelfful of awards, including the world’s biggest competition for electric and new energy boats, the Monaco Energy Challenge. Now, Candela has launched their first mass-market boat, the C-8, which is an entirely different kind of beast altogether: it’s bigger, it’s more capable, and it has longer range – and it comes with a number of features that make it superior to conventional fossil-fueled boats.

In many ways, the first boat launched by Candela, the C-7, was their roadster and wasn’t really meant for efficiency or production. So, even though the company made and sold around 34 C-7s, 99% of the focus was on making it fly. Now, with the nearly launched C-8, Candela has taken everything they learned from the C-7 and applying it to the C-8 from a technical standpoint, while also adding those amenities one would expect from a high-end leisure boat.

“The C-8 is our first mass-market boat,” explains Mikael Mahlberg, PR & Communications Manager, Candela Speedboats. “And in a sense, you can say it’s also the first mass-market electric boat, because it has the range and speed to compete with traditional fossil fuel boats, along with a number of features that make it superior to conventional boats, such as it flies so there is no wake, and it is totally silent because we have developed a new C-pod drive train – and that is a big component and the key in being able to make a mass-produced and really efficient electric boat.”

If you look at the C-7, it had a drive train and motor that was bought off the shelf and mounted in a box above the water line, just like any other outboard on the market.

Charging

When it comes to charging the C-8, Candela again took a different approach. And that approach meant building a more efficient boat, which meant they could use a smaller battery.

“We have a 45-killowatt hour battery on the C-8, which is a fairly modestly-sized batter when compared with competitors, who don’t get the same range,” says Mikael Mahlberg. “A smaller battery means faster charging times, so with a 22-killowatt charger, which is what you can easily install in any marina, you can charge the C-8 is two hours, which isn’t much – basically it’s time to have a nice lunch at the marina before getting back out on the water.

“In other words, if you’re boating in Stockholm, you can get from the city to the outer archipelago, charge for 45 minutes and go back at a speed of 25 knots, so for a Swedish scenario you have plenty of range, but if you look at international scenarios – San Francisco Bay, for example – you can pretty much cover any distance a fossil fuel boat can cover.”

The response

The C-7 put the boating world on notice that there was a new and innovative boat that was poised to change how we look at electric boats forever. The C-8 has upped the ante – and plenty of people are taking notice. Recently, in Venice, Candela grabbed a lot of attention, because that city has a serious problem with wake-induced damage to buildings.

“They really like this concept of a no-wake boat,” says Mikael Mahlberg. “Wake tends to erode the foundations of the buildings in Venice, so they really want a fast boat that is electric and that doesn’t create any waves. Candela and the C-8 was like a gift from heaven for them. I was flying into the harbor, which has a speed limit of 3 knots, and I flew past the Chief of Police at a speed of 25 knots and I was clearly breaking the law, but he was sort of saluting and cheering us on! So, while the C-8 is great anywhere, it’s particularly welcome in harbors, where wake can be a big challenge.”

The role IoT plays

Candela’s boats are a prime example of an IoT-enabled product that uses IoT to serve customers globally. Data on everything from motor performance to location is logged, and if there is an anomaly in, for example, the electric systems, Candela can track and fix that remotely. Connectivity saves a lot of time and money for both Candela and their customers, because being able to address problems remotely globally means they don’t need service centers all over the world.

“If you compare this with a traditional engine maker, if they have an error in one of their engines an alert will pop up on the screen in the boat and then you have to take it to the dealer to get fixed,” says Mikael Mahlberg. “This isn’t a good approach for us – we’re a small but growing company that exports all over the world. IoT allows us to troubleshoot problems and then fix them, all remotely.”

“For example, when the C-7 was launched we had one guy who had an issue with the struts to the hydrofoil. You can retract them if you want to beach the boat or go into a shallow marina. They don’t normally fail but it did happen this one time. The guy was pretty far away, and we didn’t have a service technician close by. But then, we didn’t need a service technician because one of our service engineers here in Stockholm accessed the system and was able to see it was just a faulty sensor. So, five minutes after this guy phoned the problem was solved from the other side of the world. This is why IoT is a key component in our boats.”

Public transport & the future

Even as Candela has been innovating in the leisure electric boat market, they’ve also been developing the P-30 ferry, the world’s first high-speed, long-range electric ferry, which cruises at 20+ knots on computer-controlled hydrofoils and consumes 80% less energy than conventional ferries.

“We are currently building the first P-30 ferry and while the City of Stockholm has the first build slot, we’re also in discussions with 45 other cities around the world,” explains Mikael Mahlberg. “It’s a lot cheaper to operate an electric hydrofoil ferry than a diesel ferry. Stockholm estimates they will save 45% annually by operating the P-30. If you compare that to trucking, where the silver bullet in cost cutting is 5% you can see this is very significant. I won’t say it’s game over for conventional ferries, but I do think we have the ability to really change and dominate the market, while also introducing a ferry that is sustainable and clean.”