The winners of the The Gussies 2022 Electric Boat Awards have been announced, after voting by the public and an international judging panel of 19 electric boat experts. Organised by Plugboats.com, the awards are named after Gustave Trouvé, the French inventor who decided the best way to work on the electric motor propelling his prototype boat ‘Le Téléphone‘ along the Seine in 1874 was to devise a detachable unit so that he could tinker with the motor in his shop at home. It was the birth of the outboard motor.
This year more than 100 boats from 21 countries and every continent except Antarctica entered ‘The Gussies’ and continue his legacy. With categories for boats in production and in design / development, as well as customised and DIY vessels, the winners range from low draft, low wake electric passenger vessels operating as part of the Kochi Water Metro fleet in India, to leisure boats like the Faro5 from Portugal. Winner in the Production Electric Boats up to 26’ (8m) category, the Faro5 combines a solar-powered docking station and a battery capacity of 8-10 hours of use, making for a self-sufficient electric boating system for the leisure market.
The winner of the Customised / DIY / Refitted Electric Boats category was Elektra, a 27’7’’ (8.4m) traditional mahogany launch from Sweden retrofitted with an electric drivetrain designed by Rikard Wildare of Wildtech. Designed by C.G. Pettersson and built nearly 100 years ago, all parts in Elektra’s drivetrain were designed in-house, CNC-machined from aluminium and anodized. You can see a video of her rebuild here:
For full details of all the 2022 Gussies winners head to: https://plugboats.com/gussies-electric-boats-awards-winners-2022/