Winners of Trouvé e-boat awards revealed

The third annual Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating – ‘The Gussies’ – has announced the recipients of its 2022 honours. 

The electric boat awards are the only international boating awards that focus exclusively on electric boats and recognise craft already in production as well as concept boats and those in late development stage.

Decisions were made after tallying the votes from almost 15,000 electric boat enthusiasts all over the world and an international judging panel of 19 e-boat experts.

The categories include electric leisure boats, workboats, commercial passenger vessels, sailboats and fossil fuel boats that have been refitted with electric propulsion.

2022 winners of the Gustave Trouvé Awards:

• Production Electric Boat Up to 8m / 26ft: Faro 5 by Faroboats, Portugal
• Concept/In Development Electric Boat Up to 8m / 26ft: Aurora Sport by Engenharia Lamarca, Brazil
• Production Electric Boat Over 8m / 26ft: Candela 8 by Candela, Sweden
• Concept/In Development Electric Boat Over 8m / 26ft: Silent 120 Explorer by Silent, Austria
• Electric Sailboat: Sunreef 80 Eco by Sunreef Yachts, Poland
• Customised / DIY / Refitted Electric Boat: Elektra by Rikard Wildare and C.G. Pettersson, Sweden
• Electric Workboat: SRAV by Navalt Solar & Electric Boats, India
• Electric Commercial Passenger Vessel in Operation: Kochi Metro 1 by Cochin Shipyard, India and Echandia, Sweden
• Electric Commercial Passenger Vessel In Development: MobyFly 30 by MobyFly, Switzerland

The awards, now in their third year, were created by electric boat website Plugboats.com to recognise the inventors, designers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and visionaries who are making advances every day to develop clean, quiet, zero-emission technologies and designs to reduce reliance on fossil fuel for marine propulsion.

Over 120 boats were nominated for the awards, with the finalists and eventual winners chosen through a combination of public voting and weighted ballots by a panel of industry experts from international electric boat associations and past Gussie winners. This year’s winners will join the panel for the 2023 awards.

“The number of entries and the response from the public shows just how quickly electric boats are growing,” says Jeff Butler, editor/publisher of Plugboats and founder of the awards. “The winners also demonstrate that electric boats can do it all – without the noise, fumes and carbon emissions of fossil fuels. There are hydrofoiling speedboats, 100-passenger ferries, afternoon cruisers, commercial fishing rigs and an oceangoing sailboat that has solar cells embedded in the entire hull.”

‘The Gussies’ are named to honour Gustave Trouvé, a prolific French inventor with over 75 patents to his name who was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1882. Among his innovations was the world’s first outboard boat motor, which he devised so that he could detach the motor from his prototype electric boat Le Teléphone and take it home to work on in his Paris apartment.

The latest analysis from The Insight Partners estimates that the global electric boat market will grow from US$5.2b in 2022 to US$11.4b by 2028 with an estimated CAGR of 13.7 per cent.

The full list of winners with images and short descriptions can be seen at the Plug Boats website.