Former Tesla Executive Reveals Incredible New Electric Speed Boat Powered By Solar
Blue Innovations Group (BIG), a company founded by former Tesla executive John Vo, has teased a solar-powered boat that will be revealed in a bigger way during CES 2023. Rather than running on traditional fuels, the boat leverages sunlight and solar panels to generate and use clean energy, making it a more sustainable boat option for a future in which electric will dominate and governments will increasingly phase out emissions-producing transportation.
Unlike some electric boats on the market, BIG plans to deviate from traditional materials and manufacturing methods in favor of something closer to what is found in the EV industry, Vo revealed in an interview with Electrek. The ultimate goal is to mass produce the clean energy watercraft, which is described as an electric speed boat named the R30. The company aims to make the boat accessible rather than limiting it to a luxury market, but at least initially, the R30's price tag will make it less appealing than its far less expensive non-electric counterparts.
An EV boat with a design inspired by electric cars
According to the information provided to Electrek, the R30 is designed with lithium iron phosphate batteries packed into the speedboat's frame, which is made of aluminum. Both design decisions are intended to increase the lifespan of both the hull and batteries while making mass production a feasible goal. On its website, BIG says the R30 measures 30 feet in length; it features a dual-motor powertrain offering 800 horsepower and a top speed of 45 miles per hour, can accommodate up to 12 people, and has a nominal runtime of eight hours.
Blue Innovations Group
As for the clean energy aspect of the R30, Vo revealed during the interview that the speedboat has a 221-kilowatt-hour battery pack and solar panels that can be extended for a max of 2.7 kilowatts of solar energy. There's an option to charge the boat manually, but assuming the operator doesn't take the boat out on the water every day, it may be possible to keep the R30 running solely on solar.
Blue Innovations Group
This isn't the first electric boat to make a splash, of course. Swedish company X Shore revealed the Eelex 8000 in 2021, and had bigger announcements this year, including the recently unveiled X Shore 1. While the Eelex 8000 is more expensive than the BIG R30 at $329,000, the X Shore 1 is considerably cheaper at $139,000. By the sounds of it, however, Blue Innovations Group anticipates the cost of its all-electric watercraft decreasing in time via the savings that naturally come with mass-producing a product. Delivery is expected to start in the second quarter of 2024.