The French Group Bénéteau, number two in the world of pleasure boating through brands such as Bénéteau, Jeanneau, Prestige, Lagoon, Excess, Delphia, Four Winns, Wellcraft, Glastron and Scarab, has just signed a partnership with Vision Marine Technologies, manufacturer of electric outboard engines, in order to develop a concrete and operational offer of electric boats.

The energy transition is developing in the boating industry, as is the case for Groupe Bénéteau, which is currently working on the development of a whole range of outboard boats powered by electric motors developed by Vision Marine Technologies.

A few months ago, the French group launched its very first model of electric river boat, the Delphia 11, a model that allows inland water travel without CO2 emissions, a sector that is perfectly suited to electric motors, due to the type of navigation involved - placid boats - and the relative ease of setting up recharging stations along canals and lakes.

This approach to electrification continued at the last Yachting Festival, with the presentation of a hybrid catamaran, Excess 15, developed with Torqeedo and ZF, and an electric Bénéteau Oceanis 30.1 sailboat will be unveiled this summer.

With Vision Marine Technologies, the Bénéteau Group intends to extend this approach to outboard-powered boats, a market for day use that in some cases can perfectly respond to this type of technology.

Erik Stromberg, Groupe Beneteau's marketing director for boats and motor yachts, explains this approach on ActuNautique Yachting Art: "After building and extensively testing a first jointly developed prototype in early 2022, Groupe Beneteau's objective is to market a boat and a set of propulsion systems that are 100% electric. The key to electrification is to have a complete analysis of the customer's use case. Many of the boats in our offer are perfectly suited to a 100% electric solution. This electric offering complements other propulsion systems already available and is compatible with these boat models."

This is based on the Vision Marine E-Motion 180 hp electric outboard motor combined with a 70 kWh continuous energy battery, enough to meet a need for day use.

Four Winns, one of Groupe Bénéteau's four U.S. brands, will pilot this approach, which will later be deployed by other Groupe Beneteau brands, both in North America and Europe.