What to look for when you switch to electric boats

If you are starting out with one to three boats, choosing electric changes more than the fuel bill. It changes how your neighbors see you, what your customers remember and how your evening at the dock goes. Still comparing kinds of boats? Read how to choose the right boats first.

Good for the water and the people along it

People who live along a canal or a river notice every boat that passes. A gas engine at eight in the morning means noise and the smell of exhaust through their open window. An electric boat glides past.

Your neighbors are the people who complain to the city, or who send their visiting family to you. Make friends with them. An electric fleet also shows your customers that you take care of the water they came to enjoy.

Charging fits your day

Most rental boats end the day where they started, at your dock. So you plug them in in the evening, and in the morning they are full. No more carrying jerry cans to the dock, and no fuel to spill in the harbor.

Ask the builder how long the battery lasts on a normal trip and how long a full charge takes. Plan your day around those two numbers. If a boat goes out twice on a Saturday in July, give it enough time on the charger in between. In Let’s Book you set a buffer time, and the boat is held back from the next rental for the minutes you choose. More on that in how to schedule boat rentals.

A customer books a boat model, not a specific boat. Shortly before departure you pick the boat that goes out. So a boat that did not charge well stays at the dock, and your customer sails with a full one.

Keyless rental

Electric boats suit keyless rental well. A hardware module in the boat starts and stops the motor. Let’s Book works with hardware modules from Sentinel Marine and Qondor, and with an SMS relay. Your customer gets a text with a link, taps start on their phone at the booked time, and the motor switches on. Nobody has to wait on the dock with a key. Read how to connect an electric boat fleet, or see the connected fleet in Let’s Book.

A better day out for your customers

On an electric boat, nobody has to shout to be heard. A family can talk, the kids can hear the ducks, and a group of friends can play cards at the table. That quiet is often what customers remember and tell their friends about.

There are no exhaust fumes on board either. For the people in the back of the boat, that is the difference between fresh air and a headache.

Rules and subsidies

Some cities and waterway authorities treat electric boats differently from boats with a combustion engine. Some waters are closed to gas engines. Also check whether your city or province has a subsidy for buying an electric boat or converting an old one.

This differs per country and even per city, and it changes. Since April 2025, for example, pleasure boats in the center of Amsterdam may only sail on electricity, hydrogen or muscle power. If your boat had a transit permit before April 1, 2025, it may keep sailing until January 1, 2028. With an inland harbor dues permit, that is January 1, 2030, as long as you pay those dues every year (the Dutch watersports association, in Dutch). Read more in our trends for the 2027 season. So before you buy, call your city and your waterway authority and ask what applies to you.