This article appears in print in the January 2018 issue. Click here for a free subscription.

As the automobile industry gears up for a tipping point in the seemingly inevitable changeover to electric vehicles, Seattle-based Pure Watercraft is quietly — and we do mean quietly — bringing the revolution to the water with a 40-horsepower electric outboard motor it will start delivering early this year.

In many ways, an electric boat motor makes even more sense than an electric car motor. Gas-fueled boat motors are 10 times more polluting per gallon than gas-fueled car engines, says Andy Rebele, founder and CEO of Pure Watercraft. “And your highest pollution is at idle speed,” he notes. “That’s what boats do all day.”

Compared to their internal combustion counterparts, which are notoriously difficult to keep in top condition, electric motors require almost no maintenance. Forget lugging gas to the dock or hauling your motor in for an expensive oil change or tune-up. For casual boaters who don’t want engine maintenance to become part of their lifestyle, electric motors are enormously attractive.

Add in the chance to be on the water at full speed and carry on a conversation at normal volumes and it’s a little surprising electric boat motors don’t already have a major share of the market.

“It’s a superior experience,” Rebele asserts.

Inspired by both his work coaching a high school crew team and his enthusiasm for Tesla’s electric automobiles, Rebele launched Pure Watercraft in 2011. Initial delivery of its all-electric outboard motor and battery is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of this year. Rebele knows it’s not the first or the only electric boat motor on the market. But he insists it’s the best.

“It crushes anything else that tries to do speed,” Rebele says as he zooms across Lake Union, clearly exceeding the lake’s 7-knot speed limit one chilly fall morning. With a silent engine and a hull that produces virtually no wake, nobody seems to notice.

RUN SILENT: The battery-powered Pure Outboard weighs about 90 pounds and offers a variety of propeller choices depending on hull configuration.

Last October, Rebele entered his Pure Outboard in the 24-mile Wye Island Challenge electric boat “marathon” on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Other boats used special hulls designed for speed, but Rebele put his motor on a twin-hull coaching launch — essentially an open platform with a seat. Designed primarily for generating almost no wake, Rebele’s boat still blew the competition out of the water: The previous best time for the Wye Island Challenge was 95 minutes; Rebele finished in 70, for an average speed of 20.6 mph. He covered the course so quickly that the finish-line boat wasn’t prepared for his arrival.

“Everyone can say they go fast,” Rebele exults, “but no matter what hull they use, they are 25 minutes slower.”