Flying electric ferries battle to smoothly sail commuters over the wave crests
As electric boats slowly gain market share among recreational boaters, a different breed of silent, efficient speed boats is now targetting commuters. Hydrofoil electric ferries are coming to a river or lake near you, and multiple companies are working to make it happen.
I’ve had the pleasure of covering electric boats for years, where I’ve seen just about everything the nascent industry has to offer. But it’s the hydrofoil electric boats that are making the biggest departure from the norm.
Compared to traditional V-hull or catamaran vessels routinely used as ferries, hydrofoil boats use significantly less energy to travel the same distance on the water. Hydrofoils, which work like an airplane’s wing placed underwater, lift the entire boat’s hull into the air. With significantly lower resistance, the boat essentially flies while using as little as 20% of the same energy required by a planning boat.
Hydrofoil boats have been around for decades, but more recent advances have replaced older internal combustion engines with electric motors, taking these boats to the next level.
The biggest name in the game is undoubtedly Stockholm-based Candela, which first sailed its prototype hydrofoil electric boat back in 2016 and has been in production since 2018. The company began with multiple models of electric speedboats for recreational boating. Now, its newest model, the Candela P-12, is going commercial for use as a ferry in rivers, lakes, and archipelagos like around its home waters in Stockholm.
The P-12 has been undergoing water trials since last year, ahead of its first commercial operations.
One of its first operators will employ it on the world’s cleanest lake, Lake Manapōuri in New Zealand, where it is expected to replace 240 tons of CO2 emissions each year by replacing combustion engine boats.
While Candela undoubtedly leads the industry, other hydrofoil electric boats have cropped up in the last couple years. Vessev, an Auckland, New Zealand-based startup, has just announced the successful completion of two weeks of intensive water testing for its VS-9 electric hydrofoil ferry.
“We have been pushing the VS—9 less than two weeks after its first flight and she has been ticking all the boxes and more,” announced Vessev CEO Eric Laakmann earlier today. “On some of our test sessions, we had 25 knots gusting 35 with wind waves to match and she was cruising over the waves.
According to the company, which released the video below, the testing occurred in sea states featuring chop and waves averaging around 75 cm (2’6″) and peaking at 100 cm (3’3″).
The VS-9 is designed to transport up to nine passengers, though Vessev claims to be developing a much larger 100-passenger hydrofoil ferry for larger operators.
San Francisco, California-based electric boat startup Navier also plans to target the commercial ferry market with its first model.
Debuted in 2023, the Navier N30 announced its first official pilot program earlier this year. The hydrofoiling electric boat was said to be partnering with payment platform Stripe to ferry its employees from San Francisco’s outskirts to the downtown area.
The plan would showcase how the normally one-hour drive could be transformed into a much more efficient half-hour ferry ride on a hydrofoil electric ferry.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve test-driven a few hydrofoil electric boats, and I’ve always been amazed by how easy they are to operate and how smooth the ride is.
On Candela’s electric boats, I’ve been able to cut right across the wakes left by cruise ships while feeling barely a ripple.
Ferries can replace a significant number of cars in waterside cities, but making the experience more pleasant and efficient is key to getting more drivers out of their cars. With hydrofoil electric boats, not only do the journeys use significantly less energy, but they’re also smoother and more enjoyable. I’ll admit to being prone to seasickness, yet I’ve never gotten even a tad bit queasy on a hydrofoil electric boat.
Check out one of my last hydrofoil electric boat test drives below, where I took the Candela C-8 for a spin around Stockholm.
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The US solar industry just delivered another huge quarter, installing 11.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in Q3 2025. That makes it the third-largest quarter on record and pushes total solar additions this year past 30 GW – despite the Trump administration’s efforts to kneecap clean energy.
According to the new “US Solar Market Insight Q4 2025” report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, 85% of all new power added to the grid during the first nine months of the Trump administration came from solar and storage. And here’s the twist: Most of that growth – 73% – happened in red states.
Eight of the top 10 states for new installations fall into that category, including Texas, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Utah jumped into the top 10 this quarter thanks to two big utility-scale projects totaling more than 1 GW.
But the report also flags major uncertainty ahead. Federal actions, including a July memo from the Department of the Interior (DOI), have slowed or stalled the approvals pipeline for utility-scale solar and storage. Without clarity on permitting timelines, Wood Mackenzie’s long-term utility-scale forecast through 2030 remains basically unchanged from last quarter.
“This record-setting quarter for solar deployment shows that the market is continuing to turn to solar to meet rising demand,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. She added that strong growth in red states underscores how decisively the market is shifting toward clean energy. “But unless this administration reverses course, the future of clean, affordable, and reliable solar and storage will be frozen by uncertainty, and Americans will continue to see their energy bills go up.”
Two new solar module factories opened this year in Louisiana and South Carolina, adding a combined 4.7 GW of capacity. That brings the total new US module manufacturing capacity added in 2025 to 17.7 GW. With a new wafer facility coming online in Michigan in Q3, the US can now produce every major component of the solar module supply chain.
“We expect 250 GW of solar to be installed from 2025 to 2030,” said Michelle Davis, head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report. “But the US solar industry has more potential. With rising power demand across the country, solar could do even more if current constraints were eased.”
SEIA also noted that, following an analysis of EIA data, it found that more than 73 GW of solar projects across the US are stuck in permitting limbo and at risk of politically motivated delays or cancellations.
Read more: EIA: Solar + storage soar as fossil fuels stall through September 2025
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The spiritual successor to the beloved Chevy Geo Tracker, production of the new-for-2026 electric Spark EUV has officially begun in Brazil with more than 200 miles of range.
That’s right, kids. To know the Chevy Tracker is to love the Chevy Tracker. The tiny, top-heavy Suzuki-based SUV combined bold colors, fun styling, (relatively) good fuel economy, and real off-road chops (especially in ZR2 trim) with an affordable price tag to make the Tracker an early favorite among the serious rock-crawling crowds.
Like, really
While it’s still too early to tell whether or not the all-new Chevy Spark EUV will come even close to that little proto-SUV, it seems we won’t have to wait much longer to find out – GM Authority reports that production of the 2026 Chevy Spark EUV has officially begun at Comexport’s Planta Automotiva do Ceará (PACE) plant, in the state of Ceará, Brazil.
GM Brazil invested the equivalent of $73 million to get the PACE factory ready to assemble GM’s modern, zero-emissions Chevy crossover for the South American and Middle Eastern markets – an investment big enough to earn a visit from Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was on-hand for the December 3rd kickoff event.
“It’s not a car factory,” said Comexport Vice President and PACE shareholder, Rodrigo Teixeir. “(The) goal is to develop technology there, not simply assemble a vehicle.”
Production of the new Spark EUV began last week, with production of the equally new Chevy Captiva EV set to begin as early as Q1 of 2026.
2026 Chevy Spark EUV
The Made in Brazil Chevrolet Spark EUV is heavily based on the Chinese Baojun, and is powered by that vehicle’s single 75 kW (101 hp), 180 Nm (130 lb-ft) motor driving the front wheels. Power comes from the Baojun’s 42 kWh LFP battery that, with regenerative braking, is good for up to 360 km (220 miles) on the NEDC driving cycle.
Weirdly, the new Spark is also equipped with a 10.1″ infotainment screen and 8.8″ digital instrument cluster (above) that supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto standard – technology that GM claims lead to “unsafe” driver behaviors in North America.
Let us know what you think of the little electric SUV, and whether or not you think it would be a hit in the US (it would) in the comments.
SOURCE: GM Authority; images by GM, Harry Situations.
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