Electric Water Vehicles

This article charts the development of water vehicles towards energy independence.

It is now becoming clear that the appalling emissions from ships that cause global warming and local injuries can be virtually eliminated.

Analysts at IDTechEx have issued a new report, Electric Boats and Ships 2017-2027 looking at this fragmented but often highly profitable and growing sector.

To its manufacturer MOST (Autonomous Vessels) Ltd in the UK, USV means controlled by satellite from anywhere on the planet. AutoNaut is the answer to the age-old challenge of affordable oceanic data gathering for science, commerce and military purposes. It creates new opportunities to meet unique mission requirements in a changing world.

Mexico is not widely adopting pure electric vehicles on its roads partly because of inadequate incentives but also because charging infrastructure is inadequate in such a large country and there is no payback from putting it in.

Forget the obsession with driverless autonomous cars; energy independent vehicles are the megatrend. Electric land vehicles, boats, underwater craft and aircraft already exist that never plug in or refuel.

Water-borne electric vehicles are much more than 100 year old river boats, toy boats on ponds and tiny trolling outboards for leisure fishing. The rapidly increasing military, commercial and industrial applications now dwarf leisure applications in value and sophistication.

The new IDTechEx report, Electric Boats, Small Submarines and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) 2014-2024 reveals the market for electric water craft, including those on and under water, will increase from $2.6 billion to $7.3 billion in 2024.

Virtually all autonomous underwater vehicles are electric for practical reasons - the internal combustion engine ICE is not a realistic option. Not so on the surface, where the ICE is the favoured means of propulsion. However, even here, there is now a strong move to hybrid and pure-electric drivetrains for many powerful reasons, so it is timely to look at marine electric vehicles in general.