Was wondering earlier today, how long will it be before we see a fully electric aluminum deep v fishing boat? There is already news of a fully electric 9.9 kicker from Yamaha, and it makes me wonder what the timeframe will be like before the first fully electric rig hits the market. My guess is 3-4 years.
If I remember right, didn’t Evinrude abandon the outboard market to go full bore into developing an electric?
Look down about 6 threads….
My guess is 10 plus. Battery technology needs to evolve a lot more to make this feasible than has occurred in the past 10 years.
The energy density of gasoline vs current batteries is about 10:1 respectively. You get a big boat to go long distances using a lot of energy.
Again going back to energy density, lithium batteries weight a lot when’s compared to gasoline as well. That would make buoyancy and handling an issue.
I don’t think it’s as far away as some. I don’t think you’ll see it in big deep V’s right off the bat, but there’s a lot of water where that sort of rig is overkill anyway. The 16 ft Alumacraft I grew up in, and that my dad still runs primarily to chase panfish and bass in, around small acreage lakes, would be fine for electrification. I think he maybe runs the big motor for 15 minutes, a half hour maybe? The rest is already electric, on good old lead acid dinosaurs. As for big water, I’m actually kinda shocked no one has tried a hybrid set up, small efficient motor to charge a smaller battery, to run a motor for the boat. Would seem an ideal balance, and putting aside any controversial opinions, would seem a good way to get some fuel savings in a market where that would be a big deal.
Enduro batteries for GO Pro comes to mind . Its coming maybe sooner than later tech is advancing rapidly .
I’m bad at guessing when but within the next 10 years. The Zin electric boat is one I read about last year.
Nautique makes a fully electric tow boat.
NOW!! 150 is available now. 300 and 400hp coming soon.
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It all depends on what you mean when thinking about the arrival of a new product/technology. One could argue that electric powered boats are already here (see some of the above posts). As far as seeing them here in Minnesota with electric propulsion as the only means…I think we are still a long ways off. I do think electric kicker motors will become more mainstream before too long though.
Affordability and practicality are going to be the biggest issues. Pricing is the number 1 factor that drives demand and purchase decisions. Right now the technology is probably available, but only at absurd costs. That Nautique listed above was $300k. My In-Laws are ski crazy and hit the water year-round. They have a Nautique stern driven competition slalom boat with heated seats, custom graphics, all the automated speed calibrations for skier weight, etc. and they aren’t $70k into it. There’s no way that electric alternative would even be a consideration yet.
$70,000 almost buys the Envoy 150 electric, $5k short. Plus rigging and batteries. 300 and 450hp are 3 years out. As far as seeing them here. Most pricing I found searching was in Euros and foreign currency.
Yamaha announced an electric 9.9 kicker, meanwhile Minnkota has been selling an electric kicker for many years.
Joking aside all electric is an interesting value prop for a lot of fishermen who don’t need 100+ miles of range. I could see electric outboards almost completely eliminating the need for a trolling motor as well.
I’m interested in a hybrid drive system, think generator driving an electric outboard. This could be best of both worlds scenario.
My In-Laws are ski crazy and hit the water year-round. They have a Nautique stern driven competition slalom boat with heated seats, custom graphics, all the automated speed calibrations for skier weight, etc. and they aren’t $70k into it. There’s no way that electric alternative would even be a consideration yet.
That’s not new, though. And a inboard slalom boat is quite a bit cheaper than a wake boat. I haven’t looked at the price of the non-electric GS22, but fully optioned, it’s likely close to $200k. Which is why mine is 14 years old. 
My guess is 10 plus. Battery technology needs to evolve a lot more to make this feasible than has occurred in the past 10 years.
The energy density of gasoline vs current batteries is about 10:1 respectively. You get a big boat to go long distances using a lot of energy.
Again going back to energy density, lithium batteries weight a lot when’s compared to gasoline as well. That would make buoyancy and handling an issue.
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The 9.9 Yamaha takes 4 batteries. You can kind of do the math on what a 150 to 450 hp would take!! But Green Energy can be like that. Like the Prius, charging from a diesel generator.
https://www.purewatercraft.com/
Troy Lindner did some testing before with this company, I think they had one on millacs they were doing demo runs with the company.
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