An electric Four Winns on the market by 2023
The Bénéteau Group is banking on its American brand Four Winns to enter the market for electric boats with outboard motors. Electric or hybrid inboard engines have been in the catalog of the French yachting leader on its sailing multihulls and monohulls and for the Delphia speedboats since 2022. It now completes its offer by partnering with the Canadian manufacturer of electric outboard motors Vision Marine; specialized in high power and high voltage models.
Erik Stromberg, marketing director for boats and motor yachts of the Bénéteau Group, tells us more about this first electric outboard model: "It will be a twenty-foot boat that came out recently. We did the first speed and performance tests in the spring of 2022, which were satisfactory. We are going to make pre-production runs at the end of 2022 for industrialization in 2023. The boat will be present at the 2023 Miami boat show and deliverable anywhere in the world within Four Winns."
An engine manufacturer with industrial capabilities
The head of the Bénéteau Group justifies the choice of Vision Marine as a supplier by its industrial capacities and its response to uses. "We meet a lot of people with great engines, but many are not industrialized. We needed a partner who could deliver volume. Making one engine is easy. 30 euros 40 or 150, it's more difficult and that's the added value of the Bénéteau Group."
Electric boats for all Bénéteau brands
Beyond Four Winns, the Bénéteau Group intends to extend its partnership with Vision Marine to all boat brands, through its existing offer. Erik Stromberg explains: "We have an existing range that caters to all boaters. The market is large. On 20-foot bowriders in inland waters or lakes, we are aiming for 20% of the models to be electric. These are boats on trailers or private pontoons that are easily connected. The first models from Jeanneau or Bénéteau brands, such as the Antares or Merry Fisher should arrive in 2024."
Offered as an option, the electric motorization should be about 50% more expensive than the traditional thermal engine, the part of the motor and batteries being more important on the global amount of a small boat than on a houseboat like Delphia where the additional cost of the electric is about 25% of the total price of the boat.
