Why GM Is Getting Into Electric Boats 

I have a zero-emission watercraft. It's called a canoe.

I have an 22ft ex sailboat hull with two trolling motors, it charges itself every 2 days with a solar panel. Love the fact that it just works and is ready to go every time I want to go out.. No gas/oil maintance, no winter storage concerns. I wish someone could make a 2 kW motor, esc and battery controller for 1000usd. High end solutions like this is already developed to death.

Great idea. I love sailing because of the quiet and lack of gas smell, but sailing is very restrictive. An electric boat would be great. Add solar and it'd be even better: you could maybe someday "sail" around the world without an actual sail. I've been impressed by GM's forward-thinking electric strategy.

I think it should be more about retrofitting older boats. The boating industry is much different than the car industry. People will be more likely to change the engine on a boat versus buying a new boat.

I like this segment of CNBC. It tells a great story and advertising the companies behind it at the same time.

Because they are late for the cars.

Something like a big pontoon boat could have a solar powered roof that would provide shade/rain protection and add power back into the battery. Seems like a win win.

Boats are excellent candidates for Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging.. Sitting at a dock all day, it can charge during peak energy generation times, then pumping it back to the grid in the evening.

I don't believe the switch to outboards was prompted by emissions control. Instead, it was based on maintenance and replaceability, pulling an inboard is extremely tough and most of the time requires damaging the cap of the boat to get it in and out. Outboard motors aren't an issue, just hook up a hoist, undo 4 - 8 bolts and pull.

A few weeks ago I went on a fjord boat trip in Norway. The boat was a huge brand new all-electric boat. It was an amazing experience! Beautiful scenery but the boat was so smooth and quiet. It made it far more enjoyable to quietly glide in the water without needing wind or sails. Can't for this to become more commonplace.

Love the synthwave soundtrack on this piece.

Everything is catching alight! EV's with safety recalls for fire. Renault Zoe, Peugeot-e, BMW i4, Mercedes C class, Mercedes EQS, Mercedes GLC, Mercedes S class, Ford Focus, Chevrolet Bolt, Hyundai Ioniq, DS7 Crossback, Hyundai Kona, Mercedes EQC, VW Arteon ehybrid, VW Passat GTE, Ford Focus mHEV, Ford Puma mHEV, Ford Fiesta mHEV, Opel Ampera e, Mercedes eSprinter, Skoda Citygo e, Mercedes eVito, VWeUP, Seat Mini electric, Mini Country PHEV, BMWi8, BMWX5PHV, BMW X3 PHEV,BMW X2 PHEV, BMW X1 PHEV, BMW 7 series PHEV, BMW 5 series PHEV, BMW 3 series PHEV, BMW 2 series active tourer, Land Rover Discovery Sport PHEV, Land Rover Evoque MHEV, Hyundai Kauai, Audi A4, Audi A 5, Audi A 6, Audi A7, Audi Q5, Ford Puma MHEV, Ford Kuga MHEV, Renault Zoe, Audi eTron, Not the full list, more are added every week.

Pretty sure the younger generation isn't buying boats because we know it's famously a terrible financial decision... not that we only want electric things...

As a millenial, I can't even buy an electric car because I have nowhere to charge it. Can't afford a house, so I have to burn fossil fuels.

If you live on a lake, an electric boat means no more hauling jerry cans down your lawn. And, unlike cars with range anxiety and every day use, boats often get used for similar time durations. So for instance, your friends show up, "lets go for a boat ride," you go out on the lake for an hour, then you come back. Its not like it needs to charge fast so you can get right back out there. (That might be true for like a ski boat, but generally, it seems like the perfect use case.) Also, since boats often have to be winterized and that's when they sit and start having issues, an electric boat will likely be considerably more reliable over the years.

There are quite a few electric narrowboats on the canals in the UK. Mothership even makes a solar powered electric narrowboat. Catalina 30' sailboats can be had with electric motors.

You briefly showed a diesel smoke plume from a dragon boat in a Thai floating market. We've been there and it was not something I wanted to repeat. Electric boats would be much better! I do have problem with the concept of a 'sealed' anything. Mechanics will tell you that a sealed transmission for a 'lifetime' in a car usually means a reduced 'lifetime' for the car.

An electric pontoon seems like the perfect application for the current state of things if you’re in the market for the high end $50,000 - $60,000 boat. If you’re not looking to spend that much, you can have a lot of fun on a very basic pontoon boat with just an electric trolling motor and 30ish HP gasoline outboard. There are so many niches in the world of notating that electrics will fit right in.

There is a company called Torqeedo that you didn't mention, but they are producing electric boat engines since 2005. and today they are the market leader in Europe.

