A vibrant electric and hybrid marine business that will reach over $7.3 billion by 2024

The electric and hybrid marine market will increase rapidly from $2.6 billion in 2013 to over $7.3 billion by 2024. As the IDTechEx report Electric Boats, Small Submarines and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) 2014-2024 www.idtechex.com/eboats explains, the electric and hybrid marine business, from Autonomous Underwater Vehicles to oil rig supply vessels and seagoing ferries is a large, vibrant and growing activity.

The industrial commercial and military sectors have legal push such as newly onerous harbour pollution regulations along with strong government and industry push. An example of this is Norway where they seek to make its offshore oil industry as green as possible. That is why the Tesla is Norway's best-selling car – the huge tax breaks and widespread deployment of charging stations make it happen.

All Norwegian offshore supply vessels are becoming hybrid and many sea going ferries are being made electric as is the case in the USA for example. Tugboats are going pure electric and, more often, hybrid in the USA and elsewhere to meet pollution requirements and improve performance. Meanwhile many ships moor electrically and tugboats hold position at sea electrically.

The attractions for military forces are even greater. The hybrid boat can act as a huge silent power supply for equipment at destination and travel covertly yet have long range and give huge surges of energy as required. For the Special Forces a silent electric boat or personal submarine is a disposable. Advanced range extenders are being added such as fuel cells and submarines that fly are in prospect. Already available, we see a fast surface boat that is also an efficient submarine but these things do not come cheap.

The bottom line is that the industrial, commercial and military electric boat business is moving from almost entirely pure electric to substantially hybrid in market value as the bigger vessels convert and here we are talking billions of dollars yearly. 

This report Electric Boats, Small Submarines and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) 2014-2024 covers hybrid and pure electric marine electric vehicles; on-water and underwater, inland and seagoing. It covers the closely allied topics of electric outboard motors and electric planes operating from water and even has some mention of electrification benefiting conventional craft. Overall, it encompasses leisure, military, industrial, commercial and other applications and the technology trends.