Newport Beach confronts boating emissions with nation’s first EV service vessel and public charging station
Newport Beach’s Harbor Department became the first public agency in the U.S. to add a boat powered entirely by electricity to its fleet of vehicles last month, unveiling the floating EV at a ceremony Tuesday.
Council members Robyn Grant and Lauren Kleinman broke bottles of champagne over the bow of the “HDEV” to celebrate both the boat and the newly opened pier near 29th Street and Lafayette Avenue where it was on display Tuesday. The all-electric vessel will be used to rescue swimmers, paddle boarders or kayakers in distress, patrol mooring fields and monitor public docks to make sure boaters haven’t parked there longer than the three hours they’re allowed, Newport Beach Harbormaster Paul Blank said.
“The Harbor Department has a fleet of work vessels and we were overdue for the replacement of one of them in particular,” he said Tuesday. “So this boat made perfect sense in terms of a replacement vessel.”
The new boat was manufactured by VITA and cost $229,000, which is comparable to the price of a similarly capable gas-powered vessel, Blank said. And it qualified for a Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) voucher, so about half of what the city spent on it was refunded by the state.
The electric vessel has a top speed of 30 knots and can run a full 10-hour shift without having to recharge. One advantage it has over other boats in the Harbor Department’s fleet is its soft hull, which allows it get right next to another boat and make contact with it without causing damage. That makes it easier for the service vessel to help people hook up to and detach from moorings, Blank said.
EVs could eventually wind up replacing all of Newport Beach’s service vessels, Blank said.
“Provided it proves to be all the vessel we expect and that we were promised, then ideally, yes, a vessel like this or very similar to it would replace the other vessels in our fleet as they reach the end of their service lives,” Blank said.
The idea to purchase an electric-powered watercraft first popped up about five years ago and was a byproduct of another project the city has taken on: the installation of EV charging stations for boats in Newport Bay, Blank said. The manufacturer who won that bid works with a sister company that builds electric vessels, sparking conversations about their potential use by the Harbor Department.
Meanwhile, efforts to reduce emissions in the bay by promoting the use of EV watercraft are making progress. In about a week, the city hopes to break ground on California’s first publicly accessible electric vessel charging stations, Blank said.
“There are two other charging stations in Northern California and they’re in private marinas,” he said. “One is on San Francisco Harbor in Redwood City. The other is on Lake Tahoe. So there’s no way to get an electric vessel from one of those stations to the other unless you put it on a trailer.”
The charging station being built in Newport Beach will be at Marina Park, and another will go up in the town of Avalon on Catalina Island, Blank said. It will be the first link in what officials hope will become a network across the state and beyond, similar to what’s available for electric cars.
“It just takes somebody with the vision and wherewithal to establish the first link,” Blank said. “... We’re very proud that this is going to be in place, we think, by the end of the year.”
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