Here’s how Swedish electric boat maker X Shore is accelerating its US access
X Shore, an electric boat maker based in Stockholm, just announced plans to make its electric boats available in marinas across the United States.
The new partnership with Safe Harbor Marinas will give its members exclusive access to X Shore’s flagship Eelex 8000 electric boats at locations in San Diego, Charleston, Montauk, Newport, West Palm Beach, and other locations throughout its network.
The partnership should help drastically increase the X Shore Eelex 8000’s reach across the US, according to X Shore CEO Jenny Keisu:
We are thrilled to be partnering with Safe Harbor Marinas to encourage more boating enthusiasts to experience 100% silent, high-performance electric boats. Our organizations share a passion for the water and a deep commitment to sustainability.
Safe Harbor Marinas is the largest owner and operator of marinas in the world, and has already hosted events introducing X Shore’s Swedish-made electric boats to their network.
Now this new partnership will increase access to these boats to members of the world’s largest boating network.
As Safe Harbor Marinas vice president of partnerships and experiences explained:
The enthusiasm from our Members about the X Shore program is noticeable. Through our nationwide events, Safe Harbor Experiences, the Members have had the opportunity to experience these environmentally friendly electric boats firsthand. As a direct result, they are highly anticipating the addition of this amenity to our different marinas across the country. Our partnership with X Shore will continue to have a positive impact on the future of the marine industry.
Electric boats, being boats, are notoriously expensive. The Eelex 8000 is priced at around US $330,000, though X Shore also recently unveiled a lower cost electric boat known as the X Shore 1 designed to cut that price by more than half.
Because of the high cost of boat ownership, including electric boats, boat networks have become a popular way to get new electric boats out into the wild.
X Shore also recently landed a major $30M funding round designed to help the company sail toward expected profitability in 2024.
The investment round was led by SEB Investment Management AB, and was also supported by several existing and new shareholders.
X Shore says it will use the new funding to scale its production in an effort to reach profitability.
Electrek’s Take
I think these kinds of access programs are wonderful since high purchase prices mean that very few people actually get to experience innovative electric boat technology first hand. Once you try it though, you never want to go back to combustion engine boating.
Of course this is still an exclusive operation. Boating networks aren’t exactly great equalizers. They’re great for folks who are rich but not “boat rich.”
Even so, let’s be honest. These types of high-end electric boats are currently only for those with money. It was the same way with Tesla a decade ago, when the first ones mostly went to doctors and lawyers. But now the technology and production has matured to the point where any ol’ Joe Schmoe is driving around in a reasonably affordable Tesla. That could be the electric boating industry one day.
Until then though, it’s great that people who can’t afford a third of a million-dollar boat can still get the chance to take one out on a day cruise with their family.
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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