IDTechEx Research: The Challenges Ahead for Electric Leisure Boating

BOSTON, May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Torqeedo, the market-leading supplier of electric outboard and inboard drives for leisure boats and small fishing boats, recently surpassed 100,000 electric boat drive sales. It is a milestone which marks steady progress for the industry.

What's remarkable about this achievement is that it has largely been met with little to no financial incentives or regulation on outboard or inland vessel emissions, which are both key drivers for other electric vehicle segments (the limited emissions regulation that does exist is highly local: a handful of lakes in Germany and Amsterdam's central canals).

As a result, growth has been steady, but also slow and is not taking off in the same way as other electric vehicle markets like passenger cars (or even categories within the marine sector, such as offshore support vessels).

Part of the apathy towards restricting boating emissions is down to prioritizing the largest problems first. While emissions per outboard can be over 30 times the emissions per car, the scale of the problem is still much smaller: no more than 500,000 outboards are sold yearly compared with roughly 80 million cars (OICA). Still, allowing boats a free pass on emissions undermines the massive effort from other industries, and ultimately will lead to a more difficult transition down the line.

IDTechEx has just updated its popular report "Electric Leisure & Sea-going Boats and Ships 2021-2040", which highlights some of the key challenges remaining to bring electric leisure boats into the mainstream:

    1. No incumbents on the market. The incumbents that make and sell the most
       outboards - Yamaha, Honda, Mercury - have made no moves to develop
       electric versions. This is common in the more niche electric vehicle
       categories, which are often overlooked by policymakers in favour of cars
       and commercial vehicles. The result is start-ups like Torqeedo have
       literally created and driven the electric leisure boating market almost
       single-handedly. This also means they have an unchallenged reign:
       Torqeedo's high level of experience and developed product line-up makes
       it difficult for other start-ups to compete. Incumbents, backed by large
       balance sheets and market experience, would be the first real challenge.
       In short, incumbents entering the market would improve competition,
       improve awareness of electric boats as an option, and likely increase
       overall market sales.
    2. A lack of emissions regulation. This challenge goes hand in hand with the
       last point. Policymakers' apathetic attitude towards emissions regulation
       for outboards and inland vessels has allowed incumbents to easily develop
       and sell products that increase overall boating emissions, rather than
       reduce it.
    3. High battery prices. System-level maritime battery prices are several
       times higher than those of other industries such as electric cars and
       stationary energy storage. The new IDTechEx report "Li-ion Batteries
       2020-2030" gives a detailed overview of how we expect Li-ion battery
       prices to evolve over the next decade.

The new IDTechEx report, "Electric Leisure & Sea-going Boats and Ships 2021-2040", provides historical data from 2016 and forecasts up to 2040 in number of electric vessels, battery demand (MWh) and market value ($ billion) broken down by pure electric and hybrid powertrain as well as by each marine sector: leisure boats, fishing, cruise ships, ferries, offshore support, tugboats and deep-sea. The report delves into key underlying technologies and draws parallels and differences with the auto industry. All results are underpinned by primary research and interviews undertaken around the globe.

This report also forms a part of the broader electric vehicle and energy storage research at IDTechEx, where we track adoption of electric vehicles, battery trends and demand across more than 100 different mobility sectors, summarised in one master report, "Electric Vehicles 2020-2030: 2nd Edition".

To find out more about this report please visit www.IDTechEx.com/boats or for the full portfolio of electric vehicle research available from IDTechEx visit www.IDTechEx.com/research/EV or to connect with others on this topic, IDTechEx is hosting: Electric Vehicles - Everything is changing, November 18-19 2020, Santa Clara, USA www.ElectricVehiclesUSA.tech.

IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Consultancy and Event products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information on IDTechEx Research and Consultancy, contact research@IDTechEx.com or visit www.IDTechEx.com.

Media Contact:
Jessica Abineri
Marketing Coordinator
press@IDTechEx.com
+44(0)1223 812300

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SOURCE IDTechEx