Marine

GS22E electric tow boat gives a preview of clean, quiet watersports

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The added weight of the electric system makes for bigger and better wakes for board riders
Nautique
The added weight of the electric system makes for bigger and better wakes for board riders
Nautique
The electric powertrain offers powerful performance that's whisper-quiet
Nautique
Conversations in the cabin are possible – you can even chat with board riders behind the boat without raising your voice
Nautique
Two to three hours of "normal watersports use" will drain the battery, after which you'll need 90 minutes on a supercharger (where available)
Nautique
A tidy interior, with the Ingenity battery back neatly packed away in the back
Nautique
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The world's first all-electric water ski tow boat is up and running, offering demo days from the shores of Lake Tahoe in California. The Super Air Nautique GS22E offers watersports fans a handsome, quiet, emissions-free fun machine ... at a price.

Miami's Nautique is heavily into the towed watersports scene, offering a portfolio of 13 leisure boat models designed for water-skiing, wake and surf boarding, and combinations of all three. Twelve of these use a typical roaring combustion engine to get the job done – including the multi-sport GS22, which runs a 6-liter, 400-hp PCM engine and carries more than 50 gal (190 L) of fuel in standard trim.

The thirteenth is different. Built in partnership with electric marine specialists Ingenity, the GS22E takes the flexible watersports platform of the GS22 and goes fully electric with it. Out goes the engine and gas tank, and in goes a high-torque, maintenance-free 220-kW (295-hp) electric motor and a hefty 124-kWh battery pack.

The electric powertrain offers powerful performance that's whisper-quiet
Nautique

The result is a powerful zero-emissions tow boat that runs, say the two companies, for about two to three hours on a charge under normal watersports usage. It also offers a radically different experience; it's so quiet that people in the cabin don't have to raise their voices to chat with one another – the water is louder than the boat. Indeed, depending on what's happening out the back it seems you can easily have casual conversations with a wakeboard rider from the back seats, or possibly even a shouted chat with a water skier at speed.

Plugged into a 240V/50A wall socket, it'll take 10 hours to charge. But on one of Ingenity's 80-kW superchargers, like the one that's now available on Lake Tahoe, you can top it up in a 90-minute lunch break. That won't work for everyone, but it'll be great for some.

The battery pack adds a fair bit of weight – some 1,100 lb (500 kg) over the weight of the regular GS22, for a total weight of 5,900 lb (2,676 kg). For some applications, extra weight is unwelcome – but in this case, that bonus pork makes for bigger and better wakes for wakeboarders and wakesurfers through Nautique's Configurable Running Surface, which lets you tune the wake to suit the rider behind.

Two to three hours of "normal watersports use" will drain the battery, after which you'll need 90 minutes on a supercharger (where available)
Nautique

Unlike the graceful, hydrofoiling Candela C-7, this will not be an efficient use of electricity – but powersports and efficiency are disinterested bedfellows at best, and the GS22E offers a unique and compelling peek into a vastly more socially and environmentally friendly future of watersport.

Brace yourself, though, the price starts at US$292,711. Oof. Ingenity is offering test drives at Lake Tahoe, but a half day out for six people will cost you US$2,900.

Check out a video below.

Sources: Nautique, Ingenity

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5 comments
michael_dowling
Jesus,I would like to see at least one electric boat video without the music! I want to hear what the thing sounds like running!
paul314
That sounds pricey, but what's the tag for an equivalent internal combustion model? (A quick search on used sales suggests at least $150-200K, but oddly the new ones don't list a price except to serious customers.)
Signguy
So why don't you shut up and let us hear what this amazing quiet boat sounds like?! Nowadays, no one care what the electrics are like.
BlueOak
Not sure what “Jesus” has to do with the video music, but, yes, if quiet is a key feature, why not highlight it at speed in a $300K boat promotional video?

Also, with all the commercial electric vehicle drivetrains out there, one would think you could spend a lot less than the $150-200,000 price premium of this boat to adapt a very nice existing ICE boat and partially pay for the adaption by selling the brand new ICE drivetrain. And do it in single boat job-shop quantity. $300,000 is insane and a reach into early-adopter deep pocket customers with little commonsense.
MQ
Amazing what a hundred grand of batteries will achieve...
Anything is possible with enough "noughts" inserted.

NB. Electric system integration is relatively simple (much more so than ICE systems)- but has to be marketed as bespoke and difficult for the consumption special people only. (Batteries definitely are expensive -still)

After all shouldn't watersports (maybe my typo of "wastersports" was apt) only be available to the cashed up Nobility..

We all should forgo our privileged luxuries for the good of the climate - jk...

Doesn't everybody see the irony in technological use of over $100k in resources to temporarily store the energy equivent of less than a "hundy" - THANKS BE TO EARLY ADOPTERS. -all in the name of having fun.. :-()-: