CLEVELAND — Brew Boat Cleveland owner Drew Johnson just bought two electric boats this summer.

What You Need To Know

  • Electric boats became more popular over the summer with higher fuel costs. 

  • Boats powered by electricity have lower costs to power them. 

  • Electric boats have fewer parts, so they require less maintenance

“This is the engine compartment,” Johnson said. “Very simple, electric motor.”

He said it’s hard to tell that it’s electric, and he said it has fewer parts, meaning less maintenance. It’s powered by 16 batteries.

“Much just like normal golf cart batteries,” Johnson said. “They’re not lithium ion or anything like that.”

Johnson said the general design of an electric boat has been around for decades, yet electric boats are becoming more popular lately.

The market research website Futuremarketinsights.com predicts that the electric boat market value will jump from $5.6 billion in 2023 to $15.1 billion in 2033.

There are charging ports all over the docks, so there’s no need to search for a power source.

“A Tesla, for example, you might have to buy a wall mount or unit for your home to charge,” Johnson said. “These you can just plug into a normal charging outlet.”

He said with fuel costs rising, more of his customers opted for riding on the electric boat this summer, since he won’t have to pass any higher fuel costs onto the consumer.

“On average, it’s probably $40 to $50 a month, to operate these boats in terms of electricity,” Johnson said. 

But he said there’s a bigger perk to using an electric vessel.

“Full throttle, as you can see, very quiet,” Johnson said. 

Johnson has two of these electric boats. He has fuel powered boats, but he likely won’t be adding any new ones to the fleet.

“I think next year we’ll add one or two more, and yeah we will go from there,” Johnson said. 

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