Pure Watercraft unveils production-intent electric pontoon boat powered by GM’s EV batteries
Electric propulsion specialist Pure Watercraft has officially shared the final design of its Pure Pontoon Boat – the company’s first vessel designed in house. Powered by EV batteries provided by minority stakeholder GM, this first crack at an electric pontoon boat could appeal to many consumers interested in quiet cruises without emissions.
Pure Watercraft’s roots date back to 2011 in Seattle when the company was founded. Beginning with electric outboard motors, Pure found success developing and selling electric boat packages that could steer a bass fishing boat, pontoon, or coaching launch toward zero emissions nautical travel.
Things really got interesting in November of 2021, when General Motors acquired a 25% ownership stake in the company, who hadn’t produced a boat of its own at the time. Two months later at CES, Pure Watercraft un veiled the Pure Pontoon Boat – an affordable luxury electric barge with seating for ten, a top speed around 23 mph and two motor configurations powered by batteries from GM.
Pure has been accepting pre-orders since that original debut, but we’ve only seen electric pontoon boat prototypes up until this point. Today however, Pure has unveiled a production-intent design that is damn close to what customers will see from a design perspective, and spot on on the performance side. Have a gander.
GM batteries can propel the Pure electric pontoon 40 miles
We got a video tour of the electric pontoon boat before its officially unveiling to the public today, and its design and level of performance feels like a perfect fit for long, leisurely cruises on the water. As you can see from the featured image above, Pure has implemented knife shaved hulls rather than the traditional round, scuba tank looking hulls of the past.
The hulls are complimented by a rear hydrofoil that drafts off their limited wake, adding lift and speed to the overall ride and creating what Pure described to me as a wakeless launch. As previously advertised, the pontoon boat can be propelled by either single or dual 25 kW Pure electric motors, delivering a top speed around 25-26 mph with passengers aboard.
The motors are powered by a 66 kWh pack consisting of the same BEV2 GM batteries used in the soon-to-be-defunct Chevy Bolt. As shown by Pure Watercraft in the diagram above, an easy cruise with friends on the lake can deliver over 40 miles of range and at least seven hours out on the water.
The boat uses a standard J1772 plug and can accommodate any typical power source, charging up to 11 kW on a Level 2 charger (240V). The boat also supports DC fast charging.
Customers will be able to track the battery life, efficiency, and charging progress from a unique integrated screen located directly on the throttle. It also visualizes the tilt and trim of the motors in real-time, offering a handy, holistic display from the helm that can also pair with your phone.
The Pure electric pontoons boats will be built at an 80,000 square-foot production facility in Beech Bottom, West Virginia – where it intends to invest at least $5 million and create over 100 jobs over the next two years. Pure CEO Andy Rebele spoke:
We’re thrilled to introduce the Pure Pontoon Boat to the market. Our team has worked tirelessly to create a high-performance, environmentally friendly boat. The Pure Pontoon is the ideal way to connect with family and friends, and with nature in a way that hasn’t been possible before. We believe the Pure Pontoon Boat will appeal to a wide range of people who love the water. The Pure Pontoon will change the way people think about pontoon boating
Pure’s first in-house design boat is available for pre-order now for $100 down. Price-wise, the electric pontoon boat starts at $75,000 for the single-motor version, and $95,000 for the twin-motors.
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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