A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Electric cars have quickly moved into the mainstream. Now, electric boats are powering up. Some are work skiffs, others are multi-million-dollar speedboats. From the coast of Maine, here's Murray Carpenter.
MURRAY CARPENTER, BYLINE: It's a perfect summer day on Casco Bay near Portland, and Alicia Gaiero is motoring to her oyster farm.
ALICIA GAIERO: We are currently out on our new solar-powered electric work barge. We are testing out our new Torqeedo motor and using it to come over to our farm. We're approaching now where we have some of our oysters.
CARPENTER: The electric outboard powering the aluminum pontoon boat is quiet enough that we can talk while she's driving to the floating cages where the oysters are growing. Electric boat entrepreneur Nick Planson says he designed this elaborate system for gathering and sorting oysters, complete with overhead solar panels...
NICK PLANSON: ...To be a fully solar powered virtually silent fully electric oyster processing barge that also is propelled by an electric outboard motor.
CARPENTER: But Planson says this type of motor is also suitable for a much simpler application - powering a 15-foot work skiff. It would cost about $15,000 with batteries and charger. That's far more than the cost of an equivalent 20-horsepower gas motor. But Planson says maintenance and fuel costs are much lower. Other electric outboards are smaller and cheaper.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELECTRIC BOAT MOTOR WHIRRING)
CARPENTER: Rob O'Brian has just fired up a three-horsepower electric motor inside the show room at North Atlantic Inflatables. O'Brian says his customers use them to power dinghies up to 10 feet long, and they like the reliability and ease provided by the battery that sits atop the motor.
ROB O BRIAN: So a person could take that off - it weighs about 20 pounds - carry it around, drop it in the water, it will float, take it home, charge it up and bring it down for the next day's activities.
CARPENTER: Although they're more than double the price of comparable gas-powered motors - about $2,700 - O'Brian says they're outselling them 5 to 1. He says they're perfect for puttering around in harbors or visiting nearshore islands. A more substantial electric boat is taking shape at a nearby boat shop. This is the second 35-foot electric boat built by Hodgdon Tenders. It made the first in collaboration with Italian sports car company Maserati and marine tech company Vita Power. It'll reach speeds of over 45 miles per hour.
AUDREY HODGDON: The top speed is around 40 knots. The cruise speed is around 25 knots. It can accommodate about eight passengers.
CARPENTER: Managing director Audrey Hodgdon is a sixth-generation boat builder.
HODGDON: I mean, it's a big sort of traditional-looking boat, even though it is powered by electric.
CARPENTER: It's the sort of sleek, sophisticated boat that would look at home on a lake in Northern Italy, which is where it is this summer, offered for sale for about 2.7 million dollar. Even as these varied projects take shape along the main coast, electric boats are not yet catching on with everyone.
DAVID BLACK: I have heard very little discussion of electric lobster boats.
CARPENTER: David Black has been hauling lobster traps in Penobscot Bay for 60 years.
BLACK: I hear a lot of discussion about big, fast diesel-powered boats, and that's pretty much the standard these days, is a high-powered diesel-powered lobster boat.
CARPENTER: Audrey Hodgdon says it's hard to tell where electric boat technology will be in 10 years, and there may be more commercial uses, but the interest is clearly growing quickly.
For NPR News, I'm Murray Carpenter in Mid-Coast, Maine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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