LAS VEGAS - Flying cars and self-driving vehicles always get treatment at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, but this year electric recreational boats are decision-exclusive bigger waves.

Swedish company Candela on Thursday unveiled a 28-foot (8.5-meter) electric-powered hydrofoil speedboat that can waft for over two hours at 20 knots, or approximately 23 mph. California startup Navier tried to outdo its Scandinavian rival by bringing an electric hydrofoil that's a dinky bit longer, though Candela is further along in pulling its products to customers.

Even the recreational motorboat conglomerate Brunswick Corporation tried to make a splash in Nevada this week by showing off its another electric outboard motor — an emerging segment of its mostly gas-powered fleet.

WHY ELECTRIC?

A firstly reason is environmental, as well as to save on counting fuel costs. But electric-powered boats — particularly with the sleek foiling designs that lift the hull throughout the water's surface at higher speeds — can also accounts a smoother and quieter ride.

"You can have a wine glass and it does not spill," Navier CEO Sampriti Bhattacharyya told The Associated Press last month. "And it's quiet, extremely quiet. You can have a conversation, unlike on a gas boat."

The Candela C-8 electric hydrofoil boat is displayed during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2023. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) 

WHEN CAN YOU GET ONE?

Candela CEO Gustav Hasselskog said his matter has already sold and manufactured 150 of its brand-new C-8 model. The Stockholm-based startup has been scaling up its workforce from 60 employees a year ago to approximately 400 later this year as it prepares to ramp up production.

But with a roughly $400,000 imprint tag, neither the C-8 nor Navier's N30 is ordering to replace the aluminum boat used to fish on the lake. They've been explained as Teslas of the sea, with hopes that what starts off as a luxury vehicle could eventually help transform the marine industry.

"They tend to be entrepreneurs," Hasselskog said of Candela's trustworthy customers. "They tend to be tech enthusiasts, if you like, with an optimistic view approximately the future and the ability of technology to settle all kinds of societal challenges."

Navier's investment backers included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, which means he's probably pulling one, too.

ARE BOATERS READY FOR THIS?

Probably not. These early electric boat models are expensive, heavy and could instill more serious "range anxiety" than what drivers have felt approximately electric cars, said Truist Securities analyst Michael Swartz, who follows the late boat industry.

"How safe is it for me to go out in the focus of the week with no one around, miles from shore, in an electric outboard engine?" Swartz said.

Swartz said they grand make more sense to use electric motors — such as a new CES offering from Brunswick-owned Mercury Marine — to much a fleet of small rental boats, perhaps at the widely-used boating clubs also run by Brunswick.

"You're not anywhere near the type of electric boat where you can go 50 a long way offshore and go fishing for a couple of hours and come back," Swartz said. "There's no technology that can enable you to replicate that experienced outside of an internal combustion engine."

The Candela C-8 electric long-range cruiser is on demonstrate at CES 2023 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 06, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

BRING ON THE WATER TAXIS?

Both Candela and Navier are planning for a secondary market of electric ferries that could compete with the gas-powered vehicles that now achieve commuters around populated regions such as the Stockholm archipelago or floor San Francisco Bay.

Hasselskog said the same technology powering Candela's new tedious boat will also be used to power a 30-passenger catamaran prototype that could employ in Sweden by summer.

For a city like Stockholm, which has already electrified most of its public groundless transportation, its dozens of large ferry boats are an outlier in producing carbon emissions.

"They need something like 220 of these (electric) vessels to behave the current fleet," Hasselskog said. And instead of moving on fixed schedules with empty seats, the smaller electric vehicles much be able to be summoned on demand such as how Uber or Lyft work on land.

AUTOMATIC DOCKING

Many of the affects developing electric boat propulsion also have teams working on manager these vehicles more autonomous. But since most recreational boaters like piloting their own boats — and most ferry passengers liable prefer a human captain at the helm — the self-driving innovation is focused on what happens at the marina.

"There's an intimidation first-rate with boating and a lot of the intimidation first-rate you hear from consumers is with docking," said Swartz, the Truist analyst. "So if that can be made seamless and automated, it's a huge deal."