Candela makes an unusual style of watercraft called a hydrofoiling boat, which glides above the sea on fins for a smoother, more efficient ride — doubly unusual, in fact, in that it is electrically propelled. The company has raised
“When you turn left in a Candela, it will lean left, and you will be pushed down in your seat, not to the side as in a planing boat. This coordinated turn is performed by the on board software, which regulates the angle of attack of the foil 100 times per second. So the foil moves constantly, in real-time, to balance the boat,” explained a company representative in response to my question. Although he compared it to a fighter jet, it might be easier to think of an all wheel drive system constantly monitoring for slip and anticipating such factors during a car’s turns.
Solving this problem makes hydrofoiling craft a viable alternative to a traditional hull, and that in turn solves one of the problems inherent to electric watercraft: low range. Watercraft face incredible resistance from the medium through which they travel, and at speed even the best batteries out there will run out much sooner than a gas tank.
“We’ve shown that our hydrofoil tech is the key to make electric boats commercially viable. We’re seeing boundless demand for the Candela C-8, as well as huge interest in our commercial vessels,” said Candela CEO Gustav Hasselskog in a press release. “The investment from EQT Ventures will allow us to double down on our mission to speed up the transition to fossil fuel-free lakes and oceans. It took us four years to develop the technology and two more years to master it. Now we are ready to scale up fast.”
It’s all still toys for the filthy rich but at one point so were electric cars. A few more years and electric boats may be as affordable as traditional ones — which is to say, not very, but considerably less than a house. If it ends up helping keep our waterways, lakes and oceans cleaner, though, I’m all for it.
Painstakingly designing the entire boat around the engine and shaving every gram off the weight, as Zin Boats does, is one approach to making those battery packs last, but if you can increase efficiency by half with something like hydrofoiling, you outrange any other boat in the same class almost without trying. These boats do actually exist, though only a handful of them at present. Candela started out with the prototype C-7 speedboat, and made several upgrades with the larger C-8, currently in pre-production with the first boat about 80 percent done and delivery of the first run scheduled for spring. Before you get out your piggy bank, let’s be clear here: this craft is aimed squarely at the ultra-rich, with a €290,000 price tag before you start adding options like a hard top. But while the company does hope to sell as many of these as possible to the Monaco and Dubai crowd, the bigger opportunity may be in public transport, of all things. Ferries are crucial infrastructure to cities around the world, but are often old, diesel-powered things that pollute the air and water around them. Candela is aiming at replacing those with its 30-passenger P-30.
“We’ve shown that our hydrofoil tech is the key to make electric boats commercially viable. We’re seeing boundless demand for the Candela C-8, as well as huge interest in our commercial vessels,” said Candela CEO Gustav Hasselskog in a press release. “The investment from EQT Ventures will allow us to double down on our mission to speed up the transition to fossil fuel-free lakes and oceans. It took us four years to develop the technology and two more years to master it. Now we are ready to scale up fast.”
It’s all still toys for the filthy rich but at one point so were electric cars. A few more years and electric boats may be as affordable as traditional ones — which is to say, not very, but considerably less than a house. If it ends up helping keep our waterways, lakes and oceans cleaner, though, I’m all for it.