Candela C-7: Electric, hydrofoil boat that's amazing!

Came across the Candela C-7, electric powered, hydrofoil boat while browsing on YouTube last week:

https://candela.com/candela-c-7/

It uses the same lithium ion pack as a BMW i3 (40 kWh, NMC), with a peak motor power output of 70 kW but uses only 16 kW @ 23 knots and 37 kW at top speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1faYuMUpYUg

It's crazy expensive right now, but given time this design concept will trickle down to more affordable boats eventually.

This demo, in rougher conditions, really shows just how radically different this boat is from standard, gas powered boats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7I0pVpnytM

I'll probably never own a boat, but if I were to, that's the one I'd want.

But it would probably suck for the places where I regularly rent a boat; e.g., a fishing lake in upstate NY where there are lots of submerged rocks. The hydrofoil would probably not fair so well.

It would definitely be an expensive repair, if it hit a submerged rock! However, based on the videos, the hydrofoils appear to be just below the surface. So, the draft needed for this boat, while the hydrofoil is active, seems to be pretty minimal.

alozzy said:

So, the draft needed for this boat, while the hydrofoil is active, seems to be pretty minimal.

Click to expand...

It's the navigating slowly in the shallows I was concerned about; that's where the bass are.

But this would be lovely when needing to travel 4 miles down the lake when it's got white caps.

Actually, they addressed that - the hydrofoils are fully retractable for shallow water operation - they have an animation of that on the sales page