Ingenity delivers 1st Nautique electric boats, onshore charging station
Ingenity’s 1st Nautique electric boats – Super Air Nautique GS22E models – have been delivered to customers in the United States and in Europe. The company has also installed an onshore automotive style “EB Charger” (electric boat charger) on Lake Tahoe in California.
A sneak peek of the GS22E drew interest at the Seattle Boat Show in January, and the boat was officially unveiled at the Miami Boat Show a few weeks later. Ingenity received one of the show’s coveted Innovation Awards, and in May was selected a 2020 Top Product by the Boating Industry site.
We said when the GS22E came out that it is an electric boat game changer, particularly in the U.S., and the announcement that production models are shipping is the next step in e-boats moving into the mainstream of the boating audience.
The Nautique name is one of the best known and most respected brands in boating – especially so in the water skiing and wakeboarding category. Its parent company, CorrectCraft, is the oldest family-owned and operated boat manufacturer in the world and also builds popular fishing boats like Bass Cat, SeaArk and Yarcraft.
Ingenity is part of the Watershed Innovation division of CorrectCraft, with the mandate to “identify, research, develop and integrate exponential technologies to benefit Correct Craft, its subsidiaries and the marine industry“.
Nautique electric boat delivers for wakeboarders, water skiers
So when a Nautique electric boat is offered for wakeboarders and water skiers – people who are looking for power, speed and extended time on the water – and those people start ordering the e-boats and having them delivered, it bodes well for the future of all electric boating.
In power and usage, the Super Air Nautique GS22E offers more than 200kW • 260HP of peak power and 2 to 3 hours of run time in typical water sports use. The new owners will also discover all of the benefits of electric boating: skiers and boarders won’t have to inhale the tow boat’s exhaust, people on the boat won’t have to shout over the sound of a combustion engine – and maintenance costs will be next to zero.
Sean Marrero, President of Ingenity, said “Our innovation team members have poured themselves into this project knowing that connecting with end customers would be the ultimate validation. Now that we have a growing base of initial customers from all over the world, I could not be happier for them or more excited about the opportunity we have in front of us.”
Three ways of charging Ingenity battery
The battery in the GS22E was developed by the Ingenity team and has been designed to provide 124 kWh of capacity while maximizing the space available in engine compartment of the fossil fuel version of the boat. It can be recharged using an AC onboard charger at 240 volts and 50 amps (10 hours), an 80kW supercharger (1.5 hours) or a DC 25kW EV charger (4 hours).
The installation at Homewood Marina on Lake Tahoe is an electric vehicle charger adapted for use on the marina dock as an ‘EB Charger’. This isn’t the first time Homewood has taken the lead on e-boating. In late 2017 they worked with Tahoe electric boat dealer Scott Ruck of Ruckmarine to showcase a boat brought over from designboats in Switzerland.
“Our goal was to be the first charging station on the lake, but our vision is that this is the first of many.” said David Topol, Director of Homewood Marina. “Now that the technology is here, we hope to inspire other marinas and boaters to move in this direction with us.”
In Europe, where electric boats are more popular than North America, charging facilities are common on many lakes, and VITA added superchargers to the Mediterranean last year.
The EB Charger project was done in cooperation with the Tahoe Fund, a source of “private funding for environmental projects around the Lake Tahoe Basin with an emphasis on forest health, lake clarity, sustainable recreation, transportation and stewardship.”
All of this is great to see. Along with the delivery of the first Nautique electric boats, the addition of specially designated charging stations is another step in both raising awarenesss of electirc motors as an option for boat propulsion as well as making it easier for people to get into electric boats and boating.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the all-electric Super Air Nautique GS22E or being the next to order one, complete information is available on the GS22E page of the Nautique website.
