MAKING WAVES

BY RANDY WOODS

[ BUILDING THE BRAND ]

Signature Yachts Lands Exclusive Northwest Dealer Rights for Expanding X Shore

Two years after making a big splash in the American e-boat market, the waves from Swedish boat maker X Shore are crashing again on the Pacific Northwest market, thanks to an exclusive dealership agreement with Seattle-based Signature Yachts.

Under the agreement, Signature will be the sole dealer for all X Shore boats in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, giving the local broker access to the growing popularity of X Shore’s two all-electric boat lines: the 26’ Eelex 8000 and its newer, smaller cousin, the 21’ X Shore 1.

The Eelex was released in 2019 and appeared in this year’s Seattle Boat Show, earning raves from boaters looking for ways to tread water with a lighter carbon footprint. Last year, the brand also launched the compact and more affordable X Shore 1, priced at about $139,000, a significant reduction from Eelex’s $329,000 price tag. The price drop is expected to attract more buyers of the smaller, whisper-quiet e-vessels in the U.S. market, of which the Northwest could become a substantial fraction.

Investors are apparently as excited about X Shore as American customers. In April, X Shore completed a $30 million venture funding round, led by SEB Investment Management AB and several unnamed existing and new shareholders. This funding came roughly a year after an earlier venture round worth $50 million in 2022, which involved an investment from Peter Carlsson, CEO of Swedish battery manufacturer

Northvolt. According to X Shore, the latest investment will be used to scale up its production of both boat models at its 160,000-square-foot factory in Nyköping, Sweden, and bring its composites work in-house to increase efficiency. The company also said it expects to reach profitability sometime in 2024.

The latest Eelex 8000 model features a fully modular design, allowing customers to re-arrange the seating and configure more than 10 different layouts that can be customized for fishing, diving, water sports, or socializing. Equipped with a 225 kW motor and a 126 kWh-capacity battery, the Eelex 8000 cruises at 20 knots and can reach more than 30 knots flat out, with an average range of 100 nautical miles before it needs another charge.

Much like the Eelex, the X Shore 1 shares a similarly chiseled Scandinavian design and is available in either an open design, or with a canopy top. It has similar handling characteristics to the Eelex, but comes with a smaller 125 kW motor and 63 kWh battery, giving it a typical range of 50 nautical miles. For both boats, X Shore said the batteries can be recharged by 20 to 80 percent in about 50 minutes with a 45 kW charger, 1.5 hours with a 22.5 kW charger, and four hours with a 7 kW charger.

For more details on both models, now available via Signature Yachts, go to: signature-yachts.com.