![World's first full-scale electric seaglider hits the seas for testing [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/Worlds-first-electric-seaglider.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
World’s first full-scale electric seaglider hits the seas for testing [Video]
Is it an electric plane, boat? It’s the best of both. The world’s first full-scale electric seaglider officially hit the seas for testing this week with passengers onboard. It can fly and glide on water. Watch it in action below.
Meet the world’s first electric seaglider
After completing its first on-water tests this week, Mike Kinker, CTO and co-founder of REGENT, boasted “the era of seagliders has begun.”
REGENT has been developing electric seagliders since 2020, and in four short years, the company is now testing full-scale prototypes on the water.
With backing from Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel, Lockheed Martin, and others, REGENT’s seagliders have secured a backlog of orders worth over $9 billion across six continents. The founders, Billy Thalheimer and Mike Klinker, both studied Aerospace Engineering at MIT and worked at Boeing’s subsidiary, Aurora Flight Sciences.
Completing the first on-water tests marks the latest milestone as Regents looks to unlock a faster, more affordable way to travel.
Seagliders are a new type of vessel that combines the speed of an aircraft with the convenience of traveling by boat.
They have three modes: floating on the hull, foiling above the water on hydrofoils, and flying (within one wingspan) on the water.
The seaglider, “Viceroy,” is a 12-passenger prototype. At 55 feet long with a wingspan of 65 feet, it’s the largest fully electric “flying machine.” That’s about the size of a typical personal aircraft.
As tradition, REGENT christened the prototype, “Paladin,” before it hit the water at Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.
After the first on-water tests were completed this week, the company plans for additional passenger flights around mid-year.
.@elonmusk we were productive this week https://t.co/CdoS6qfPAl pic.twitter.com/0u1LfNeJ2q
— Billy Thalheimer (@billythalheimer) March 6, 2025
On X, Thalheimer celebrated the milestone by reposting an Elon Musk tweet from 2022 that said, “A flying, electric boat would be sickkk,” with the caption “We were productive this week.”
REGENT says the electric seaglider can travel 180 mph (156 kts) with up to 180 miles (156 nm) range from an electric battery and 120 kW motor.
With next-gen batteries, it expects the seagliders will be able to achieve over 400 nautical miles range within the next few years.
In January, the company broke ground on its 255,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Rhode Island, where the seagliders will be built. It’s expected to come online next year. The company has raised over $90 million and already is working with the US Marine Corps to use the vessels for defense.
Would you take a trip in REGENT’s electric seaglider? Let us know in the comments. It may be here sooner than you think.
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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