Candela and Polestar announced a partnership in August of last year that would see automotive-grade EV batteries hit the seas in long-range electric boats. Now that day has come as the two Swedish companies show off the fruits of their partnership with the new Candela C-8 “Powered by Polestar”.
Candela’s 8.5 meter (28 ft) C-8 electric boat has already been in the works for some time now, marking a significant upgrade over the previous C-7.
The C-8 uses hydrofoiling technology controlled by high precision custom-designed flight control software that allows the boat to fly nearly a meter above the surface of the water. That significantly reduces the boat’s drag by taking the hull out of the water, using around 80% less energy than conventional boats. With higher efficiency, the C-8 can go farther with a smaller battery pack and less powerful motors than most other electric powerboats.
Now with the new C-8 Powered by Polestar, that range is getting an even larger bump. The new model’s range rating now stands at 57 nautical miles (65 miles or 105 kilometers) per charge at a cruising speed of 22 knots (25 mph or 40 km/h). The C-8 can reach a top speed of 30 knots (34 mph or 55 km/h), though with reduced range at maximum speed.
It’s not just a longer range that the 69 kWh Polestar batteries are bringing to Candela’s boats, but also the ability to use DC fast charging to quickly replenish the battery. When not using DC fast charging, the boat will charge via Polestar’s 11 kW three-phase AC charging.
According to Candela, the 57 nautical mile range is “2 to 3 times longer than what conventional electric speedboats can achieve at high speed and compares favorably with uses cases of internal combustion engine powerboats.”
As Candela’s founder and CEO Gustav Hasselskog expanded:
“This collaboration means that C-8 can travel to destinations previously only reachable by combustion engine boats. The Candela C-8 powered by Polestar marks a significant breakthrough for electrification at sea.
Candela expects that range to be sufficient for most boaters. The company shared that usage data from Europe’s premier boat-sharing service Agapi shows that 95% of their members’ day excursions are less than 50 nautical miles, or well within the range of the 8-passenger Candela C-8.
For boaters who need longer range or want to recharge and get back out on the water quickly, the new DC fast charging feature should prove quite attractive.
As Hasselskog continued:
“With access to DC fast chargers, which now start to pop up on several coasts around the globe, you can cover totally new routes with Candela C-8. You can go from Sweden to Finland in one day, or along the whole French Riviera in a few hours. For a few euros/dollars’ worth of electricity.”
This marks a first for Polestar, which has made Candela the first third-party company to receive Polestar batteries and charging systems. But, it’s part of a broader partnership between the two EV companies in advance of the C-8 Powered by Polestar production in the first half of 2023.
As Polestar’s CEO Thomas Ingenlath explained:
“Sharing know-how on batteries and vehicle engineering with Candela will help reach our shared goal of transitioning to a future where all forms of transport are sustainable.”
Electrek’s Take
This definitely makes sense for Candela. They’re an incredible boat maker, but batteries aren’t their forte. So teaming up with a fellow Swedish EV company that does have battery expertise seems logical.
And, the fact that it makes the boats longer range and brings in fast charging ability only further sweetens the deal.
On today’s episode of Quick Charge we explore the uncertainty around the future of EV incentives, the roles different stakeholders will play in shaping that future, and our friend Stacy Noblet from energy consulting firm ICF stops by to share her take on what lies ahead.
We’ve got a couple of different articles and studies referenced in this forward-looking interview, and I’ve done my best to link to all of them below. If I missed one, let me know in the comments.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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