World’s first 100mph electric boat: Vision Marine smashes world record
Watch the footage below of Vision Marine Technologies’ breaking the 100mph speed barrier on an electric watercraft, achieving 109mph with its V32 race boat at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout performance boat competition in the US.
Vision Marine, in partnership with Hellkat Powerboats, produced the V32 – a 32ft catamaran hull specifically designed to accommodate the necessary battery banks to power a pair of Vision Marine’s flagship E-Motion electric outboards – with the sole intention of breaking new ground and making the world’s fastest electric boat.
On 28 August, in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, five-time UIM and current F1 H20 World champion pilot Shaun Torrente officially reached a new world record speed of 109mph on the V32, shattering the previous 88.6mph world record held by Jaguar with its lightweight Vector V20E.
The V32 was designed from the ground up by Vision Marine’s internal engineering team and Shaun Torrente of Shaun Torrente Racing (STR), who was also in charge of rigging, setting up, and testing the V32 in Florida over several months.
To power the V32, a battery pack was developed by Vision Marine in partnership with Octillion Power Systems, which also acted as a sponsor for the race. Nextfour Solutions supplemented the vessel’s monitoring systems, and Pat Weissman of Weissman Marine engineered the outdrives.
Vision Marine CEO and co-founder Alex Mongeon says: “I am grateful for this accomplishment. I feel blessed to have worked with world-class personnel such as Shaun Torrente, Pat Weissman, and Dave Dewald. Shaun Torrente’s unequaled talent has once again proven the feasibility of performance electric motorisation in a marine environment without compromising speed.
“We are here today to instill a new legacy by proving once again that a transition to electric power in the marine industry is at arm’s reach. We are this much closer to eliminating the colossal carbon footprint our planet is experiencing due to continued usage of ICE engines.”
Vision Marine’s focus is not solely on racing. In July 2022, Vision Marine Technologies entered into a partnership with Groupe Beneteau, which will integrate the disruptive E-Motion onto various models across Groupe Beneteau’s brand portfolio. The first collaboration between the two companies will be the launch of the world’s first fully electric powerboat, the sporty and elegant 22ft Four Winns H2 OB runabout. The two companies will present the Four Winns H2 at the upcoming IBEX boat show in September 2022 in Tampa, Florida.
Vision Marine Xavier Montagne, CTO & COO, says: “The results we observed from this weekend’s race are only the tip of the iceberg. This accomplishment is the fruit of many years of close technical collaboration with our European and American partners. We worked hard on optimising the electric motors, the 700V batteries, the cooling circuitry, and the hardware and software integration, all of which are quintessential to our success as a leader in the electric marine propulsion industry.”
STR’s Torrente says: “It has been an amazing experience to push the boundaries of what people thought was impossible. In the past two days, we proved that the limits of electric propulsion are only in the minds of those that have not followed Vision Marine and our project. With this result, they cannot pretend we are not here anymore.”
Paul Beach, president of Octillion Power Systems, adds: “We are at the forefront of revolutionising the boating industry; we are pushing the limits with our innovative technology. I praise Octillion’s engineering team, who worked closely with Shaun Torrente and Vision Marine’s in-house R&D team to design a state-of-the-art battery pack to nourish the E-Motion propulsion system rigged on the V32.”
Over 100,000 people were in attendance at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout performance boat competition.
