The first is security. Lithium-ion batteries may cause safety accidents such as combustion and explosion due to overcharging, over-discharging, battery short-circuit, and thermal shock. Lithium-ion battery combustion accidents occur from time to time around the world. In October 2019, a serious gas explosion occurred in the battery room of the passenger ship "MF Ytteroyningen" owned by the Norwegian ferry company Norled, and 12 firefighters were taken to hospital after being exposed to harmful gases related to the battery. Whether electric boats with high safety requirements can successfully enter the shipping market relying on lithium batteries depends on whether they can solve the systemic problems of operational safety.
Second is technicality. At present, the energy storage density of electric boat energy storage batteries is the primary technical difficulty affecting the development of electric boats. Just as the development of pure electric heavy-duty trucks is limited by the shortcomings of "short battery life and heavy weight", electric boats that are developing towards large-scale are also facing the same problem-the battery life and dead weight are mutually restricted, and it is difficult to have both. The greater the battery life of an electric boat, the greater the space and weight it occupies, and the greater the load capacity of the ship that is sacrificed accordingly, resulting in a further reduction in the economy of electric boat operations.
The third is economy. At present, small-capacity electric boats are generally used in short-distance and small-scale transportation fields such as ferries and sightseeing boats, and do not require high battery life. The batteries of large-capacity electric boats must not only meet certain power requirements, but also have high endurance. Such a huge battery capacity requirement will undoubtedly increase the construction cost of electric boats. At the same time, since the life of marine lithium batteries is generally 10 years, and the life cycle of ships is usually 30 years, the cost of replacing batteries during use of large-capacity electric boats is also relatively high.
The fourth is the incomplete supporting facilities. For ports, the initial construction investment of power supply facilities is large, the operation and maintenance costs are high, and the return rate of charging facilities built with huge investment is very low, making the construction of shore-based charging facilities unable to carry out large-scale commercial expansion.
In addition, the product and technical standards are not uniform, which also limits the development of the electric boat industry. In the field of electric boats, there is no technical standard for charging equipment so far. The existing charging equipment for electric boats is still "one ship, one policy".