Let's replace all those small engines with electric systems. Marvelous useful tech and collaboration. One minute into the video, we see a small canal of what could be tourists in a SE Asian nation while the narrator states that "Boats and the engines they use can be big polluters." We know this. We are with you. We want to overcome reliance on the traditional gas-powered boat. Many small boat owners and operators, as depicted in that scene at 1:04, cannot afford a $50,000, $100,000 or $300,000+ boat. As much of the video extolls the virtue of reducing pollution and making more peaceful waterways, we can best do that by replacing all those small gas-powered, stern-drive engines with electric systems. And to do that, we need small affordable electric systems below the $10,000 or $5,000 mark.

I can see weight being a problem for some applications with a electric boat motor but seems pretty cool especially if they incorporate some solar panels to help recharge

Younger generation isn't buying boat BECAUSE THEY CAN'T AFFORD HOMES TO BEGIN WITH.

LOL, "density is up 7%, cost is down 7% a year", the last part he didn't mention is that their goal is to see density 500% than today and cost is down 90% than today. Which will take 100 years with current trend.

5:39 simply amazing how it cuts through the glass like that

The best technology for recreational boats is wind power imo.

Big problem with those type of systems is the weight and purchase cost... Just bought a 5.5m boat with a 115hp engine for 35k. the electric engine and battery alone for that kind of horsepower would set me back 100k. the battery would then be so heavy, it would exceed the maximum load on the boat. Also, range would be decreased by as much as 70 %... Planes and Fast boats are unfortunately better off with traditional engines until we can find a good solution to replace the heavy batteries

Invest into SEATOW!! Boats are the worst thing people can buy and this will surely increase costs bigtime.. Electronics and salt don't mix

I’ve been wondering when we’d see this. A pontoon that San cruise straight up for 3-4 hours would do nicely for most family lake play days. My current boat has a Merc 5.7 , which is basically a Chevy 350. Even when I’m out on the lake with friends all day long I barely go over one hour of actual cruising , and our lake is 22,500 acres. I’d be down for giving an electric pontoon boat a try. Just gotta get the cost down first.

It's really a pleasure to listen to people who know their stuff like the gm lady.. Most companies would charge someone's of the marketing div to do those interviews

I'd love to see an electric bass boat but I think that is a long way off. The weight of the battery or batteries necessary to supply 75hp or more would make the boat too heavy. Not to mention the possibility of running out od charge could be dangerous in a boat. You can always bring jerry cans with gas as an emergency fuel supply. In an electric boat you would be hooped.

Why is CNBC making these long advertisements?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was quietly about how GM dismantled electric trams/streetcars and forced their replacement with gas powered transit. The irony is clearly lost on them, I'm assuming.

Large marine vessels will use liquid hydrogen. So will smaller vessels that need long range. Batteries may be good enough for poking around on small lakes. This will work well with GM's HydroTec Fuel Cell products.

1. I don’t want a pontoon boat. 2. I own a 21 ft bow rider (stern drive). I paid $23,000 for a 10 year old boat that only had 250 hours on the boat. I have zero interest in spending $300K on a boat. That would be financially irresponsible. 3. I want a boat that can handily pull a water skier or wake boarder or inner tube. Maybe an electric boat can do this job well. I don’t know. But I didn’t hear them talk about that. Boats are for recreation, not just sitting on them and doing nothing. If they didn’t specifically talk about the recreational use of boats (water skiing and wakeboarding) that means that they DON’T have a good answer for this. If they did have a good answer then that would have been a major part of the story. 4. When you have a family, you have multiple groups that will use the boat in any given day. A family of four means two kids use the boat with their friends individually from their siblings. Then mom and dad want to use it. Buy the time mom and dad get to it, there is no charge left in the batteries and it will take hours to recharge. No thank you. I am not interested in that. With gasoline, we pull up to the fuel dock and fill it up in 5 minutes. 5. I mentioned above that I paid $23,000 for a very good used boat. I did also pay $750 to fix a couple of things. If I were to buy a used 10 year old electric boat, that would mean that the batteries would need to be replaced costing a ton of money (thousands of dollars I am sure-probably more than $23K). Again, it is too expensive. 6. When you replace the batteries or dump the boat because it is at the end of its life, there is now the horrible environmental impact of getting rid of the batteries, probably at another high cost to the owner. No thank you. Not a responsible way to spend my money. 7. The media talks a mean story about electrifying. Well, the infrastructure in the USA is not set up for this. And the first thing the government will say is, “hey boaters, we can’t make enough electricity to power America so all boaters are not allowed to charge your boat this month. That is unacceptable. But hey, if AOC wants to charge her boat when others are not allowed to, that will be OK. She is a hypocrite. Again, this story didn’t talk about all these issues I bring up. That’s because they only want to bring out the sunny side of this story. They NEVER EVER talk about the bad part of electrifying.

