Electric yachts have been around for awhile compared to other electric vehicles, but not that long when compared to the electric vehicle industry as a whole.  In fact, the presence of electric yachts in the industry is a point of contention amongst many as there are those that feel that electrification should proceed on everyday vehicles before it proceeds on luxury items.

As the history of electric vehicles has shown however, this is short-sighted in a way that is shocking for someone that claims to be a long term environmentalist.  Electric vehicles at the moment are going to be more expensive regardless of the vehicle involved.  This is just the nature of the poor battery technology right now.  Therefore, electrification, to really get a hold in the market, needs to carve a niche market amongst people that can afford to buy the products.  This in fact makes electrification an excellent thing to do with yachts since the people that purchase yachts can certainly afford electric ones.

This is apparently the prevailing view, as electric yachts have been around for about a decade in fully functional form.  They draw on the history of the boat as a whole, but the first electric yacht to actually be seaworthy comes from the earlier part of this decade.  It was followed up by electric yachts from many manufacturers, although it has really been smaller companies rather than larger ones driving the innovation in this area.  In that respect, the history of electric yachts really isn’t that different from the history of electric boats in general.

Right now, many great yachting products exist that are electric entirely and even more exist that are hybrid electric. Chesapeake Marine Design, a company that is quite naturally based in the United States, is a good example of this. They have several electric and hybrid models for people to choose from if they are considering purchasing a yacht. Furthermore, they have conventional yachts that people can purchase, although they can get an electric launch to go with their yacht.  This means that their yacht is normal, but launching to and from the yacht to shore is completely electric. This is a great form of incremental change as few that are not willing to purchase an electric yacht would also not be willing to purchase an electric launch.

CMD is by no means the only company that is involved in the manufacture and sale of electric yachts.  They are one of the more successful ones however, so if you want to keep an eye on what is going on with electric yachts, you could probably do so through just following what this company puts out.