Yes, there is a lot of hype out there and some of these boats actually do make it to the market. All those fancy pictures of boats travelling at high speed under electric power don't show the downside. High speed requires a lot of power and this means very short travel distances. If you want both high speed and long distances the price skyrockets! A basic 30' boat with a speed of 25-30 knots and an range around 100 miles will cost in the range of $300,000, and that is without cruising amenities. I saw a couple of them at the Seattle Boat Show last spring. I consider them like the Tesla's of the boating world. Tesla's may be OK on land but the marine environment is much harsher, and I don't recommend using Lithium ion rather than Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. These boats are so new that we don't have any information yet on how well they survive on the water in the high humidity.
On the other hand, the Europeans are way ahead of us in producing electric cruising boats in the 22-30' range. For my presentation at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last September I found at least a dozen electric cruising boats that were on the market in Europe. Here in the U.S. we still have to do our own conversions. But, it is becoming easier as we have more "plug and play" systems available.