Great looking boats! More on the way, I’m sure! Keep your smiles on!

POV you sink and all the sudden all the fish start floating up 😂😂

More money to be made?

Boat CEO : "boats for connecting with nature and connecting with friends" Me earning min wage: I agree.

And when your boat runs out of "green energy" you can sit and wallow on the water on a hot day, "wishing" you had some "real fuel" to get you back to dock. Maybe I will throw you a water if you're thirsty, but otherwise sorry, you signed up for it, you will have to live with it. Towing companies are going to LOVE you.

Great coverage. I’m on year 14 with an electric inboard on my 27’ sailboat. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

So cool! I'm thinking about getting their bolt!

Nice video.

Trolling for trout would become a pleasant experience.

Interesting that your shot of a congested waterway is from the backwaters of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand which has already started to implement electric powered transport vessels, whereas, Sydney, a much more “Developed” city, hasn’t announced any plans to do the same.

Im really surprised we haven't seen hybrid container ships. Using a battery to help even out engird consumption, and using more efficient ways to generate the power on board rather than just running a humungous engine all the time..

Love it! Please bring down the prices.

I remember when Boeing tried to get into off-road vehicles with the Phantom Badger, after when they unrecoverably screwed-up the V-22. Didn’t work.

Perfect - Now all you need is a good battery.

Now that he mentioned it, I just realized the reason I don't like going on boats was the noise. I cannot wait for the day I hop into an electric boat.

Many things are becoming electric now, and it begs the question: what about what these batteries might produce when they can't be used anymore? Is there something that can be reused? Honest question here.

Kind of ironic to see GM cooperate with electric boat companies after the "killed" the electric car back in the 1990s ;-)

There are a lot of companies working with solar / electric and also diesel /electric hybrids. At the high-end there is a cool company called Silent Yachts.

ICE powered boats consume less than 1 % of the gasoline used in the US. They are not the environment disaster that many of these commentators allude to. If they knew their facts, they would be commenting about the disastrous mining operations needed to produce these low energy lithium batteries, which are also very difficult to recycle.

Truly the future.

Honest question, once I trailer the boat to the lake, how do I charge the boat?

You think you get range anxiety in a car. Try on the ocean! Coast guard is going to get sick of towing electric boats.

It’s very cool to see GM stepping up to be helpful (obviously in hopes of gain) but could you imagine how much easier Tesla could’ve got going with that kind of attentiveness

GM makes horrendous electric vehicles

Now the boat with the BMWi3 battery is the boat everyone on a kayak or canoe wants to see as they're relaxing on the water or just fishing

Wait wait, correction for 3:00. They said that the coolant system is sealed and never needs topping off... That means there is no way to maintain your coolant system. It's build to be disposable. Use it until it breaks, buy new. Every system when it gets old, needs fresh coolant or it corrodes.

I am fascinated with the idea of electric boats. What I am not fascinated with is anything that has to do with GM.

It will work for some applications but it will be many years before they are able to meet the demands of a recreational boater. When your at the lake house for the weekend and you have to tell the kids that they are done tubing for the day because the boat has to charge....I don't think so.

I just got done building a solar electric pontoon. It's a lot slower than that, but it works for me.

In the northern US, lakes freeze in the winter. How about a swappable battery pack module with snowmobiles or ATVs to get some year-round use and not lose life on the shelf?

Two of my favorite things, high voltage electricity and water.

the prices on these products are nuts 16-25k for a 50hp outboard motor lol $300,000 for a boat with 4 hours of cruise time at 40mph.

Here is where they're missing the boat. What the average boat owner needs is a boat they can put on a trailer and keep at home and let the sun charge up the batteries for six days and then if they want to go fishing on Saturday or Sunday they don't have to buy any gasoline in the batteries are all charged up and they just take it out to go fishing for a few hours come home to leave it on the trailer and repeat. You don't need to make a $300,000 electric boat. You need is $3000 boat a person can take out on the lake or the river for a few hours and come home and sit on the trailer while it's charging up batteries for another couple of weeks. Combine the dependability of the electric motor and the reduction in maintenance and gasoline and you could sell a million of them.

Ok why do all electric vehicles have to look futeristic like just make it look normal

With these prices of these boats. The only motornoating I am going to be doing is my wife's water bags.

Only GM would bet millions on boats just before a recession.

Carry a generator and if you use batteries use nontoxic materials. If you looked closely there is very little improvement from toxic materials. You can get more capacity from more liquid and less toxic materials. Carry an edison generator and navigate an unlimited range electric yacht.

