Candela’s electric ferries multiply as the startup lines up $25M in new funding
The company has global ambitions for its highly efficient boats and has completed and delivered dozens of them — which is a lot in this industry!
Electric boat maker Candela is approaching cruising speed with $25 million in new funding and the first commercial deployment of its new P-12 ferry in New Zealand.
Candela has been slowly upping the size of its vessels for years, starting with the considerably smaller C-7 and C-8 (noting the length in meters) — of which, as of this week, they have now produced a total of 70. The P-12, a ferry design that can handle up to 30 passengers, made its debut late last year.
Just last week, the P-12 was given its first assignment: ferry people around New Zealand’s Lake Manapōuri, a scenic destination but also, more importantly, the site of the country’s largest hydroelectric power station. And now staff at that station can get to work via clean-running boat rather than driving, which the companies estimate will save around 240 tons of emissions per year. It’s a start, and it will help keep the lake clean and quiet.
International interest in these boats is also evident in the participation of Groupe Beneteau, a more than century-old boating company that makes thousands of vessels yearly, in the funding round. Groupe Beneteau CEO Bruno Thivoyon expressed in the press release that investing in Candela makes sense as part of the company’s “ecological transition objectives, scaling up innovative solutions for more sustainable boating.”
Candela’s boats use hydrofoils with electric engines mounted on the bottom to effectively fly above the surface of the water once they get past a certain speed, vastly reducing energy consumption — historically and understandably a sticking point for electric boating.
Source: techcrunch
