CANDELA

HYDROFOIL
The Candela C-Pod,

flying fish
developed in-house,
is comprised
of submerged,
direct-drive electric
motors.

we’re really standing on

the shoulders of giants,”
said Mikael Mahlberg, PR and
communications manager,
Candela. “Our days are filled
with control systems for the
boat, lightweight carbon
composite manufacturing,
hydrodynamics – that kind of
technology. We have also made
our own drivetrain.
However, making
a battery pack is a
major undertaking, and
we won’t get a better pack than the ones of 2021. The new boat helped set the scene
Polestar can produce because they spent for high-volume sales, and shortly after its
millions of dollars to make their packs. There electric flying boats,” said Mahlberg. Some introduction the boat builder raised €24
is a tremendous amount of engineering that suppliers simply turned them down. million ($23 million) from EQT Ventures, a
goes into making car battery packs.” With a range of 50 nautical miles at 20 Swedish venture capital company.
In 2019, Candela sourced off-the-shelf knots, the C-7 set several world records
battery packs from another supplier for for electric boats. The planned limited SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN
its initial electric boat, known as the C-7, production run of 32 units ended in 2021. “Following the introduction of the C-8, we
because its engineering team found it The C-7 was deemed a commercial and had fresh venture capital money, and we
difficult to locate a supplier that didn’t see technological success, so the company sold a lot of boats,” said Mahlberg. “We had
the start-up as a “super niche maker of followed with the C-8 leisure boat in the fall learned the pros and cons of certain battery >

NOVEMBER 2022 NEW POWER PROGRESS 15

 CANDELA
HYDROFOIL

packs while we looked at potential suppliers.

We knew Polestar is a Swedish company and
that it has great battery packs, and from a
marketing perspective a partnership with
them made sense – Candela and Polestar
have many alignments when it comes to
their brands. We’re both rooted in a style of
Scandinavian minimalism, and we share a lot
of common values for the environment.
“We reached out to them and asked if
they would be interested in supplying battery
packs to us. Beyond cars, Polestar has a
bigger mission to electrify society, and they
said ‘yes.’ Now, instead of making our own
battery packs and spending huge amounts
of money on that development work, we
can buy state-of-the-art battery packs from
Polestar and we can focus on what we know
best.”
The newest vessels have been designed
specifically for the Polestar lithium-ion battery
pack, by far the boat’s heaviest component,
to ensure structural integrity and overall
performance. Much of that development
work was performed in-house by Candela’s
50-person strong engineering team.
POLESTAR AUTOMOTIVE
Polestar – its full name is Polestar Automotive
Holding UK PLC – is an electric performance
car brand that was founded in 2017 by
automobile manufacturer Volvo Car AB and
the car maker’s parent company, Zhejiang
Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. Geely is one of
China’s largest privately owned automotive
The Candela P-8 was developed to work as
water taxis in cities such as Venice, Italy.
technology groups.
Polestar is headquartered in Gothenburg,
Sweden, and sells its vehicles in North
America, Europe, Asia Pacific and China. It
reportedly delivered around 30,400 cars
during the first nine months of 2022 – well on
its way to a total production goal of 50,000
cars in 2022. The latest model range, Polestar
2, includes three variants with a combination
of long- and standard range batteries as
large as 78 kWh, and dual- and single-motor
powertrains with as much as 476 hp and 502
lb-ft of torque. Polestar said it plans to launch
one new electric vehicle model per year,
starting with Polestar 3 performance SUV that
debuted in October.
“I am fascinated by the way Candela’s
boats glide elegantly and efficiently through,
or better, over the water – amazing proof
An artist rendering of the
upcoming Candela P-12
passenger ferry.
of the great aesthetics and experiences
modern, sustainable technology can create,”
said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. “That
Polestar will be part of future projects with
Candela by supplying an essential part for
the innovative propulsion of their boats, is
awesome. As a battery supplier to Candela,
we can help drive the transition to cleaner
oceans and lakes and electrify waterborne
transport.”
Polestar has said the backing provided
by Volvo and Geely has given it the “agility
of a start-up, with the stability of established
players.”
HYDROFOILING ON THE
ARCHIPELAGO
Candela boats are built in Stockholm, a city
situated on an archipelago along Sweden’s >

16 NEW POWER PROGRESS NOVEMBER 2022