Can't get cars right, but now let's get into boats. Begging to go bankrupt

How did this report miss Silent Yachts? They're already selling full sized, solar powered, modern looking Yachts! How cool is that?

Their claim of no maintenance is wrong. Every battery has a shelf life and battery replacements are in the thousands of dollars. Not to mention we are under a world wide shortage of aluminum and other strip mined materials which is leading to a battery shortage on top of the chip shortage we are already facing. Huge no to these boats

Lithium recycling batteries will be huge

Electric should be a compelling solution for boat owners. No need to hook up to shore power to run the boat, no need to run generators or noisy engines. No need to spend time & money at the fueling dock or hauling jerry cans around the boat, abundant sun and also other forms of generation. It should be a no brainer really and manufacturers should be exploiting this demand.

i think ill stick with my gas powered phone i don't trust electric phones

We use electric fishing boats all the time at Livermore Lake. It's all that's available for renting.

Nothing like enjoying the v8 sound on a boat going full throttle.

Imagine the irony when we have electric oil tankers lol

Smart move GM, if the boat engulfed in flames, water is readily available to put out the fire.

Yeah pollution is an issue, but that's like one of the last reasons you should go electric. 90% of a combustion engines power is lost in a boat. Maintenance is expensive and tedious, engines are expensive and loud, require lots of oil and parts. Diesel on water is expensive AF, and these engines use a lot for short distances. Combustion engines can't get any more cheaper. The list can go on, solar sail or tiles can charge batteries, you can save a fortune going electric. The only issue is weight and drag, when electric boats will be mainstream, most probably light aviation will be the next big thing to go electric.

You’ll have to pry my dead cold fingers of my GM powered 502 cubic inch fossil fueled powered boat before I go electric lol

Boat that goes out of the water is amazing. Also much better for lake / river banks and fauna because of less wave erosion.

I think we need to do so much more to improve the environment. However, I think we need to be honest in looking at the entire Carbon footprint. e.g. stating these are zero emissions water craft is misleading, in that electricity, batteries, transmission lines, manufacturing, etc... leave a carbon footprint .

Electric vehicles have “zero TAILPIPE emissions” but system level emissions is waaay higher than gasoline.

It's called an electric trolling moror and it has been around forever. use 2 and you move pretty good and you can get them at walmart.

Boats, cars, bikes, and so on all electric! Do you have any idea where the energy comes from to power all this? It is not the solution you were looking for.

I wouldn’t buy a gas powered boat because of the noise and maintenance and reliability. So I have canoes, and will soon have a kayak. This CEO has clearly learned to speak well and push his agenda, but he made a common mistake. He’s alienating the people he needs to convert. No one switched to outboard motors because they wanted to pollute. They switched to save money and avoid untried engines. GM is certainly NOT doing this for the environment, btw. Companies that wanted to convert GM engines for aviation use have all been told “NO WAY” which is one reason for light aircraft mostly using antique engines which require leaded fuel.

I would love to buy one of these instead of a gas one

Very thankful for the music in the background, I could almost hear the interviewees talking! Sound engineer should be fired immediately, how embarrassing for 2022.

I'm assuming just like electric cars, they have horrible range and the cost of purchase+ownership is unaffordance for most people.

Go buy a sail boat if you want something quit and environmentally friendly. All this electric talk is still so far off from being realistic or affordable in an equal ICE application. The specs they are currently throwing out are dreadful and a long way off from what would be needed to move 3/4's of the boats on any large lake.

nevermind the fact that electric is about $0.35 per Kw/H at the dock, normally 3x normal rate

Wait until the battery catches fire out at sea. 😆 🤣 😂

400watt is about 0.5HP. so that is not enough for any real use. you need about 5000watt. And, fire is always an issue with lithium batteries at sea. Hydrofoil is great, but only when there are no waves.

I've had boats for over 50 years. Salt water and electricity does not mix well. Salt water is a great conductor of electricity. What could possibly go wrong? Zap! I'll take my Yamaha 200 two stroke all day. It's on a Grady White boat. It holds 90 gallons of gas and has a range of about 200 miles. I don't want an electric boat that can only last 4 hours. When I got out, it could be for days.

How does the electricity you recharge your battery with get generated? lol. Its not zero impact, and wind/solar will never be efficient enough to replace old school fuels. It kind of reminds me of a pipe dream honestly.

PRICE is a MAJOR Barrier here!!! Each person is different. Some people like quiet, some love the ROAR of engines! For me, electric has to prove itself. Just had a friends Tesla burn his house down that took 4 fire trucks to put out. Then chemical control has to come in and clean up the aftermath. Never knew this could happen. I'm not opposed to Electric, just in due time. Also.

that x shore boat looks really cool