Vision Marine Technologies, a manufacturer of electric recreational marine propulsion for OEMs, has announced that it broke the 100 mph speed barrier on an electric watercraft, a historic milestone in the boating industry. Several renowned players from around the world needed to come together to achieve such a feat.
Vision Marine, in partnership with Hellkat Powerboats, developed the V32, a 32-inch 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. The V32 was entirely 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 throughout the course of several months.
The electric watercraft is powered by a uniquely designed battery pack developed by Vision Marine in partnership with Octillion Power Systems. Moreover, Nextfour Solutions supplemented the vessel’s monitoring systems, and Pat Weissman of Weissman Marine engineered the outdrives.
On August 28, 2022, Shaun Torrente, a five-time UIM champion and current F1 H20 World champion, took the V32 to the water. He reached a new world record speed of 109 mph (175 km/h). It has surpassed the previous speed record for an electric boat of 88.6 mph (142.5 km/h), set by Jaguar on its lightweight Vector V20E in 2018.
“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,” Vision Marine Xavier Montagne, CTO & COO, stated. “We worked hard on optimizing 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 Shaun Torrente added, “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.”
