The WaterCar EV Is One Of The Most Interesting EVs In The Market

WaterCar is an interesting amphibious car company I’ve followed for some time. I’ve seriously considered buying one of their gas models because I grew up around boats and like boating; I just don’t like pulling trailers or backing down a ramp into the water. This company has specialized in high-performance amphibious cars that look like Jeeps, Camaros, and Hummers, and, to date, they are the only amphibious car maker that seems to have vehicles that actually work as both cars and boats. 

With their gas-powered vehicles, the wheels fold up into the body, and the bottom of the car is a boat hull, which provides a very boat-like experience. However, I don’t think I’d want to try one in heavy seas (nor would I like to be in any small boat) on the lake or relatively calm water; while expensive, they likely provide an unmatched experience with a 127MPH top-speed on the water and 60 mph top speed on the water which is impressively fast. Oh, and the gas version costs between $135K and $375K, depending on model and power, so it is an exotic vehicle.

I’ve been interested in viable amphibious vehicles ever since I saw the Rinspeed Splash concept vehicle, which came with its own backstory and mermaid. It looked like something Batman would have (in fact, I remember an old comic where the Batmobile had a hydrofoil option).

However, their latest amphibious vehicle is electric, a very different beast.

The WaterCar EV

The WaterCar EV is more of a boat than a car and very different from their other vehicles. It looks like a boat, and it uses an electric 35e 115 HP motor for waterpower with a 100-mile range. The top speed on land on land is a wimpy 25 MPH with a 20-mile range or about the speed and range of the average legal e-bike or electric skateboard.

But the point of this design is that you don’t need to launch the boat from a trailer; you just unhook it from your truck or large car and drive it into the water. The price before options is $135K, and while that is a bit high for an 18-foot outboard boat, the advantage is that you can drive this one out of the water. To put this in perspective, a high-end outboard motorboat would typically cost below $50K.

You pay more than double to avoid backing the boat into the water, but I think it is worth it.

So why is it worth it?

The Problem With Boat Launches

When I was a kid, my dad worked at a boat launch, and I’d often spend my weekends there watching people mess up their boat launch. People wouldn’t set their brakes properly and turn their car into a submersible, have trouble backing down the ramp, wrecking their trailer, dump the boat accident on the ramp, or hit the trailer too hard at the end of the day (often the result of too much beer) and ending up wrecking their tow vehicle.

One time I forgot the drain plugs in our boat and discovered that trying to keep the thing from sinking was problematic and that the Corvair pickup truck I used the haul the boat couldn’t pull the damn thing out if it were full of water.

Launching or retrieving a boat is very stressful, you have a lot of people watching and often laughing at, not with, you and you’ll get a ton of annoying help if the folks around you become convinced you are an idiot. I’ll bet this speaks to why so many people buy boats that just sit in their driveway or storage and rarely take them out (and it shows when they eventually get up the nerve to try the damn ramp).

In addition, if you end up going to an island, you have to beach the boat, which tends to damage the bottom jell coat, or you anchor it, but most boaters don’t even know how to do that properly, and the boat ends up drifting off.

Finally, and particularly when launching in salt water, the water can do ugly things to your tow vehicle and trailer over time, making the boating experience far more expensive than it needs to be. 

Wrapping Up: Why The WaterCar EV Makes Sense

With the WaterCar EV, the boat is the trailer, and it is powered. So you unhook it on land and then drive it down the ramp into the water. It is super easy and virtually risk-free. More importantly, you don’t have to introduce salt water to your towing vehicle or maintain a trailer.

This would be an ideal vehicle for someone who lived on or close to the water but wanted to garage their boat and not leave it in the water or have to haul it to a launch. In this cast, you could just drive it from your driveway to the launch and launch it there—no muss, no fuss.

Like most vehicles, you can option this thing up with sound systems, wakeboarding accessories, custom paint, and interiors as needed. But while expensive, I know I’d use this boat more often than I would a regular trailered boat because of all the hassle of managing a trailered boat.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at Torque News who covers automotive technology and battery development. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.